Financial Management and Control of Public Agencies, SIGMA Report №32, 2002

Almost all countries have long used public agencies (PA) as a form of organization of specific spheres of the public administration and its services. During the last couple of decades, the countries from the EU and the developed countries as a whole created, under political and managerial pressure, new such agencies at an accelerated pace. The governments of the countries in transitions from Central and Eastern Europe inherited many agencies from the preceding regime. Additionally, they created new ones for the purposes of executing new tasks and as a means to speed up the modernization of public administration.

The preparation of the current report was initiated by a request of the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic for consultations by SIGMA regarding the development new legal measures for financial management of public agencies. Despite that, it is not feasible to address this topic without encompassing the wider context. This report far exceeded the scope of the initial assignment. It sheds light on the practical experience of five member-countries with very different legislative systems and administrative structures. It focuses on matters, which relate to the financial management of public agencies, but it also examines, in smaller detail, other matter, which concern the legal structures and their management. A singular “model” for good practices in this complex field does not exist. On an international scale, the optimal practice is still in the process of development.