PEFA assessment - Afghanistan ranked higher than middle income countries
11 April 2008
Afghanistan now ranks higher than middle income
countries in several key areas, according to the latest assessment into financial
management systems undertaken by the PEFA group.
The latest 2008 Public Expenditure and
Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment is the second Public Financial
Management (PFM) Performance Assessment for Afghanistan and is based on
information as of December 2007 (two and half years after the first assessment
of June 2005).
The comparison between the first and second
assessment shows significant improvements within Afghan PFM systems. Out of
total 28 performance indicators, 17 indicators improved and four
deteriorated, while seven remained unchanged. Among three donor practice
indicators, two deteriorated and one remained unchanged.
Based on these results, Afghanistan has beaten the
average for those middle income countries that have undertaken PEFAs to date. Some of
these countries include:
-
Trinidad and Tobago (upper
middle)
-
St Vincent and the Grenadines
(upper middle)
-
Albania (lower middle)
-
Armenia (lower middle)
-
Dominican Republic (lower
middle)
-
Serbia (lower middle)
-
Vanuatu (lower middle)
-
Ukraine (lower middle)
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The PEFA also tells us that there have been
improvements in making the budget transparent and accessible to Afghan citizens.
Externally Audited reports have been presented to and discussed in Parliament.
This will help strengthen donor confidence in
putting more resources through the national budget in support of the
Government’s development priorities and will help to strengthen ownership of the
development agenda and build greater Government capacity to deliver basic
services.
DFID Afghanistan has contributed to this positive
development through our engagement with the Ministry of Finance. Our various
technical assistance programmes in the revenue and budget departments have
provided valuable technical advice and capacity building support on budgetary
reform and tax administration.
In addition, recent reports by the
 International Development Committee and the National Audit Office are supportive of DFID’s practice of
channelling aid money through government systems, which in DFID Afghanistan has
been instrumental in improving the ability of the Government to own the process
of reconstruction and development.
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