Government Budgeting and Expenditure Management

The government budget should be the financial mirror of society's choices. Yet most people view budgeting as the epitome of eye-glazing subjects, rarely explained in a way that is understandable to the non-specialist and too often presented without adequate consideration of a country's governance and institutional capacity. Government Budgeting and Expenditure Management fills a gap in the literature to redress these failings and does so in comparative international perspective. This book provides a comprehensive but pithy and easy-to-understand treatment of public financial management, taking into account a variety of special issues including budgeting in post-conflict situations, at subnational government levels, for military/security expenditures, and in countries with large extractive revenues. Distilling the lessons of budgeting reform in countries at different levels of income and administrative capacity, each chapter gradually progresses from the basic principles to the more technical aspects and then on to implementation issues, using concrete examples and illustrations from around the globe. Government Budgeting and Expenditure Management is ideally suited as the primary text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in government budgeting or public financial management, or as a supplementary text for courses in public finance, public economics, economic development, public administration or comparative politics. With its attention to practical implementation aspects, the book will also be of direct interest to practitioners, policy-makers, and government employee training organizations.

Salvatore "Rino" Schiavo-Campo is a former senior official at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, following a full academic career that concluded as Professor and Chairman of Economics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and 14 books on topics in public financial management, governance and public administration, economic development and post-conflict reconstruction.

Chapter One: The Government Budget: Mirror of Society's Choices Part 1: The Budget Infrastructure Chapter Two: Budgeting Objectives, Systems, Budget Classification and the Legal Framework Chapter Three: Budget coverage, Extra-Budgetary Operations and Tax Expenditures Chapter Four: Fiscal Risk, Fiscal Responsibility and Fiscal Rules Part 2: The Upstream Stages: Budget Preparation and Approval Chapter Five: Budgeting in Macroeconomic and Fiscal Perspective Chapter Six: Preparation and Approval of the Budget Chapter Seven: Budgeting and Managing Public Investment Part 3: The Downstream Stages: Budget Execution and Control Chapter Eight: Budget Execution: Compliance, Adaptability, Efficiency Chapter Nine: Public Procurement Chapter Ten: Financing the Budget: Debt and Aid Management Part 4: Fostering Accountability: For Money and for Results Chapter Eleven: Accountability for the Money: Accounting, Reporting and Audit Chapter Twelve: Accountability for the Results: Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation Chapter Thirteen: Reforming and Strengthening Public Financial Mangement Part 5: Selected Special Topics in Public Financial Management Chapter Fourteen: Fiscal Decentralization and Budgeting at Subnational Government Level Chapter Fifteen: Reconstructing Public Financial Institutions in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States Chapter Sixteen: Corruption and Public Sector Management Chapter Seventeen: "Black Boxes": Extractive Revenue and Military Expenditure