Public financial management (PFM) institutions are integral
to governance (Andrews 2010). Within the public budgeting
process, policy makers decide priorities, set goals and allocate
resources. While institutions and decision-making structures
may vary, governance experts generally believe that budgeting
systems function better when they are transparent, provide
opportunities for stakeholder participation, exercise control on
discretion of agents and assure accountability for performance
(Diamond 2003; Deininger and Mpuga 2005; Ebdon and
Franklin 2006; Gilmour and Lewis 2006). Yet, public budgeting
institutions in many countries do not yet meet these criteria:
they are often based on line items or objects of expenditure—
for example, salaries, medicines and equipment—and amounts
are determined by making incremental changes to past patterns
of resource expenditure. This type of budgeting is generally
seen as less effective because it is not focused on results:
incremental, line-item budgeting makes it difficult to trace
expenditures to policy objectives, and to hold government
accountable