How Do Treasury Systems Operate in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa?

IMF Working Papers, March 1, 2002

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How Do Treasury Systems Operate in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa?

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Bibliographic details

• Authors: Luc E. Leruth, Dominique Bouley, Jerome Fournel
• Published: March 1, 2002
• Series: IMF Working Papers
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451847871.001

Executive summary and main findings

• Treasury systems in sub-Saharan francophone African countries share many features with the French public expenditure management system of the sixties on which they were modeled.
• In a different economic and institutional environment, key elements of this framework have evolved in unexpected, unwelcome directions.
• The paper critically examines two main features of the French system in the sub-Saharan francophone African context:
  • the strict separation between the person ordering payment and the one disbursing funds; and
  • the centralization of funds in the treasury.
• The examination calls attention to—and suggests remedies for—the specific flaws that have evolved from the traditional framework.

Analysis themes

• Institutional inheritance:
  • French sixties public expenditure management system as the model for sub-Saharan francophone African treasury systems.
• Evolved flaws:
  • Features that were appropriate in the original French context have produced unexpected and unwelcome outcomes in the different economic and institutional environment of sub-Saharan francophone Africa.
• Focus areas of the critique:
  • Separation of duties: scrutiny of the effects of the strict separation between the person ordering payment and the disbursing agent.
  • Centralization of funds: scrutiny of the effects of concentrating funds in the treasury on budget execution and financial control.

Policy implications and remedies (as suggested by the paper)

• Identify and address specific flaws that have emerged from transplanting the traditional framework into a different environment.
• Reform considerations should target:
  • The operational consequences of strict separation between payment ordering and disbursement.
  • The operational consequences of centralizing funds in the treasury.
• The paper suggests remedies aimed at correcting the undesirable evolutions while preserving effective control over public funds.

Subject classification and keywords

• Subject: Arrears, Budget execution and treasury management, Budget planning and preparation, Currencies, Expenditure, External debt, Money, Public financial management (PFM)
• Keywords: Africa, arrears, Budget execution and treasury management, Budget planning and preparation, control mechanism, Currencies, expenditure process, financing expenditure, government, minister of finance, monitoring, payment, payment order, public treasury, State audit Office, Treasury, WP

Content in this bundle

• How Do Treasury Systems Operate in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa? - WP/02/58
  • How Do Treasury Systems Operate in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa? - WP/02/58 (Markdown version)
  • How Do Treasury Systems Operate in Sub-Saharan Francophone Africa? - WP/02/58 (PDF)