New public financial management (NPFM) refers to reforms introduced in systems, procedures, organizations, and law for obtaining and effectively using public financial resources, which encompass not only expenditures but also revenues and debt in the context of public budgeting, accounting, internal and external control, and financial reporting. Reforms affect “how” to implement public policies searching for efficiency, effectiveness, quality, transparency, accountability, and good governance.
PRINCIPLES OF THE PFM REFORM STRATEGY
The PFM Reform Strategy is “to devise and implement principles of good governance, in the GoS to improve effectiveness, efficiency and attain value for money in the control and management of public resources”. The principles that will be used to guide the PFM reforms are:
Well-structured coordination and participation by key stakeholders to ensure ownership and successful implementation of components. The key stakeholders include elected representatives, public officials, Provincial Assembly, civil society and the development partners
Complete understanding of designed interventions and acceptability of change within the government machinery backed by political commitment
The burdens and benefits of the use of resources and public borrowing shall be shared equitably between present and future generations
Staff supervision and conformity with legislation and procedures to ensure strict adherence to laws, regulations and procedures to eliminate non-compliance which has the potential to degenerate into a culture of impunity
Consolidate what has been achieved so far as it is important that the PFM reforms build on past successes and take into account the lessons learned
Prioritization and sequencing of PFM reforms. It is critical to arrange and sequence the reforms in a way that ensures that they will be successfully implemented
Guaranteed sustainability of reforms to ensure that the next phase of PFM reforms once implemented are sustained. This will require that the institutions given the responsibility for implementing the reforms have the requisite mandate and resources to carry through and institutionalize the reforms
Greater use of Public Private Partnership (PPP) to complement the limited GoS resources and to improve the efficiency of the various operating units to improve service delivery
