Questionnaire of Fiscal Institutions

This questionnaire is designed to gather basic information on fiscal institutions and practices as a basis for review of a country's fiscal management system in relation to the revised Code of Good Practices on Fiscal Transparency (fiscal transparency code). The questionnaire is available in seven languages. Completion of this questionnaire is an important first step in the preparation of a fiscal module of a Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC). However, it is also envisaged that the data should be of general assistance for a range of fiscal management diagnoses by international or bilateral agencies, and by the government itself—including self-assessment against the fiscal transparency code.

To assist the assessment, it is important to provide as much supporting documentation as possible. Part A of the questionnaire provides a general listing of documents and laws that will be most relevant to each module of the questionnaire. Each module in Part B of the questionnaire is focused on specific institutional features of fiscal management. These modules can be distributed to the relevant organizations within each country responsible for management and reporting in that area. However, in preparation for a fiscal ROSC, a single agency should be responsible for overall coordination of the response and ensuring consistency among sections. Full written responses are requested for all sequentially numbered questions.

All modules and subsections are designed to give information of relevance to specific fiscal transparency code practices. Accordingly, references are given to relevant sections of the fiscal transparency code for groups of questions (grouped under shaded headings). At appropriate points, references are also made to paragraphs of the Manual on Fiscal Transparency (the manual) or other relevant background documents, such as the Government Finance Statistics Manual, 2001 (GFSM 2001). More generally, the manual can be used to provide additional background for all sections of the code.

This questionnaire was redrafted in July 2007. Enquiries and comments regarding the questionnaire can be sent to IMF staff via (fisctran@imf.org).