Detailed description of project Back
The National Treasury embarked on a budget reform program in 1999 aiming at improving accountability and modernising the accounts of government; primarily by bringing budget and expenditure reporting in line with international best practice.The ultimate aim of this reform remains unchanged – it is to provide better quality information to legislatures to assist in the policy making process and to reinforce Parliament’s oversight role.
The first part of the reform was the introduction of a new, Standardised Chart of Accounts (SCOA) and Economic Reporting Format (ERF) for national and provincial government departments in 2004. In this SCOA a standard list of expenditure items aligned with international accounting and economic reporting standards replaced the original “standard item” configuration in the financial systems.
The overall objective of this project is:
- To document the reform to ensure that all relevant information that can be contributed by all stakeholders, both at the national and provincial level are combined in a detailed report format that captures not only the technical aspects of the reform, but also the challenges faced and benefits gained from such a reform;
- To compile a collective and critical perspective of the process followed to design and introduce the NERF (New Economic Reporting Format) and SCOA in government.This project is envisaged to produce a detailed account of the lessons learned from having undertaken the initiative to introduce the NERF and SCOA in Government;
- To compile various perspectives of the journey – from design, through to implementation of the NERF and SCOA, and its relevance to the overall effort of the financial management reform spearheaded by National Treasury.
Type of services provided
- Compile a detailed perspective of the strategic intent of the implementation in terms of the considerations and final approach adopted. This perspective should be compiled in relation to the context of financial data and management at the time, as well as other preceding or adjoining and related reforms;
- Compile a wide stakeholder perspective of the reform prior to, during and subsequent to its implementation;
- Compile a user-friendly report and/or guide on the “Lessons Learnt” from the NERF and SCOA initiatives in SA Government;
- Document the critical logic of the processes, from design, implementation to monitoring and evaluation;
- Document the/a logical path of the financial management reform process and justifying the relevance of the introduction and design of the NERF and SCOA in this regard;
- Document the best practice, methodologies and model(s) applied to create a winning formulation.
