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A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics For centuries, annual budgets have played a central key role in most organizations serving the main purposes of planning and control. Yet, more recently the budgeting practice has been subject to severe criticisms, among which stands its ineffectiveness to deal with uncertainty. In order to avoid some of the major problems associated with the preparation and usage of budgets, two alternative approaches have been proposed: Better Budgeting and Beyond Budgeting. This study aims to understand which factors companies perceive as uncertainty, and how budgets, either in their traditional form or through new approaches, might be able to help companies deal with them. To do so, two companies with different dimensions, operating in different business sectors and thus subject to different economic contexts were analyzed. Evidence collected seems to indicate that companies are indeed taking a new approach to budgeting, either simplifying it or complementing it with other techniques. The Balanced Scorecard, due to its capacity to link the short with the long-term strategy as well as to link different perspectives of the companies, comes up as one of the most useful techniques to complement budgets to face uncertainty.

This paper sets out the recent history and evolution of the UK governments' performance measurement, monitoring and management systems from the period since 1997 and the election of the New Labor government, until today. Although, as the paper shows many of the changes the New Labor government introduced were at least partially prefigured in changes introduced in the previous two decades or more. The reason that the period since 1997 is so important is because, it represents the period in which the UK governments' system became almost universal across public activities, including measuring performance at the highest levels of government itself. The core of the performance policies developed by government over this period have been the Public Service Agreements (PSAs) promulgated since 1998, of which there have now been five rounds (1998; 2000; 2002; 2004; 2007). Whilst PSAs are not the only performance policies, or measurement, monitoring and reporting systems, they have come to be seen as the pinnacle of the whole system and, in intention at least, driving developments throughout the public services. The paper will cover only the UK government. Over the past decade significant constitutional changes have devolved some central government powers to first the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, and then more recently the Northern Ireland Assembly.

This report outlines the key principles of water safety planning for rural water supply in India. Water safety planning represents a change of emphasis from end-of-pipe testing to the management of risks of contamination from source to mouth. End-of-pipe testing is still necessary to verify that safe drinking water is being delivered. The focus of the report is on the policy issues concerning the adoption of water safety planning and the institutional arrangements (roles and responsibilities) needed to operationalize the approach. Recommendations are provided on demonstrating and implementing the approach to establish a full program. There are three objectives of this study: 1) to consider policies for the delivery of safe drinking water quality in rural areas; 2) to provide a framework in which the various functions associated with a change of emphasis towards managing risks to the safety of drinking water can be incorporated into existing institutional frameworks, in particular building on the initiatives already taken in India to improve monitoring and surveillance of drinking water quality; and 3) to suggest an approach to demonstrate and implement such a framework.

Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is an extremely complex, multidisciplinary and skill intensive endeavor. Government-wide M&E is even more so because it requires detailed knowledge across and within sectors, as well as of interactions among planning, budgeting, and implementation functions in the public sector. The situation is complicated even further when the machinery of government is decentralized, with powers and functions distributed across three spheres of government. This paper outlines the process of implementing a government-wide monitoring and evaluation (GWM&E) system in South Africa. The first section sketches the context that created the impetus for establishing such a system. This context is clearly shaping the evolution of the system and influencing its longer-term sustainability. The second section outlines the various stages of conceptualizing and implementing the GWM&E system, which is currently very much a 'work in progress.' The third section reviews international experiences for lessons learned, which may also be germane to the South African context, noting similarities and differences in approach. Some of the critical implementation factors relate to the role of political leadership and championing of M&E, incentives for promoting usage of M&E findings, dealing with information and data constraints, capacity building, "ownership" of the M&E system by line ministries and other agencies, and managing the challenges of change. The fourth section examines a range of challenges and difficulties encountered in South Africa. The final section reflects on lessons distilled from the South African experience to date.

Armenia gained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and inherited a traditional Soviet- style command economy. After a period of hyperinflation and economic contractions, progress on basic reforms led to greater macroeconomic stability. The reform effort strengthened after 2000, aided by return flows of investment from the diaspora. Recognized for its prudent fiscal management and improved business environment, Armenia received a Rehabilitation Credit (RC) from the World Bank in 1995 and a series of five Structural Adjustment Credits(SACs) from 1996-2003 to maintain stability, accelerate growth, and sustain reform. The PRSC program in Armenia centered on four main themes that supported Armenia's poverty- reduction objectives: i) consolidating macroeconomic discipline and strengthening governance;ii) sharpening competition and entrenching property rights; iii) mitigating social and environmental risks; and iv) modernizing the rural economy. The PRSC also identified good governance and reduction of corruption as essential to achieving pro-poor growth. Furthermore, reforms implemented under the PRSC were intended to make the social sectors more efficient, raise the quality of services, and increase access for the poor.

