The Responsibilities of the Minister of Finance, the State Secretary, and the Ministry in the Development of a PFM/IC Policy

The ministry of finance has a key role in both the acceptance and the implementation of this reform. By 'ministry of finance' is meant the minister personally, the most senior appointed official such as the state secretary and the heads of key ministry of finance departments such as the budget department and the accounting or treasury department. Their support for the reform is essential. Central to the reform is a change in responsibilities for budgetary and financial control from a centralised external control based upon the ministry of finance to an internal control with the primary responsibility falling on individual public organisations. Success with this element of the reform depends upon many factors and not least the quality of individual public organisation management and that involves the leadership exercised by those managers and their training. A key element in this is ‘financial awareness’. The significance of the role of the ministry of finance extends to ensuring that the reform is properly implemented and this imposes a responsibility upon the top official in that ministry to personally lead the reform and to ensure that the equivalent top officials in other public organisations are equally committed and involved. This chapter explains the responsibilities of the different key ministry of finance officials and the risks that they should be aware of. This includes the role of the minister and the top appointed officials.