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Governance in Asia: From Crisis to Opportunity : Interventions beyond the crisis
Disseminating the Lessons of Experience
Dissemination is another key building block for an enhanced role in governance, and the Bank has undertaken a variety of internal and external dissemination initiatives since early 1997, including a seminar on governance at the 1997 Annual Meeting in Fukuoka and one on regulatory issues at the 1998 Annual Meeting in Geneva.17 A range of regional technical assistance (RETA)18 grants has been a valuable instrument for the Bank, and has proven especially useful in the initial phase of the governance agenda. Topics covered by these RETAs include governance and development in South Asia; sharing best practices in municipal governance, and enhancing municipal service delivery capability; case studies on the functions of cabinet offices in selected DMCs; meetings of Chief Justices and Ministers of Justice; workshop on NGOs in development; and audit training program for Supreme Audit Institutions. In addition, several technical assistance activities for specific DMCs have dealt with core governance issues (examples are shown in Box 10).
The Bank's approach rests on both relevance and technical soundness: (i) public sector management reforms do not travel well, and innovations must be carefully assessed in light of the specific country's characteristics and administrative capacity; and (ii) the risk of ad hoc or contradictory advice must be avoided through wide consultation with other institutions concerned, in the DMCs and elsewhere. For example, the Bank's public expenditure management handbook, currently nearing completion, has benefited from the advice of technical reviewers from the World Bank, IMF, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and OECD. Also, the Bank has proceeded from general issues to more concrete topics. Thus, the initial dissemination of broad problems of governance and development has provided the basis for more focused events on fiscal transparency and financial accountability.
Box 10. Technical Assistance in Governance and Public Management
People’s Republic of China: Study of Extrabudgetary Expenditures and Revenues
This technical assistance for $600,000, approved in December 1996, is helping the Government identify the responsibilities that various levels of the Government will assume under the fiscal reform program announced in March 1994. It will also help the Government redefine the concept and scope of the extrabudgetary funds (EBF) and self-raised funds (SRF), and reinforce the management and distribution of these resources to ensure that expenditure responsibilities are adequately funded and a minimum level of service delivery prevails across the various levels of Government. The technical assistance is expected to rationalize intergovernmental revenue and expenditure assignment, especially at the subprovincial levels, and consolidate budgets to incorporate many of the resources now managed by the Government as EBF and SRF.
Sri Lanka: Institutional Modernization of the Ministry of Finance and Planning
The quality of public administration in Sri Lanka needs strengthening.
The Bank’s intervention strategy for public administration and public sector reform is based on the assessment of the reform experience of recent years. Elements of an overall public sector reform and strengthening program were proposed to the Government in November 1997. This includes support to institutional modernization of key aspects of public expenditure management. Technical discussions with the Ministry of Finance and Planning (MOFP) revealed specific opportunities for significant improvements in public financial management.
The Bank approved in July 1998 a small-scale technical assistance for $148,000 for institutional modernization of MOFP to improve specific functions of MOFP identified as important and amenable to rapid improvement. It is also expected to help MOFP define the scope and modalities for further institutional modernization of the public finance apparatus. The technical assistance will assist MOFP to (i) create a centralized payroll management system; (ii) improve cash management systems to minimize the opportunity cost of idle balances; (iii) define options to automate pension payments; (iv) strengthen public investment programming, particularly to improve its integration with recurrent budget and, hence, with the medium-term economic framework; and (v) define MOFP’s role and limitations in the provision of management and organizational advice to central and subnational government entities. These activities would also systematically involve sector ministries and agencies.
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- A seminar on public financial management and accountability will be held at the 1999 Annual Meeting in Manila.
- These are (i) RETA 5611: Megacities Management in Asia and the Pacific, approved on 22 December 1994; (ii) RETA 5646: Regional Study on Urban Infrastructure Finance, approved on 10 October 1995; (iii) RETA 5664: Governance and Development in South Asia and Other DMCs, approved on 22 December 1995; (iv) RETA 5685: Capacity Building for Development Management, approved on 16 May 1996; (v) RETA 5688: Regional Long-Term Audit Training Program for Members of the Asian Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions, approved on 13 June 1996; (vi) RETA 5764: Enhancing Municipal Service Delivery Capability in Selected DMCs, approved on 24 December 1997; and (vii) RETA 5768: Definition of Key Governance Themes and Priorities in the Asian and Pacific Region, approved on 31 December 1997.
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