Global Webinar
The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program in collaboration with the University of Essex presents:
"To what extent do PFM systems support fiscal transparency and public accountability?"
February 13, 2025
9:00 am - 10:30 am, Washington D.C. time
Overview of the Webinar Event
The objective of this virtual knowledge event is to present the findings of the paper “To what extent do public financial management systems (PFM) support fiscal transparency and public accountability?” and stimulate discussion on the role and impact of PFM in supporting fiscal transparency and public accountability in the context of developing countries with a focus on the role of national oversight institutions, female participation in political leadership, and the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Over the last two decades, a significant quantity of resources and efforts have been invested in national and subnational public financial management (PFM) systems. This is based on the premise that the deployment of such systems can contribute to better fiscal transparency and public accountability, while contributing to the effective delivery of public services and curbing financial irregularities (including mitigating corruption).
The findings of the paper show that an improved PFM system is associated with an improved fiscal transparency and improved public accountability, and institutional factors have a partial positive moderating effect on association between PFM systems, and fiscal transparency and public accountability. While PFM reforms have resulted in some positive changes (e.g., digitalization) in the area of ‘accounting and reporting’, weak implementation and enforcement of existing PFM systems still appear to be an issue, and notably in the area of public procurement and oversight.
This paper is a product of a PEFA-sponsored Research Competition on the theme of role and impact of PFM in supporting fiscal transparency and public accountability. The research was done by the research team at the University of Essex, University of Southampton, Aston University, and University of Sheffield: Dr. Bedanand Upadhaya, Professor Teerooven Soobaroyen, Professor Collins Ntim, Professor Pawan Adhikari, Professor Kelum Jayasinghe, Professor Alaa Zalata, and Associate Professor Faizul Haque.
For questions and additional information contact PEFA Secretariat at: services@pefa.org
