Monday, September 28, 2009

By a Consultant for another Consultant?

Senior Budget Adviser- Timor Leste (deadline October 6)

From the scope of work;

-Where requested, report to and advise the Senior Management and on matters of budget design and execution;
-Develop the management and leadership skills of the National Director, focusing in particular on:
clear comprehension of his core roles and responsibilities;
identifying how directorate workflows fit into these roles and responsibilities;
effective delegation;
realistic workload assessment and planning; and
inculcating some basic concepts of team-building.
-Support the development and execution of the national budget in line with the budget guidelines;
-Assist in the integration of the services provided by the Ministry to Line Ministries in the areas of budgeting, planning, treasury functions and procurement.
-Build capacity within the budget and expenditure review units with a view to, over time, a greater percentage of the work of the units can be undertaken independently by national staff,
-Build the capacity of local staff to oversee the management of line Ministry budget processes;
-Support the development of new systems and processes as the budget design is gradually computerised onto the FMIS and devolved to line agencies;
-Provide advice and support to the implementation of the performance budgeting element of the FMIS;
-To instill and further develop a client focus culture in the budget and expenditure review units.
-Provide advice on the budgetary impacts of various government initiatives to the Minister for Finance;
-Provide holistic/ strategic advice on ministry issues, as requested; and,
-In consultation with the Professional Development Program director, identify training needs for staff in the National Directorate of the Budget and Planning and develop strategies to secure the necessary skills needed to ensure the long term viability of the National Budget Directorate.
-Perform such other technical and inline functions as may be required by the Program Services Directorate or the Ministry of Finance.


I've to say good luck to the Budget Adviser.

Related;
Timor-Leste PEFA

A Balancing Act: Implementation of the Paris Declaration in Timor-Leste


East Timor- AUSAID


Timor-Leste: Reflections on the 10th anniversary of independence

Timor-Leste-World Bank

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Goolsbee defends Obama fiscal policies

GOOLSBEE: I think there's some conventional wisdom forming among opponents of the administration that the deficit is getting bigger primarily because Obama is spending like crazy, and it's totally wrong.

If you look at the 10-year budget, the reason that 10-year deficit is getting bigger, it's first and foremost because the economy has gotten substantially worse, and as the current economy gets worse, it makes the 10-year deficit numbers significantly worse also. And that's by far the biggest thing driving it.

The second is the President consciously came in and said, "We're going to stop engaging in a series of budget gimmicks that are used to artificially make the 10-year deficit look smaller," so things like, they put in zero dollars for natural disaster cost each year, even though there's a hurricane season. So you would think that this is a somewhat regular expense.

Each year, they say, "Oh, my goodness. How could we have predicted there would be a hurricane hitting South Carolina this year?" And so the president said, "Look, let's take the average cost for natural disasters. Let's put it in the budget every year. Let's stop saying the R&D tax credit is only temporary. Let's make it permanent because they renew it every year. Let's stop saying we're going to go cut all doctors' salary by 20 percent at the end of the year and then, at the end of the year, saying actually we're not going to do it this year, but we promised to do it all future years," thereby keeping the long-run deficit smaller.

None of those are spending. The president is not spending anything that people were not spending before for all of those budget gimmicks. He is instead saying, "Let's be honest about what the situation we're in," and so I would just encourage that people who are agitated about the spending to do two things.

The first is go look at the 10-year budget and ask how much of the increase in the 10-year deficit is actually due to new programs versus just being honest and just the state of the economy, and the second is, for this year and next year, while we're in stimulus and Recovery Act land, in the face of the stiffest recession since 1929, that is not when you try to tighten the belt. It is extremely dangerous to do that. That is exactly what Herbert Hoover did that got us into the Depression.

ROMANO: Well, why not? Now, see, that's counterintuitive for a lot of people listening to you. They're saying, "Well, we should be tightening our belt."

GOOLSBEE: We should tighten our belts in the sense of getting the savings rate up. Getting long-run fiscal responsibility is going to be quite important, but if you go at everybody and the savings rate went to 25 percent in a day and we went and massively cut government spending right now, it would drive the GDP downward. And this may be a paradox, but in a period of crisis, you can't do that. That's what Herbert Hoover did. They faced stiff recession, big financial crisis, and they said, "You know what we should do, we should try to balance the budget, and let's start raising taxes and cutting spending." And by doing that and by letting the financial systems collapse, they started the Great Depression, which was a spiral that they would not fix itself and really stuck with us for more than 10 years until World War II ends up getting us out as you know, as a big stimulus.

We faced a financial crisis bigger than the one in 1929. We faced a recession, the stiffest since 1929. The stage was set that if we engaged in a series of policy missteps, we're in the Great Depression, and the Fed deserves great credit and this administration deserves great credit as taking actions to prevent that. And one of the actions that was absolutely needed to prevent it was loosening the belt, not tightening the belt, in the face of those things.


-Voices of Power Transcript: Austan Goolsbee, Economic Adviser to President Obama

Need a motivation to study international development

"The greatest challenge for me is remaining hopeful and optimistic when the changes that you see are so small and they come so slowly," Meyer said. "It is a slow and incremental process, and it can be discouraging, but you must stay connected to your personal vision even if its realization may take long periods of time."

-Amy Meyer: Leading Efforts to Spur the Economy in a Volatile Region

The Contest to Find Government Waste

In his weekly radio address on April 25, Obama promised that the administration would establish a process for every government employee to submit their ideas on how their agency can save money and perform better. "Americans across the country know that the best ideas often come from workers -- not just management," Obama said in the speech.

The "SAVE Award," which stands for Securing Americans Value and Efficiency, is open to all federal employees, and only people with government e-mail addresses will be able to submit suggestions.

Entries will be judged by these questions, according to the Web site: Does the idea reduce costs in a way that is concrete and quantifiable? How does it improve the way that government operates? Does the idea have a tangible impact on citizens' lives or the environment? Is there a clear and practical plan for implementing the idea? Will it be possible to realize savings immediately?

-Search Is On for Best Cost-Cutting Ideas