1 Public Expenditure and Financial Management Systems – Design and Implementation

The subject is about the considerable gains possible through modern management approaches to public finance. Whilst the value-for-money consideration lies at the base of any such approach, the derived fiscal and macro-economic effects can be hugely significant. Yet all too often an appreciation of these potential benefits seems absent from the thinking of Finance Ministers and senior finance officials. How else can we explain why, in most countries, financial management reform is not prioritized to the extent that it should be ?