Budget Strengthening Initiative
Contribution ID : SE-0-SE-6-11394This website displays open data about Swedish aid, which shows when, to whom and for what purpose Swedish aid is paid out, as well as what results it has produced. This page contains information about one of the contributions financed with Swedish aid.
The overarching objective of the four-year project is to build capacities of the government in strengthening budget comprehensiveness, establishing a credible State budget while striving for a fair and accountable distribution of public services to Liberian citizens. The main thrust of the project is to contribute to the implementation of the 2017 – 2020 Nati...
Read the full descriptionMore about the contribution
The overarching objective of the four-year project is to build capacities of the government in strengthening budget comprehensiveness, establishing a credible State budget while striving for a fair and accountable distribution of public services to Liberian citizens. The main thrust of the project is to contribute to the implementation of the 2017 – 2020 National PFM Strategy and Action Plan, and in particular thematic area two of the Strategy “Enhanced budget credibility to support service delivery”. Thus, the project will build capacities of government to strengthen budget comprehensiveness and budget credibility to support service delivery in the key areas of: a) Strengthening the budget process by establishing a more coherent link between strategic planning and budgeting and strengthening the relationship between MFDP and service delivery entities, thereby ensuring that government commitments are turned into time-bound resource allocations; b) Strengthening financial reporting, cash management, and accounting procedures to enable the better use of information to improve budget execution; c) Improving revenue forecasting and enhance domestic resources for financing the National Budget by strengthening the revenue and tax policy function; d) Incorporating aid projects into the National Budget, thereby contributing to improved aid effectiveness through a more efficient allocation of public resources in Liberia; e) Improving capital project implementation to improve service delivery for Liberian citizens; and f) Strengthening debt analysis and debt management, thereby contributing to improved macroeconomic forecasting, budgeting, and cash planning in Liberia. The intended way of structuring project work is as follows: - Project activities focusing e.g. on on-the-job training or introduction of new forms and procedures in the budget process will be measured through a number of outputs, i.e. project activities such as training occasions, introduction of new forms or instructions, etc. - These ouputs will eventually make it possible to have access to more accurate and comprehensive information that is important for the budget process. This will result in outcomes such as more accurate prioritizations in the State Budget or increased transparency of the information in the State Budget, impacting on control over public resources and possibilities to present accurate budget information to citizens. - In combination with a technically improved system for budget execution and continued fiscal decentralisation, these outcomes will eventually directly impact on the possibilities to reduce poverty and strengthen poor people’s rights. The intended changes following the project are: a correctly structured State Budget, made possible through access to correct and comprehensive information, well operating support systems in the budget process, well defined procedures and political decision making at the right level and the right time. These changes will make it possible to direct more public resources to actual poverty reduction. With a new government in place with newly appointed staff since January 2018, there is a dire need to build capacities of government officials in the State Budget planning process. This support would be delivered at a crucial time for the government and the country, and thus build on the fruitful cooperation and trust that has been established between BSI and the Liberian government over the past seven years, aimed at addressing the real needs and problems identified by the MFDP.
All activities related to the contribution are shown here. Click on an individual activity to see in-depth information.
Total aid 0 USD distributed on 0 activities
A list of all paid transactions for a specific contribution is presented here. Each payment can be traced to a specific activity. Negative amounts indicate that there has been a refund.
0 transactions
No transactions available for this contribution
0 contribution documents
Link to download |
---|
No contribution documents available for this contribution
Result
The most important achievements for ODI support to the MFDP over the period August 2022 - March 2023: - The DBDP Training Committee is now meeting on a regular basis to oversee the operation of the DBDP's Professional Development Platform. It has completed the second cohort of the three-month Excel training, graduated ten new trainees, and organised for the second set of Training-of-Trainers (ToTs) to begin in April. Trainees have developed essential analytical skills, improved their technical skills and are able to undertake real time budget execution analysis on information directly generated from the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). - The production of the Citizen's Guide has successfully been handed over to DBDP. Following training sessions, DBDP staff have managed the production themselves, and have only required minimal support to make specific refinements to the template. This resulted in the 2023 Citizens Guide to the Draft National Budget being published far quicker than previous iterations - indeed it was online even before the actual Draft Budget. - Data management and reporting system established with the support of ODI has been recognized as the standard for data in the MFDP. The Osmosis Room, set up by ODI, continues to improve data integrity standards, coverage, and awareness. Financial statements, fiscal reports, debt reporting, revenue analysis, and reporting to the IMF all rely on data produced by the data management and reporting system. - A regulation introducing the Duty-Free Rebate System was developed to mitigate abusive practices associated with the importation of petroleum products, hard to monitor commodities, and Liberian returnees. An additional regulation was issued to ensure that GoL contracts include tax costs, thereby making them more tax efficient. A Ministerial Circular/Regulation giving effect to these interventions was issued to all ministries, agencies, and commissions (MACs). ODI was instrumental in proposing these measures and drafting the regulations aimed at minimising the abuse of the incentive regime and maximising domestic revenues. - A draft Tax Amendment Act was developed and submitted to the Legislature for enactment into law. The Act included tax provisions/rules aimed at minimising, streamlining, and rationalising Section 16 special investment incentives (SII) related tax expenditures. ODI played a critical role in gathering the necessary data/evidence, conducting tax gap analysis, and formulating tax policy measures with a projected dollar value tax saving of over US$10 million. ODI also supported the RTPD in drafting the various tax rules contained in the draft Tax Amendment Act to give effect to these tax proposals. - Significant improvement was made to the quality of data collected, by gradually transitioning more development partners (DPs) over to providing their data to the Liberia Project Dashboard via the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI). This followed extensive validation and advocacy by ODI. Further development and roll-out of functionality were undertaken to shift focus toward using high-quality data to solve development effectiveness issues. Also, a sustainability strategy for the Liberia Project Dashboard has been designed jointly with ODI and MFDP and is currently being implemented. - The ODI advisor proposed debt management reforms to the Management of the MFDP and subsequently initiated the restructuring of the DMU with the objective of developing the DMU into a standard Debt Management Office. The functional restructuring of the DMU has considerably improved the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the Unit. - Liberia became the second country in the West African sub-region to migrate successfully to the Commonwealth Meridian, and the only country to migrate in a record period of 90 days; the technical support provided by the ODI prior to the migration was a catalytic factor in the smooth and short migration period. As a result of the migration to the Meridian debt management system, debt recording and reporting has improved significantly; the debt dashboard, as the main reporting toolkit, has been improved to utilise data from the Meridian as its primary source.
The overarching expected outcomes of ODI-BSI’s support to the MFDP are to strengthen budget comprehensiveness and credibility, and to enhance service delivery. The budget must be robust and consistent with the best possible estimates of available resources, and provide an accurate representation of the real cost of delivering determined government services. Furthermore, the budget must be aligned with the national development plan in order to target public expenditure on priority service needs of citizens and be informed by assessments of the development results achieved by previous budgets in order to achieve value for money. The project also maintains a clear focus on the downstream elements of the budget cycle to ensure that predictable resources aligned with budget priorities are available to service delivery units across government.
Swedish aid in numbers and reports
Do you want to read more about the results of Swedish aid?
Reports from the Expert Group for Aid Studies and Sida's strategy and corruption reports Sida's annual report (Swedish only)