The preparation of a sound development finance strategy is a necessary -but not a sufficient- condition to sustain economic growth and to achieve policy outcomes such as poverty reduction. Once a pro-growth and pro-poor budget is formulation and adopted, the financial management processes that are in place should assure that the budget is executed as planned in a transparent and accountable manner.

A critical step in achieving a sound and accountable public expenditure management process during budget execution is to regularly analyze the performance of budget execution vis-à-vis the budget plan. After all, consistent implementation of the government’s fiscal policies can only be assured during budget implementation when systematic deviations from the budget plan are quickly uncovered and addressed.

Other public expenditure processes should be analyzed on an annual basis as part of Public Expenditure and Fiscal Accountability Review (PEFAR) to assure that the overall budget process is generally sounds and provides funding consistent with the government’s stated policy objectives.