Address by H.E. Ouk Rabun,
Secretary of
State, MoEF
I very much appreciate the invitation to address this important Round Table on education reform in Cambodia. I would like to reinforce the Prime Minister's statement on the Government's commitment to education as a priority sector in bringing about poverty reduction in Cambodia.
I would like to congratulate the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport on its intensive efforts in formulating the future education reform priorities set out in the ESP and ESSP documents. This kind of planning approach by MoEYS will help to set out clear signposts for putting in place a firm financial foundation for education reform.
I would like to take this opportunity of affirming our continued commitment to providing the necessary Government resources to implement the proposed reforms. In the late nineties, education spending represented around 9 – 10 per cent of recurrent expenditure. In 2001, education spending share has risen to over 15 per cent per annum. My Ministry is committed to continuing this upward trend in future years, within the resources available to our Government.
In my address today, I would like to focus on the question of Predictability in providing resources to education. I would also like to highlight the role of my Ministry, MoEYS and donor partners in ensuring such predictability. Without such a framework, it will be difficult to undertake effective medium-term planning and set a firm financial foundation for education reform.
My Ministry has already taken a number of steps to ensure greater predictability in financial planning. A key measure was the formulation of the Public Expenditure Plan (PEP), presented at the CG meeting in Paris in 2000. The intention of the PEP is to provide line ministries, including education, with medium-term budget allocations for forward planning. Within the resources available, I would like to reaffirm my Ministry's commitment to meeting these PEP targets for education over 2001/3 and beyond.
A second initiative by my Ministry has been to introduce the priority action program (PAP) approach in 2000. The objective of the PAP mechanism is to provide predictable and protected resources for key ministries, consistent with the Royal Government policy in shifting public expenditure from defence to social sectors, which is the strategy to maintain macroeconomics stability and foster economic growth and equity for the ultimate goad of poverty reduction. At the same time, this PAP is an important pilot mechanism in financial reform to introduce advance fund release following by post-audit system in the budget execution process. This system gives opportunity and responsibility to the spending agencies in preparing their own budget plan and manage their expenditure appropriately to the financial regulation and law, which is in line with the decentralisation policy of the Royal Government. In addition, this PAP mechanism is the important foundation for budgeting reform, from item-based budgeting to program-based budgeting, to improve efficiency of public expenditure; forecasting capability, and toward developing medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF). Thus, the PAP approach will provide sufficient incentive and resources for line ministries to implement policy priorities over the medium term. The intention is to expand the resources available under PAP Chapter 13, provided that education and other ministries can demonstrate that the programs are showing results.
I am particularly encouraged that the ESP and ESSP proposals presented by MoEYS embrace the PEP and PAP mechanisms. I strongly endorse the MoEYS steps to develop a medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) for education. This will provide a strong basis for the annual budget negotiations between MoEF and MoEYS for budget 2002 and beyond.
I am also gratified that the MoEYS reforms use the PAP framework as a key planning tool for setting out its spending priorities for the medium-term. This will provide a channel for mobilising, disbursing and managing recurrent budget resources for education in the coming years. Wherever possible, I would urge donor partners to support this MoEYS approach when programming and channelling resources to the education sector.
At the same time, for the success of this reform, we need to build and effective and efficient management system to ensure accountability, transparency, and efficiency of public expenditure. Thus, the speed and the success of the financial reform depend upon the speed and ability of strengthening and building the capacity and responsibility of the spending agencies. Moreover, the accuracy of planning depends on the quality of forecasting which requires realistic views and assumptions. Thus, a careful feasibility study of the program is needed to guarantee the success of implementation and avoiding shortfall behind the target due to high ambition plan and inefficient resource allocation.
The preliminary MTEF for education set out in the ESSP also provides opportunities for increasing the predictability of support from the donor and NGO community. The MoEYS financial projections suggest a significant but diminishing shortfall in resources needed to implement the proposed education reforms.
I would ask the donor community to respond in a number of ways. Predictability would be increased if individual donors were able to offer a sustained medium-term commitment to education support. There is also a need for greater flexibility in the types of education support, including a mix of general and sector budget support, alongside more traditional project aid and technical assistance.
The Government recognises that these new forms of financial planning and management will require new mechanisms for co-operation between MoEF and line ministries, including education. As many of you will know, education has been one of the four pilot ministries for the PAP initiative. I was particularly gratified to see that the PAP for primary education in 2000 appears to be a growing success with increased primary school intakes and reduced repetition.
I recognize a serious concern within line ministries and development partners over uneven disbursement and spending on education. I share these concerns and intend to take a number of steps to resolve these difficulties over the coming months and years.
Firstly, my Ministry recognises that we need to put in place joint planning and communication mechanisms with line ministries, including education. I note that the ESP and ESSP include proposals from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport on such mechanisms. I intend to open early dialogue with the Minister on how co-operative planning can be best improved.
Secondly, we all recognise that the capacity of the Government's financial planning, disbursement and management systems need to be strengthened. The Government is determined to strengthen these systems as soon as possible. At the same time, as set out in the ESSP, I would strongly encourage donors and NGOs to provide support for building up financial systems within MoEYS. Such support should be linked to complementary ongoing assistance within MoEF for financial management development.
Under the PAP initiative, there is an opportunity to decentralise technical and financial management down to district, commune and school levels. In particular, I would ask donors and NGOs to look carefully at ways of building up financial system capacity at provincial, district, commune and institutional levels.
Of course, with this change there are a number of important implications which we will need to look at more carefully, especially the changing roles of central and provincial staff and the need for accountability and transparency throughout the system. I strongly endorse the MoEYS proposals for extensive capacity building in these areas.
Finally, I would like to emphasise that MoEF is also undertaking a new learning process on the implications of the PEP and PAP initiatives. However, I am confident that with good communication, joint commitment to the same results and a sense of partnership in solving problems that arise, we can mutually guarantee a successful outcome.
Thank you all for your attention.