The public expenditure and institutional assessment (PEIA) were motivated by a number of factors. First, both the Government of Iraq (GoI) and its international development partners have recognized the critical importance of sound management of Iraq's substantial public financial resources. Both parties support the reform and modernization of public financial management (PFM), as articulated in the International Compact for Iraq (ICI). Secondly, international experience demonstrates the importance of establishing a baseline against which progress in PFM over time can be measured. This implies the need for an assessment which provides the information necessary to measure the performance of a country's PFM system. Thirdly, the devastating circumstances in Iraq during the past 5 years have made the institutional arrangements for PFM the subject of considerable uncertainty. The PEIA can help to shape and prioritize the necessary development program. The report is organized in two main parts. Volume one contains a summary of the main issues to emerge from the public expenditure and financial accountability (PEFA) assessment and a discussion of a number of specific PFM issues of current importance to Iraq, including: capital investment budgeting (CIB), oil revenue management, the Iraq financial management information system (IFMIS), public accounting and accountability, and payroll management. Volume two contains a detailed technical analysis behind the PEFA assessment.

The public expenditure and institutional assessment (PEIA) were motivated by a number of factors. First, both the Government of Iraq (GoI) and its international development partners have recognized the critical importance of sound management of Iraq's substantial public financial resources. Both parties support the reform and modernization of public financial management (PFM), as articulated in the International Compact for Iraq (ICI). Secondly, international experience demonstrates the importance of establishing a baseline against which progress in PFM over time can be measured. This implies the need for an assessment which provides the information necessary to measure the performance of a country's PFM system. Thirdly, the devastating circumstances in Iraq during the past 5 years have made the institutional arrangements for PFM the subject of considerable uncertainty. The PEIA can help to shape and prioritize the necessary development program. The report is organized in two main parts. Volume one contains a summary of the main issues to emerge from the public expenditure and financial accountability (PEFA) assessment and a discussion of a number of specific PFM issues of current importance to Iraq, including: capital investment budgeting (CIB), oil revenue management, the Iraq financial management information system (IFMIS), public accounting and accountability, and payroll management. Volume two contains a detailed technical analysis behind the PEFA assessment.

This paper synthesizes the findings from a series of case studies on the interaction between the PRSP process and the budget. The five studies, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Tanzania and Vietnam aim to assess the extent to which public finance management and budget allocations reflect the principles and content of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper PRSP, hence providing insights into progress in PRS implementation. The cases also shed light on whether the PRSP process itself has fostered more accountable, efficient and pro-poor budget processes and allocations as of 2003.The PRSP process, with its focus on data and information for evidence-based policy-making, open and participatory policy-making processes, poverty results and country-led donor coordination, alignment and harmonization has the potential to significantly improve the pro-poor focus and general accountability of budgeting processes.The cases confront a number of methodological challenges. First, in some countries and sectors, lack of appropriate data constrained the extent to which the research questions could be fully answered. Second, the PRSP remains a relatively recent innovation in all the countries studied and we recognize that many of our findings are preliminary, and require additional confirmation over time. Third, any assessment of the value added of the PRSP approach needs to be cognizant of the initial conditions in country, both to avoid ascribing successes to the PRSP which pre-date its existence, and to temper expectations about what the approach can deliver in a relatively short space of time given the starting point of each country. To address this last challenge, the case studies explicitly acknowledge the pre-existing situation in-country and try to assess the value added of the PRSP process.The four countries studied have a number of common features.Finally, and perhaps most importantly, all five countries share a high-level political commitment to addressing poverty, although the extent to which this commitment permeates throughout government agencies varies from country to country.The five countries, however, also display many distinctive features. Bolivia and Cambodia, for example, both suffer from high degrees of political fragmentation, which in Bolivia has manifested itself as civil unrest on a number of occasions in the last two years. Burkina Faso, Tanzania, and Vietnam, on the other hand, benefit from more stable political systems and an inherited commitment to pro-poor policies from socialist governments.