New FAD Technical Note and Manual: Cash Management and the Relationship Between Treasury and Central Bank

Posted by Renaud Duplay

Cash management is one of the main issues when reforming PFM systems in developing countries. Bad cash management is costly because it hampers budget execution, causes arrears and increases funding costs. For this reason the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) has already released two Technical Notes and Manuals (TNMs) on this subject and is now releasing further guidance material. A new TNM, prepared by Mario Pessoa and Mike Williams, expands the review of cash management issues by specifically addressing the relationship between the treasury and the central bank.  

The note was prepared at the request of the Latin American Treasurers' Forum (FOTEGAL) and addresses both institutional and technical issues and is particularly relevant to developing countries. Based on international experience, the TNM describes the modern framework of a formalized relationship between both institutions standing on two key principles:

Job Offer: Regional PFM Advisor Based in Barbados (IMF Job Number: 1300098)

The Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) of the IMF is seeking a highly-qualified expert to fill one of the two Regional Public Financial Management (PFM) Advisor positions at the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Center (CARTAC), based in Barbados. The Advisor’s appointment term would be for an initial period of one year, on a renewable basis, subject to satisfactory performance.

The Advisor will provide direct technical assistance (TA) on a range of PFM areas to the countries covered by CARTAC (Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados , Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos Islands). The work programs will cover all PFM areas: legal and regulatory framework, budget preparation (including budget classification, medium-term budgetary frameworks, performance-oriented budgeting), budget execution (including expenditure control, treasury operations, and cash management) debt management, government accounting, fiscal reporting, financial management information systems, and internal audit. The Advisor will also supervise the technical assistance work of short-term PFM experts financed by CARTAC. The Advisor will work under the general direction of the CARTAC Center Coordinator while on substantive issues, they will report to FAD staff in Washington D.C. Extensive travel within the countries covered by CARTAC should be expected.

PEFA Newsflash: Taking the Magnifying Glass to the PEFA Assessment Report Preparation Documents

Posted by the PEFA Secretariat

The PEFA Secretariat recently finalized the Monitoring Report 2012 (MR-12), the fifth report of this nature to be produced by the Secretariat. The report was designed to assess (a) the extent to which the PEFA assessment report preparation documents, referred to as Concept Notes or Terms of References (CN/TORs) reach the Secretariat for review (b) the quality of the CN/TORs at the draft stage when the Secretariat provides their peer-review, (c) the extent to which the PEFA Secretariat comments are integrated into the final CN/TORs, and (d) examine possible correlations between the quality of a PEFA assessment report and their respective CN/TOR; however, this last question had to be dropped due to the multitude of variables that exist in producing a quality assessment report.

The report considers the 129 reviews conducted of CN/TORs between September 2005 and June 2012, of which a sample of 39 are used for an in-depth analysis of their quality and the extent to which the PEFA Secretariat comments are considered. The sample contains those CN/TORs for which the Secretariat was able to obtain the final version, having already reviewed the draft.