Governance, Corruption and Public Financial Management

Abstract

Growing attention has been directed in recent years to the role of government. Governance in general and corruption in particular have been much discussed because of the way they affect, and are affected by, the role of government. Dictionaries generally define “governance” as government. Thus, good governance is good government. In recent writing, however, governance has taken on a more substantive, though still not precisely defined, meaning. Good governance is an essential part of a framework for economic and financial management which also includes: macroeconomic stability; commitment to social and economic equity; and the promotion of efficient institutions through structural reforms such as trade liberalization and domestic deregulation. Poor governance may result from factors such as incompetence, ignorance, lack of efficient institutions, the pursuit of economically inefficient ideologies, or misguided economic models. It is often linked to corruption and rent seeking. A good part of this paper will thus deal with corruption. However, it should be understood that corruption is not identical with poor governance, which extends well beyond corruption, although poor governance often leads to corruption and corruption is an important element of poor governance.