Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- Introduction -- Recent Reform Achievements -- Rationale for PEMFAR -- Objectives, Scope and Structure -- 1. Macroeconomic Context -- Structure of Niger's Economy and of Public Finance -- Economic Performance 2000-2003 -- Macroeconomic Outlook and Financing Requirements 2004-2007 -- Solvency and Fiscal Sustainability Analysis -- 2. Public Expenditure Review -- Objectives of the Public Expenditure Review -- Scope of Analysis and Data Constraints -- Analysis of Public Expenditure Structure -- Spending Targets for Priority Sectors -- Analysis of Public Expenditure by Functional Classification -- Actual Expenditures Compared to PRSP Spending Targets -- International Comparisons of Functional Distribution of Public Expenditure -- Factors Determining the Structure of Public Expenditure -- Economic Composition of Public Expenditures -- Impact of Budget Execution on Budget Outcomes -- Geographical Distribution of Public Expenditures and their Poverty Impact -- Sector Expenditure Reviews -- Education -- Health -- Road Transport -- Rural Development -- 3. Assessment of Public Finance Management Systems -- Budget Preparation -- Budget Execution -- The Budget Execution Process -- Externally Financed Development Expenditures -- Processing Delegated Budget Credits (credits délégués) -- Public Accounting and Treasury Management -- Government Accounts -- Reporting (Treasury Accounts and Budget Review Law) -- Treasury System -- Cash Management -- Internal and External Controls -- Ex-Ante Controls -- Internal Audit -- External Audit -- Political Control (National Assembly) -- Non Financial Assets, Monitoring of Parastatals and Debt Management -- Non-Financial Assets (Comptabilité Matière) -- Monitoring of Parastatals -- Debt Management.

Institutional and Organizational Reforms and Human Resources Management -- Institutional and Organizational Reforms -- Human Resource Management -- Appendixes -- Appendix A: Macroeconomic and Government Finance Tables -- Appendix A.1: Financing of Government Overall Fiscal Deficits -- Appendix A.2: Sources of Net Official Development Assistance, 1997-2001 -- Appendix A.3: Selected Economic and Financial Indicators, 2004-2007 -- Appendix B: Public Expenditure Data -- Appendix B.1: Total Public Expenditures -- Appendix B.2: Domestically-financed Public Expenditures -- Appendix C: Methodology of Public Expenditure Reclassification Exercise -- Appendix C.1: Objectives and Main Tasks -- Appendix C.2: List of Reclassifications and Explanations -- Appendix C.3: Synthesized Table of Reclassifications -- References -- LIST OF TABLES -- 1: Priority Action Plan -- 1-1: Nominal and Real GDP and Growth Rates, 1997-2003 -- 1-2: Niger and WAEMU Convergence Criteria, 1997-2003 -- 1-3: Composition of Government Revenue, 1997-2003 -- 1-4: Composition of Government Expenditures, 1997-2003 accrual terms -- 1-5: Composition of Government Expenditures, 1997-2003 -- 1-6: Overall Fiscal Balance, 1997-2003 -- 1-7: Projected HIPC Assistance to Niger after Completion Point -- 1-8: Change in Domestic Arrears (net), 1999-2003 -- 1-9: Financial Operations of the Central Government, 2004-2007 Projections of revenues and expenditures -- 1-10: Financial Operations of the Central Government, 2004-2007 Projections of overall balance and financing -- 1-11: Public Sector Solvency and Sustainability in Niger -- 2-1: Quantitative Targets for Priority Sector Spending -- 2-2: Functional Distribution of Public Spending (total expenditures) -- 2-3: Functional Distribution of Public Spending (Recurrent Expenditure) -- 2-4: Medium Term Projections of Priority Sector Expenditures, 2004-2007.

2-5: Regional Comparison of Spending on Priority Sectors -- 2-6: Importance of Donor Financing for Public Expenditures -- 2-7: Economic Structure of Total Expenditures -- 2-8: Payroll and Wage Bill 2000-2003 -- 2-9: Ratio of Recurrent to Capital Expenditures -- 2-10: Ratio of Budget Allocation to Execution by Expenditure Category -- 2-11: Execution Rates by Budget Execution Stage -- 2-12: Primary Education Indicators -- 2-13: Education Sector-Recurrent Expenditures by Subsector -- 2-14: Cost of Contract Teachers -- 2-15: Unit Costs by Subsector -- 2-16: Economic Classification of Education Expenditures -- 2-17: Health Indicators -- 2-18: Economic Classification of Health Expenditures -- 2-19: Health Sector-Recurrent Expenditures by Level -- 2-20: Ratios of Health Workers to Population by Region (2000) -- 2-21: Public Expenditures for Transport and Civil Works -- 2-22: Budget Allocations for Road Maintenance and Actual Expenditures -- 2-23: Yields of Cereal Production in Niger-Comparison with other Countries in the Sub-Region -- 2-24: Public Expenditures in the Rural Sector -- 3-1: Niger's Budget Execution Process -- LIST OF CHARTS -- 1-1: Real Output Growth -- 1-2: Evolution of Net ODA to Niger -- 1-3: Government Revenue -- 2-1: Evolution of Public Expenditure by Functional Classification -- 2-2: Evolution of Recurrent Expenditure by Functional Classification -- 2-3: Comparison Total Expenditures-PRSP Spending Targets -- 2-4: Comparison Recurrent Expenditures-PRSP Spending Targets -- 2-5: Sectoral Distribution of Capital Expenditures by Source of Financing -- 2-6: Use of HIPC Resources, 2001-2003 -- 2-7: Economic Structure of Total Expenditure -- 2-8: Execution Rates by Sectors -- 2-9: Quarterly Fluctuations in Spending on Goods and Services -- 2-10: Per Capita Levels of Regionally Administered Expenditures by Region.

2-11: Per Capita Distribution of Spending in the Special Program of the President -- LIST OF BOXES -- 1: WAEMU Convergence Criteria -- 2: Revenue-Enhancing Measures Introduced since 2001 -- 3: Rationale for and Impact of Niger's Cash Management System -- 4: Inter-sectoral Expenditure Structure-Main Recommendations -- 5: Education-Main Recommendations -- 6: Health Sector-Main Recommendations -- 7: Road Transport-Main Recommendations -- 8: Rural Development Sector-Main Recommendations -- 9: Budget Preparation-Main Recommendations -- 10: Exceptional Procedures -- 11: Budget Execution-Main Recommendations -- 12: Accounting and Treasury Management-Main Recommendations -- 13: Internal and External Controls-Main Recommendations -- 14: Non-financial Assets, Monitoring of Parastatals and Debt Management-Main Recommendations -- 15: Institutional and Organizational Reforms and Human Resources Management-Main Recommendations.

Effective, efficient and transparent management of public resources is particularly important in a poor country like Niger. This study shows how difficult it is for Niger to significantly change its expenditure composition in a short time span. A narrow and volatile domestic resource base, heavy dependence on aid, and a large share of pre-determined expenditures such as external debt payments are important factors behind this lack of flexibility. There are ways, though, to create space in the budget for increasing public spending on priority sectors. The study identifies a number of measures in this regard, such as increasing domestic revenues, more realistic and conservative budgeting, strengthening cash management, controlling the wage bill, prudent borrowing and attracting higher external financing for recurrent costs in priority sectors. The study also shows that enhancing the efficiency and transparency of public spending is as important as increasing spending for PRS priority sectors. It thoroughly assesses public management systems in Niger and presents an action plan, jointly elaborated by the Government and its main external partners, to address the main challenges in this area. This action plan contains a priority set of measures to improve budget preparation, execution as well as internal and external oversight.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.