Seminar Series: Abstract

11.00 am
July 09 2009
Seminar Room B (Arndt Room)

'The importance of context: a strategic analysis of Solomon Islands Government development spending'
Peter Coventry

In June 2009 the Solomon Islands Government (SIG) froze portions of its recurrent and development budgets in the face of severe financial pressures. This followed several years of very strong revenue and expenditure growth, during which the SIG put increasingly large amounts of funding into the consolidated development budget. This seminar examines this budget from 2004-2008. It looks at the growth of SIG development spending, its composition (including those grants managed by Parliamentarians), how this budget is prepared, and how spending is managed. In doing so it identifies a number of issues that weaken expenditure outcomes, and argues that in the face of weak future SIG revenue, it is important that these outcomes are improved. The seminar concludes by considering practical steps that SIG and donors could support to strengthen the consolidated development budget.