Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) District Level Support Workshop

Health and education receive large amounts of resources in developing countries.  Yet money intended for these sectors often never reaches the front-line providers, crippling the quality and availability of these critical services.  Results from these expenditures are compromised as resources are diverted to other uses.  Such 'leakage' means only a fraction of resources intended for citizens actually benefit them. 

A recent workshop sponsored by WBI helped to strengthen the Government of Ghana's efforts to improve accountability and decrease leakages through the use of Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS).  To obtain an accurate picture of resource flows, the Government of Ghana is conducting Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys in 2006/2007 in the health and education sectors. The PETS is part of the government’s strategy to increase transparency, streamline public spending, and improve the quality of service delivery in these sectors.

The workshop helped to strengthen Ghana's implementation of the PETS by building knowledge among district-level officials in the health and education sectors.  The workshop, held in Accra in May 2007, brought together over 50 district directors and others to learn about all aspects of the PETS and specifically how the methodology is being applied in Ghana. 

Held in partnership with the Ghana PETS Steering Committee, the World Bank Institute's Urban and Local Government unit, and the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP), the workshop sensitized district level officials to the current PETS being conducted in Ghana to improve the effectiveness and quality of results of the PETS in Ghana. In addition, the workshop helped to move the PETS beyond a technical exercise and build stakeholder participation and ownership. 

"It will improve transparency and efficient and effective use of state funds for health and educational delivery in Ghana.  This will reduce corruption in the health and education systems." said one participant. 

What is PETS? 

PETS is a diagnostic and monitoring tool to understand problems in budget execution, including delays, leakage and use of discretionary funds.  It relies on surveys that encompass both interviews and review of records to collect data at several different levels. 

Spending in the health and education sectors is often not correlated with outcomes, often because money allocated fails to reach service providers.  By creating a clear picture of how the money is actually used, the PETS can provide knowledge to reform financial flows and practices and to increase the amount of critical resources that reach front-line service providers.  The PETS methodology is a way to increase efficiency and improve the impact of scarce resources.

PETS in Ghana

Baah Wadieh of the Ghana Statistical Service and chairman of the PETS Steering Committee said that the genesis of the PETS arose from an external review of financial management in 2006, which pointed out high spending and donor contributions in the health and education sectors.  He questioned, however, if these high inputs were reaching the intended beneficiaries.  For example, with infrastructure, he noted many new school buildings were not completed on schedule, despite adequate funding.  Questions such as this led to the government to conduct a PETS. 

The workshop built on a previous PETS course in Ghana in May 2006, also held with IIEP, that generated demand for PETS and disseminated knowledge of the PETS process among civil servants in the health and education ministries in Ghana.  The previous workshop and the recent one are part of WBI’s Sustainable Development division’s ongoing work to build capacity for social accountability approaches such as the PETS.  These efforts are part of a larger focus on demand-side initiatives for good governance.  

The course introduced the concept and methodology of a PETS and presented the specific implementation strategy for the PETS in Ghana.  IIEP, which is based in Paris and is part of UNESCO, has worked extensively in combating corruption in education and are experts on the PETS methodology.  Through the week, IIEP presented every angle of undertaking a PETS, with presentations, discussions and hands-on exercises covering: financial decision-making, statistical sampling, questionnaire design, data collection, analysis and information dissemination.   

The PETS Steering Committee, responsible for implementing the PETS, presented the aims and implementation strategy of the Ghana PETS and detailed what specifically will be tracked.  The SC also presented the models of financial flows for the health and education sectors, which are a critical starting point for PETS as a framework for understanding how funds should move to front-line service providers.  The participants probed the assumptions of the frameworks and the questionnaires from their district-level perspectives, not only to learn about the PETS implementation, but also to help the Steering Committee refine them.

The Steering Committee had originally planned a workshop to introduce the PETS in Ghana to district officials.  By partnering with WBI and IIEP, the workshop grew not only to cover the PETS in Ghana but all aspects of the PETS methodology.  With a deeper understanding of the PETS, district directors can facilitate the collection of data for the PETS.    

It is expected that this knowledge sharing will improve participation in the PETS and hence data collection, accuracy and usefulness.  The directors should counsel health and education workers in their districts, helping to allay fears of an audit or being accused of corruption.  District directors can diffuse the fears of an audit by explaining how the information collected will be used, and how it can benefit the district.  The PETS Steering Committee will begin data collection in the districts in May, following the workshop.    

Beyond facilitating data collection, the workshop built ownership of the PETS process among the district officials, which should yield benefits beyond the data collection phase of the PETS into the reporting and information dissemination phases.  As the workshop dealt with the importance of translating the PETS results from data into concrete policy, the importance of wide dissemination and involvement of many stakeholders is key.  By building ownership of the process, the district officials that attended this workshop will be valuable advocates for the PETS throughout the process. 

IIEP: http://www.unesco.org/iiep/eng/focus/etico/etico4.html

WBI Urban and Local Government: http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/urban

Contributed by Drew Harton and Mary McNeil (WBISD).