Umbrella Themes Obscure Real Problems: An Appraisal of Recent Efforts to Improve Financial Management

Financial management in public bodies has been going through several changes either as a part of improvement of public management or because of specific attention to the process of stewardship of public money. As an integral part of these efforts, now known as new public management philosophy, several measures have been and are being taken by industrial and developing countries to develop general institutions as well as financial management machinery Meanwhile, the objectives sought to be served by financial management have grown substantially. This article formulates an analytical framework to assess the adequacy of the existing financial management systems and reaches the conclusion that the new public management philosophy can at best serve only a few of the specified objectives. The changing portfolio of public expenditures requires that more attention needs to be paid to the details and hitherto neglected high-risk areas.