Jordan—Public Financial Management and Administration (PFMA)

Jordan’s economy has experienced a series of shocks—from waves of refugees to regional instability to COVID-19. While the Government of Jordan has introduced new tax legislation and sought to improve tax administration, upgrade the budgeting process, and streamline public expenditures management, there is still much work to be done to ensure macro-fiscal resilience while maintaining the fiscal space to deliver social goods to citizens. To support the government with this fiscal imperative, the U.S. Agency for International Development designed the Public Financial Management and Administration (PFMA) activity. PFMA works to improve the Jordanian revenue system and enhance the budget management process.

PFMA builds the capacity of the Jordanian Ministry of Finance and other government institutions to modernize the revenue collection system, encourage compliance—including making it easier for taxpayers to comply with tax obligations—upgrade public procurement management, and improve budget planning, preparation, and execution.

We work with and through local systems while thinking and working politically. Our assistance is informed by an analysis of the political economy of the PFM ecosystem in Jordan. Central to our implementation methodology is the concept of change management—structured tools to assist government officials to make the personal and institutional transition from the status quo to new ways of doing business.

Sample Activities

• Build capacity within the Studies and Economic Policies Directorate to better utilize their revenue impact model to inform adaptations and fiscal responses to the COVID-19 crisis and deepen economic policy analysis capabilities overall.
• Streamline the budget management process.
• Undertake select tax studies focused on tax base broadening and revenue mobilization impact.
• Develop and implement an electronic revenue management system.
• Strengthen the preparation of results-oriented budgets.
• Strengthen audit processes and procedures.
• Work with Jordanian Border Control Agencies to develop and implement a coordinated border management plan that will integrate trade requirements with Jordan Customs.

Select Results

• Developed new, user-friendly tools, including a series of tailored dashboards to visualize budgetary information and data mining tools to assist the search for information. These tools allow stakeholders, depending on their authority, to access the needed information in a timely way.
• Assisted the Government of Jordan in launching the Government Unit Portal, which makes reporting easier and more efficient for 25 government units that comprise of different state-owned and semi-governmental agencies. A more efficient reporting system means that the Ministry of Finance and General Budgeting Department have a clearer picture of the budgetary situation of the whole government, allowing them to make better decisions and allocate scarce public resources more efficiently. PFMA conducted site visits and workshops and trained 125 government staff for more than 1,000 hours in preparation for the launch of the system.
• Assisted the Government Tenders Department to increase utilization of the Jordanian Online E-Procurement System (JONEPS) from 47 to 88 percent. Automating the public procurement process in Jordan through JONEPS will increase efficiency, accountability, transparency, and the ability to bring more small and medium enterprises, women-owned businesses, and other disadvantaged groups into the process.
• Supported the Jordanian Income and Sales Tax Department to implement a national media campaign to promote invoice requesting by taxpayers. The campaign explains how to use the Fawateery app to submit invoices and reached 9.7 million people via press coverage, generating 90,000 downloads.
• Supported Jordan’s General Budget Department to launch a system that supports results-oriented budgeting and monitors public expenditures against performance. The system enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of government activity, improves transparency and accountability, and creates trust between citizens and their government.
• Moved Jordan’s digital debt analysis system from a manual interface to a completely digital interface. The change improves the timeliness and accuracy of reporting and makes information more readily available to decisionmakers. Accurate and timely reporting improves Jordan’s credit ratings, which will help decrease the country’s cost of borrowing.