ABSTRACT
Economic development in most countries of Southeast Asia has been significant in recent years, but management of the government budget (both on the revenue and spending sides) has often been lacking (with the notable exception of Singapore). All too often, budget management has been undermined by weak cash management in spending programs during the financial year, lack of transparency in the formulation and execution of the budget, poor revenue administration, excessive centralized control of budget management, and lack of transparency and accountability, both in spending programs and in revenue assessment and collection. Reforms have been implemented to address these problems, including more transparent budget preparation and execution, more effective fund disbursement and cash management, improved tax administration, and decentralization of budget management to ministries, agencies, and local authorities. These reforms have been underpinned by measures to promote greater accountability, especially through more robust auditing and anticorruption enforcement, and through reforms to implement new public management (NPM). The last factor mentioned has included managing public agencies along business lines, the use of performance indicators, target setting, and a shift to accrual-accounting practices in government agencies. However, a lot remains to be done to ensure effective implementation of these reforms, including capacity building through training in budget management and accounting, streamlining of financial procedures, and more effective programs to combat corruption.
