Project Case Study
Strengthening Afghan Budgets
Improving Afghanistan’s budget process to enhance service delivery
In 2007 Afghanistan’s public financial management system was affected by a range of weaknesses, including a lack of integration between its operating and development budgets, low execution rates for its development budget, a highly centralized system that did not take account of needs at the sub-national level and limited capacity within the ministry of finance and high-spending line ministries in relation to key budget formulation and execution tasks.
The project was awarded British Expertise’s Major Project of the Year Award in 2011. Over the two phases of this project, Adam Smith International’s supported:
- The development of Afghanistan’s first Public Financial Management (PFM) roadmap
- Improvements in Afghanistan’s Open Budget Index ratings, with its budget transparency score increasing from 8% in 2008 to 59% in 2012
- The transition to from traditional line item budgets to programme budgeting
- The implementation of a national Operations and Maintenance Policy for government assets
- The integration of various Management Information Systems in the budget department so that data can be inputted and analysed effectively
- The roll out to 16 ministries of the State Budget Planning System (SBPS), a national budget planning computerized system
- Better fiscal analysis through developing and improving the medium term fiscal framework and the Ministry’s macro-modelling capbility
- The Aid Coordination Directorate’s efforts to bring donor aid on budget and align it to national priorities
