[{"bbox": [97, 153, 1134, 207], "category": "Text", "text": "b. During the last 20 years the successive State General Budgets have revealed recurrent imbalances between resources and expenditures, leading to instability in the deficit and public debt."}, {"bbox": [97, 218, 1134, 376], "category": "Text", "text": "c. Given the need to reduce the current dependence on donor support it is imperative to revitalize and/or restructure the tax system to improve its effectiveness and efficiency. Despite an increase in tax revenues in recent years, the tax burden (tax revenues as a percentage of the GDP) remains low: in 2021, this ratio stood at 9.3% against the 14.2% West Africa Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) average and the 20% required by the WAEMU Convergence Criterion. However, as these issues are already being handled by the World Bank (WB) and the IMF, no related activities will be included in this Action."}, {"bbox": [97, 389, 1134, 498], "category": "Text", "text": "d. Concerning budget classification, a substantial share of expenditures is registered in \"other current expenditure\", namely bonuses paid to public employees and purchases of goods and services that should be in compensations, and goods and services categories, respectively. Also unforeseen expenditures (up to 2% of total expenditure) should be budgeted, allocated to recipient budget lines during execution and reflected in execution reports."}, {"bbox": [97, 508, 1134, 665], "category": "Text", "text": "e. Although the financial management information system (SIGFiP) covers both budget (preparation and execution) and accounting, the respective interface is not functional. Also some financial operations (particularly externally financed operations and projects) are undertaken outside the system, undermining the control over spending, and creating reporting issues. Therefore, implementing an Action plan to address those issues would significantly improve reporting and transparency, reducing the opportunities for the misappropriation of public funds."}, {"bbox": [97, 680, 1134, 787], "category": "Text", "text": "f. State Property: despite the regulatory framework being clearly outdated no improvements were made in recent years; reinforcement of institutional capacity is therefore required. It is advisable to establish an intervention strategy and an Action plan consistent and coherent with the objectives and reform instruments in related domains, namely budget and public accounting."}, {"bbox": [97, 799, 1134, 932], "category": "Text", "text": "g. Despite some advances in DGTCP resulting from technical assistance financed by the EU and the FORCE/FMI programme, the Treasury and Public Accounting needs further reforms to comply with the WAEMU Directives. The main challenges are improved transparency and management of public funds through a more adequate organization of the collection and payment system and other Treasury operations, as well as the improvement of the instruments that support them in the budget execution process."}, {"bbox": [97, 944, 1134, 1130], "category": "Text", "text": "h. The effectiveness of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) is critically undermined by significant weaknesses, both institutional and operational (non-existent or inaccessible financial data, equipment, and interface with SIGFiP). A technical assistance programme was established with FORCE/Expertise France, covering capacity building in audit and internal control, building the capacity of the IGF in public finance; and the development of manuals, Yet additional technical assistance is needed and will be provided by this Action: support the reform of the legal framework of the IGF to ensure its administrative and financial autonomy and support for the development of the reference framework for IGF internal control and audit."}, {"bbox": [97, 1142, 1134, 1276], "category": "Text", "text": "i. The authorities have requested technical assistance to the IMF to strengthen fiscal oversight of the largest State Owned Enterprise (SOE), the utility company of Electricity and Water of Guinea-Bissau (EAGB), including the management, operations, and financial reporting, to secure its financial viability and limit fiscal risks. The Government prepared a follow-up report on recommendations from previous Audit Court reports on EAGB to strengthen its management and transparency. This Action will also support this assistance."}, {"bbox": [97, 1287, 630, 1314], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 2. PFM transparency and public access to information"}, {"bbox": [97, 1326, 1134, 1380], "category": "Text", "text": "a. Public access to fiscal information is limited. The MoF's website lacks updates on pertinent accounting documents and reports. The Court of Auditors website contains limited and outdated information."}, {"bbox": [97, 1391, 1134, 1499], "category": "Text", "text": "No official transparency and inclusivity measure regarding the Government's budget is in place in the country. Often only Government officials have access to the information relevant on Government activities, including budgeting. Moreover, citizens are often unable to acquire information on Government activities going on within their communities. This secrecy makes it harder to detect when corruption is afoot."}, {"bbox": [97, 1510, 1134, 1590], "category": "Text", "text": "b. The annual presentation of a Citizen's Budget should be part of the budget transparency policy. The document should be written with the needs of the public in mind and use current language and should be linked to more detailed explanations so that it provides a simple access point for those who want more detailed information."}, {"bbox": [97, 1602, 334, 1628], "category": "Section-header", "text": "## 3. PFM external control"}, {"bbox": [1131, 1680, 1144, 1701], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "6"}]