The Role, Responsibilities, Structure and Evolution of Central Finance Agencies
Richard Allen and
Philipp Krause
Chapter 5 in The International Handbook of Public Financial Management, 2013, pp 98-115 from Palgrave Macmillan
Abstract:
Abstract In this chapter we review the role, responsibilities and organizational structure of the central finance agency (CFA), which may be defined as the group of government ministries and agencies — notably the ministry of finance — that is responsible for developing policy on and implementing the core finance functions of the state (Dressel and Brumby 2009; Allen and Grigoli 2012). The discussion is based on the proposition that public finance is at the heart of government and affects all decisions on the allocation and use of public resources, however small. Decisions related to public finance determine the shape and course of economic development and the viability and performance of all institutions, whether in the private sector or the public sector. Financial crises occur frequently, some with extreme severity, and it is no coincidence that on such occasions the CFA is at the center of the political debate. Following from this proposition, the chapter argues that the organization of a country’s CFA — namely, its structure, internal management and business processes, as well as its relationship with other important players such as the central bank, the cabinet, line ministries and the parliament — is of crucial importance because it determines how effective a government will be both in taking decisions on the budget and other financial issues and in executing financial policies.
Keywords: Fiscal Policy; Finance Ministry; Qualitative Comparative Analysis; Budget Process; Performance Budget (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)
There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-31530-4_6
Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137315304
DOI: 10.1057/9781137315304_6
Access Statistics for this chapter
More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().