Republic of Iraq Public Expenditure Review : Toward More Efficient Spending for Better Service Delivery.
Title:
Republic of Iraq Public Expenditure Review : Toward More Efficient Spending for Better Service Delivery.
Author:
Bank, The World.
ISBN:
9781464802959
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (145 pages)
Series:
World Bank Studies
Contents:
Front Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Executive Summary -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Strategic Context -- Introduction -- Political Developments -- The Macroeconomic Context -- Poverty and Social Conditions -- Prospects -- Strategic Challenge -- Notes -- Chapter 2 Redirecting Government Expenditure -- Introduction -- The Size of the Government -- Government Revenues and Main Revenue Management Issues -- General Government Expenditure -- Conclusions and Proposed Work -- Notes -- Chapter 3 From Strategy to Execution -- Introduction -- From Strategy to Resource Allocation -- Commitment Devices -- Public Investment Framework -- The Case for Public Investment Management Framework in Iraq -- Conclusions and Recommendations -- Notes -- Chapter 4 Case Study #1: Electricity -- Introduction -- Sector Overview -- Status of the Electricity Sector -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Chapter 5 Case Study #2: Health -- Introduction -- An Overview of the Health Sector in Iraq: Health Outcomes, Service Coverage, and Resources -- Health Policy in Iraq -- Efficiency and Equity Issues in Public Expenditure on Health -- Conclusions and Proposed Work -- Notes -- Appendix A Macroeconomic Outlook -- Appendix B Recurrent and Capital Spending by Administrative Classification, 2005-11 -- Appendix C Compensation for Employees by Administrative Classification -- Appendix D Employment by Ministries and Centrally Funded Departments, 2012 -- Appendix E The Iraqi Budget Process -- Appendix F Iraq: Strategic Planning Process -- Appendix G Investment Budget: Advances and Hard Commitments -- Appendix H Total Costs and Annual Appropriations for Transport Projects -- Appendix I Estimated Duration of Issuance, Payment, and Clearance of Letters of Credit -- Appendix J Diagnostic Questions for Evaluating Public Investment Efficiency.
Appendix K The Population Pyramids: 1990, 2020, and 2030 -- Appendix L Iraq Infant and Child Health Indicators -- Appendix M Iraq Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases -- Appendix N Maternal, Child, and Reproductive Health Care Services -- Appendix O Health Workforce and Resources -- Appendix P Iraq Health Spending and Comparators -- Appendix Q Terms of Reference for the Proposed Health Public Expenditure Review -- Bibliography -- Boxes -- Figures -- Tables -- Back Cover.
Abstract:
This Public Expenditure Review (PER) provides an integrated perspective on Iraq's need to provide better public service delivery, while maintaining macroeconomic stability and fiscal discipline. The achievement of these objectives unfolds within a challenging context of revenue volatility, the need to diversify the economy, weak accountability mechanisms, and residual conflict. Reflecting these challenges, key socio-economic developmental indicators are stalled or even declining despite rapid growth in public spending. Indeed, the review shows that growth in spending has not been matched by absorptive capacity, let alone improved outcomes. The difficult task of constructing the fiscal institutions to embed the practices of good economic management remains a work-in-progress. The PER is one component of World Bank assistance to the government to improve public expenditure policy and management. The challenge for the Iraqi authorities in the years ahead will be to turn oil revenues into sustained welfare improvements. Macroeconomic stability alone is not enough to address social and economic development issues and to avoid a resource curse. Iraq's oil wealth alone cannot generate sustainably high living standards for the majority of its population. Economic diversification is an imperative-both to create jobs and to promote income-generating opportunities for the Iraqi population. The key challenges for the authorities therefore are (i) to remove constraints to non-hydrocarbon economic activities; (ii) to ensure the efficient use of oil revenue; and (iii) to restrain the growth of current spending (in particular wage bill and subsidies) to free up resources for public investment, while maintaining essential safety nets and social support for the poor and disadvantaged. Public investment management is a crosscutting capability that is needed to meet
Iraq's development objectives. The government has the opportunity to take concrete steps now. The PER proposes approaches and actions to better use Iraq's oil revenues by shifting to a save and invest via curbing inefficient spending and redirecting resources to public investment and basic services. As economic growth prospects are favorable in the medium-term, the Iraqi government has the opportunity to lay the foundations of a broadly diversified economy, with a reasonable footprint that provides decent public services and security while facilitating adequate economic freedom. Senior policy makers at the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and line ministries are the primary audience of this work.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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Electronic Access:
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