Africa Region Working Paper Series No. 25 Design and Implementation of Financial Management Systems: An African Perspective Guenter Heidenhof, Helene Grandvoinnet, Daryoush Kianpour, and Bobak Rezaian January 2002 Abstract   In the early 1990s developing countries in Africa began to focus on the improvement of public finance, in particular on budget and expenditure management reforms. Mainly as a response to concerns from the donor community governments started to critically review the existing systems and processes. Most arrangements dated back to the time of colonial rule. Reviews revealed the weaknesses of these systems, which were considered inadequate and outdated. Recommendations focused on fundamentally overhauling the existing arrangements. A new element was added to the development agenda, the introduction of “integrated financial management systems” to improve quality of public finance as well as accountability and transparency of public sector operations. Reference point for the recommendations was the introduction of modern financial management systems in developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s, which allowed to integrate the different functions of public finance on the basis of a uniform technical platform. Nearly a decade after the beginning of the discussion this note intends to evaluate experience with the design and implementation of financial management systems (FMS) in selected African countries. Its main objective is to identify some of the critical elements for the success of the introduction of these systems in the context of African countries. The note (I) outlines the FMS reform agenda, (II) summarizes the experience in five African countries, and (III) analyses lessons learnt and presents some key conclusions for the design and implementation of FMS reforms.   Full text of paper. (106KB, In Adobe Acrobat format. Requires Acrobat PDF viewer)

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