Central Africa Fiscal Transparency 2023

The U.S. State Department annually publishes assessments of the quality of fiscal transparency in countries that are eligible to receive U.S. foreign assistance. We outline in this video the overall state of Central Africa fiscal transparency in the 2022 calendar year drawing on the results of the 2023 fiscal transparency assessments for nine Central African countries.

These assessments, published on 27 June 2023, found that while all nine countries did not meet the U.S. State Department’s minimum fiscal transparency requirements, six countries demonstrated significant progress was evident in 2022.

The U.S. State Department’s recommendations for improving fiscal transparency in the nine countries not meeting minimum fiscal transparency requirements are presented in the video and cover government budget, audit, natural resource extraction and sovereign wealth fund activities.

The most numerous deficiencies identified in fiscal transparency in Central African countries in 2022 were in the following government budget processes:

  • Publishing executive budget proposals within a reasonable period
  • Producing end-of-year reports within a reasonable period
  • Eliminating off-budget accounts or subjecting them to adequate oversight and audit

We also examine the relationship between identified fiscal transparency deficiencies and 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index scores. In addition, we suggest sources of technical assistance that governments might access to assist their efforts to improve fiscal transparency and indicate how fiscal transparency improvement activities could be monitored.

You can access the individual country reports here:




Central Africa PFM digital transparency recent trends

Introduction

Transparency of public finances is a key element of a public financial management (PFM) system enabling public scrutiny of government actions and intentions. From our September 2020 “Improving PFM digital transparency in African finance ministries” presentation we now examine recent trends in Central Africa PFM from a digital transparency perspective by presenting data for seven Central African countries that was identified during our examination of 45 African ministries of finance (MoFs) current use of digital platforms to promote PFM transparency.

PFM transparency is important

Transparency of public finances is achieved by providing information on PFM which is comprehensive, consistent, and accessible to users. The World Bank’s September 2020 report “Enhancing Government Effectiveness and Transparency – The Fight Against Corruption” (link to be provided) has highlighted the importance of ensuring greater transparency in government operations.

Identifying PFM digital transparency trends

The following statistics were prepared to help identify PFM digital transparency trends:

  • Country internet usage

  • MoF website visits during May/July 2020 and projected annualised visits for 2020

  • Domestic and non-resident visits to MoF websites

  • Country Facebook usage

  • MoF Facebook page follower numbers

  • Country Twitter usage

  • MoF Twitter follower numbers

Penetration levels for MoF website users, Facebook and Twitter followers were subsequently identified to demonstrate the level of usage of these digital platforms and key recent PFM digital transparency trends.

Key trends

Trends in the key PFM digital transparency indicators for the seven Central African finance ministries with websites during the period May/July 2020 are available. These can be accessed by clicking on to the country links below:

A video showing Central African country PFM digital transparency trends for key PFM digital transparency indicators is available here.

An additional video showing comparative results on a PFM digital transparency indicator basis across Central African countries is available here.

Questions?

Please contact us at team@pfmconnect.com if you have any questions about this material.




Doing Business 2015 Sub-Saharan Africa

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Read Doing Business 2015

Sub-Saharan Africa

Read the Doing Business 2015 regional profile for Sub-Saharan Africa. Learn how easy or difficult it is for local entrepreneurs to establish and run small to medium-size businesses when complying with relevant regulations.

The quality of public financial management (PFM) in business regulatory agencies inevitably impacts on their operational performance which in turn impacts on entrepreneurs.