Financial scrutiny: FATA public expenditure practices to be assessed

Framework has been launched in the tribal areas for the first time.

PESHAWAR: The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability’s (PEFA) initiative for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) was formally launched at the World Bank office here on Friday. 

The initiative, which is a collective effort between donor agencies and international financial institutions, has two goals. First, it attempts to measure the effectiveness of a country’s public expenditure practices over its entire budget cycle. This means assessing a county’s financial accountability systems which includes determining how funds are procured and on what grounds they are allocated to execute government policies.

Second, upon collecting these findings, PEFA employs its Public Financial Management (PFM) Performance Measurement Framework to develop strategies that can help improve public finance practices. The PFM framework employs various performance indicators that describe how well a public finance system is functioning. These performance indicators highlight strong and weak practices that need to be maintained or improved to bolster the budgeting process.



The framework has already been introduced at federal and provincial levels, but is being conducted in Fata for the first time.

The ceremony was attended by local and international representatives of the World Bank, European Union, USAID, Department for International Development, officials from concerned directorates of the Fata Secretariat, and a team of PEFA consultants. Respective sector specialists from the Post-Crisis Needs Assessment Implementation Support Unit (PCNA ISU) were also present.

The ceremony included talks on the importance of PEFA by the World Bank’s Sector Manager Governance Unit South Asia and the project’s overview.

Representatives from donor agencies showed interest in the process and asked a range of questions focusing on its schedule, the governance framework in Fata, and federal level financial matters pertaining to PEFA and Fata.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2013.