EU-TAPP Tracking the flow of Government transfers
Tracking the flow of Government transfers
Financing local government service delivery in South Sudan
The Government of South Sudan through its Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) makes transfers of funds to states and local governments on a monthly basis to finance service delivery.
To assess and check whether government funds are transferred from the national government are ultimately applied for the purpose intended, the EU-TAPP team designed a simple Grant Tracking Tool (GTT). The tool was then used to track the transfers to counties for the two months of January and February 2016; this was because at the time of tracking the government was yet to release transfers for March 2016. Each team of EU-TAPP state based trainers administered the GTT to at least two counties selected from states that the team is responsible for. Information on transfers remitted by the government was obtained from the national MoFEP and given out to the respective state teams. Information about funds transferred to individual counties and how these were applied was collected from the SMoF and the counties themselves by inspecting the transfer letters from the SMoF as well as discussions with state and county staff and a review of finance records at the county; including bank statements. A comparative analysis of the funds remitted from the central government by MoFEP against what individual county departments ultimately received and used was then made and any shortages in funds received identified and investigated.
Finally a quick assessment was made at the county to check out whether funds that were remitted to the county departments of education, water and health did actually reach these departments respectively and were spent by them; this assessment involved a quick inspection and checking of payment records kept by the controller of accounts as well as discussions with the respective heads of departments to obtain their views confirming spending.
The full results of the assesments is reported the report " Tracking the flow of Government transfers" which can be found here!