This report was prepared by the PEFA Secretariat to assess the extent to which PEFA concept notes (CN) or terms of reference (ToR) reach the Secretariat for review, the quality of the documents at the draft stage, and the extent to which PEFA Secretariat comments are integrated into the final versions. 

The study found that between September 2005 and June 2012 40 percent of CN or ToR for PEFA assessments were received by the Secretariat for review. ToR for government led assessments were only sent to the Secretariat in 25 percent of cases.

The sections of CN or ToR that were strongest in the documents received related to background, purpose and coverage of the assessment. The weakest sections were stakeholders and team composition, methodology and resources.

The impact of revisions in response to Secretariat comments was relatively small because the cases where comments were used by assessment managers were already in good condition. The owners of the weaker documents tended to ignore the Secretariat comments.