Cambodia—Public Financial Management Reform Programme

The Royal Government of Cambodia successfully designed and implemented a comprehensive four-stage public financial reform plan supported by 10 development partners, including the European Union, the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and AusAID. Through this assignment, DAI provided the Chief Technical Advisor, ensuring cohesion between the different partners and initiatives under the program. The advisor was an expert on the platform approach to public financial management and was a key contributor to the FCDO-published report, “A Platform Approach to Improving Public Financial Management.”

Sample Activities

• Function as an advisor, facilitator, and coordinator for the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) Reform Steering Committee, the Steering Committee Secretariat, MEF General Departments, Line Ministries, development partners, the development partners’ committee, and its secretariat.
• Provide strategic advice to the government in monitoring and managing the implementation of the second stage of the reform process. The second phase was focused on strengthening effective financial accountability, including the redesign of the accounting and budgeting classification system, the initial design of a financial management information system for core business processes, and strengthening of external and internal audit functions.
• Provide advice on the preparation for the third stage of the reform process, which was focused on introducing a fully affordable policy agenda through policy-budget linkage. This entailed a redesign of the budgeting cycle and responsibilities, a pilot program-based budgeting and budget analysis, and further exploration of fiscal decentralization.
• Participate in the quarterly, semester, and annual review process for the program.
• Advise on the recruitment, coordination, and monitoring of advisors for technical assistance.