{"id":507,"date":"2020-07-30T15:03:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T15:03:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/?p=507"},"modified":"2020-07-30T15:03:46","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T15:03:46","slug":"government-of-montserrats-strategic-planning-and-budgetary-processes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/?p=507","title":{"rendered":"Government of Montserrat\u2019s Strategic Planning and Budgetary Processes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Office of the Auditor General is pleased to\nannounce that its report entitled <strong>Government\nof Montserrat\u2019s Strategic Planning and Budgetary Processes<\/strong> was presented to the Legislative Assembly on July\n28<sup>th<\/sup>, 2020.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Background: <\/strong>The Ministry of Finance &amp; Economic Management co-ordinates\nthese processes across the public service.&nbsp;\nEach year, Ministries and Departments provide their proposals and\nrequests for spending, and these are evaluated and ranked against the Cabinet\u2019s\nPolicy Agenda and other criteria.&nbsp;&nbsp; Funds are then\nallocated across Departments, programmes and projects according to their\nurgency and priority, subject to the total available budget for the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key\nFindings:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Good\ngovernance overall. &nbsp;<\/strong>There is adequate oversight of strategic\nplanning, budgeting, and projects. Actual spending is kept strictly in line\nwith actual revenues. <\/li><li><strong>Restricted\nfunding<em>. <\/em><\/strong>The DFID\u2019s\nemphasis on containing costs and headcounts creates rising pressures in all\nDepartments. Very low to no growth in nominal terms means either stagnation or\na decline in real spending and in real economic output. <\/li><li><strong>Population\nis declining<\/strong>. The 2018\ncensus showed a decline in Montserrat\u2019s population since year 2011.&nbsp; GOM\u2019s SDP Goal #5 requires a doubling of the\npopulation from current levels. Falling population leads to (a) shortfalls in\nlocal tax revenues from budgeted levels, (b) very low growth or declines in\nreal spending, and (c) little or no growth in real economic output. <\/li><li><strong>Progress\nmade in local economic models, forecasting, and statistical bases. <\/strong>The MOFEM has developed reliable home-grown\neconometric models and forecasts for Montserrat\u2019s economy, earning high scores\nagainst the international PEFA benchmarks. &nbsp;&nbsp;Since 2018, the Montserrat Statistics\nDepartment has launched a website, done a national census and labour-survey (in\n2018), and published extensive data (in 2019 and in 2020). <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Little\/no\ninsurance of public assets. <\/strong>Across\nthe public sector, with very few exceptions, risks and assets are not\nindependently insured. The GOM has a stated policy of self-insurance, but there\nare no funds or reserves to support this and this ultimately pose a potential\nunlimited liability.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key\nRecommendations include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Increase the funding for infrastructure to meet\nresidents\u2019 needs and rising health &amp; safety standards. <\/li><li>Increase immigration &amp; repatriation.<\/li><li>Plan better for inflation, contingencies, &amp;\ncurrency fluctuations. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In response to this Audit\nReport (on page 26) the Honourable Financial Secretary commented:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is good to see\nthat overall Governance is deemed to be good, which includes strategic\nplanning, budgeting process, project management, and the procurement of capital\nassets, with spending in line with revenues.&nbsp;\nA number of concerns raised by the Auditors have been raised by the\nFinancial Secretary on many occasions to the DFID and it is pleasing to see the\nAuditors reflecting those points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The full audit report highlights several other\nfindings and recommendations. &nbsp;&nbsp;Their implementation will bring significant\nimprovements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The report in its entirety can be found at the Montserrat Public Library\nor by visiting&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/publications\/\">Publications<\/a>&nbsp;or by requesting an\nelectronic copy from the Office of the Auditor General<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Office of the Auditor General is pleased to announce that its report entitled Government of Montserrat\u2019s Strategic Planning and Budgetary Processes was presented to the Legislative Assembly on July 28th, 2020.&nbsp; Background: The Ministry of Finance &amp; Economic Management co-ordinates these processes across the public service.&nbsp; Each year, Ministries and Departments provide their proposals [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001003,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001003"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/audit.gov.ms\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}