Budgeting in the Real World ODI Conference Report

[John Short]

http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/8218-budgeting-real-world-2013-cape-conference-report

[harnett]

Thanks for this John.  A refreshing look at the "real world" though I wish it had gone a bit further and discussed the reasons why PFM reform does not work in more detail - it certainly highlighted the "political" aspect, but as we all know the reason why we don't get a Single Treasury Account and many off-budget accounts onto the budget etc etc is a bit more than "political".  Still, a really useful conference it seems - I wish I had been there.

[petagny]

I attended the CAPE conference. The report doesn't do full justice to the contribution from Luisa Diogo. She really gave a fine insight into the reality of pushing through reform and the determination that is required. One of the key things seems to have been nurturing a cadre of PFM high-flyers. The report sum it up thus:

'Ms Diogo highlighted the actions she had taken to develop stronger civil service capacity within the Ministry of Finance. She explained she had proactively identified and informally pushed forward the brightest and best educated staff within her ministry to assist in her reform goals. These individuals have now reached senior positions. She said that rising stars needed to be given the platform to perform.'

It sounds a bit anodyne, but rising stars really do seem to have been picked out and fast-tracked. The key words are 'proactivity', 'informal pushing' and 'platform to perform'. The latter was particularly potent: amongst other things, rising stars were required to make high-level presentations on behalf of their seniors.