Posts Tagged ‘financial management’
Andrews: “Good government” means different things in different countries
In the new issue of Governance (23.1, January 2010) Professor Matt Andrews of Harvard Kennedy School criticizes the “one-best-way model of effective government” that is built into benchmarking projects such as the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators. Examining public financial management structures in thirty-eight nations, Andrews finds substantial variation in practice among countries that are held up as models of effectiveness. “Good public financial management means different things in different countries,” Andrews says. “The good governance version of good or effective government is a hollow one.” Download Andrews’ article, “Good Government Means Different Things in Different Countries” for free.
Quotes from January 2009 issue of Governance: corruption, World Bank-sponsored reform
J.C. Sharman and David Chaikin on Corruption and Anti-Money-Laundering Systems: “Developing countries are sorely afflicted by corruption and yet are failing to capitalize on the investment they have made in anti-money-laundering systems that could assist in countering corruption . . . AML systems are seen as a totem with which to impress outside audiences rather than a tool to tackle pressing local problems.”
Clay Wescott on World Bank Support for Public Financial Management and Procurement: “Much of the actual reform was incremental, based on targets of opportunity rather a coherent strategy, even with the most ambitious Anglo-Saxon reformers. There was a gap between the promise of new announcements and initiatives on the one hand, and the actual delivery of reforms on the other. There is little evidence that the considerable cost of the reforms is justified by the benefits achieved.”
