The International Handbook of Public Financial Management

The Handbook is a virtual encyclopedia of public financial management, written by topmost experts, many with a background in the IMF and World Bank. It provides the first comprehensive guide to the subject that has been published in more than ten years. The book is aimed at a broad audience of academics/students, government officials, development agencies and practitioners. It covers both bread-and-butter topics such as the macroeconomic and legal framework for budgeting, budget preparation and execution, procurement, accounting, reporting, audit and oversight, as well as specialist subjects such as government payroll systems, local government finance, fiscal transparency, the management of fiscal risks, sovereign wealth funds, the management of state-owned enterprises, and political economy aspects of budgeting. The book sets out numerous examples and case studies describing good practice in public financial management, and is highly relevant for use in both advanced and developing countries.

Richard Allen is an economist and public finance expert. He is currently working as a consultant with the World Bank. Richard was a senior official of the U.K. Ministry of Finance (H.M. Treasury) until 1995. Subsequently, he worked with the OECD in Paris, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, and the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department. Richard is the co-editor of a standard reference book on Managing Public Expenditure: a Reference Book for Transition Countries, OECD, 2001--and several other books and articles on public financial management. He has advised governments in more than 50 countries on strengthening their budget systems and public finances.

Richard Hemming is an economist and fiscal policy expert with wide-ranging industrial and developing country experience. He is currently Visiting Professor at the Duke Center for International Development, and a consultant for the World Bank. He worked for 24 years in the IMF, and was Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department until August 2008. Prior to joining the IMF, Richard worked at the OECD and, before that, was a researcher at the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London, and a university lecturer in the U.K. and Australia. He has published widely on tax, social security, public expenditure and other fiscal issues.

Barry Potter is an economist and public finance expert with wide ranging experience in the U.K. government, consulting and the IMF. He was a senior official in the U.K. Cabinet Office and H.M. Treasury in the 1980s, and Private Secretary to the British Prime Minister (Mrs. Thatcher) from 1990-1992. Subsequently, Barry worked in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF, where he was Division Chief for Public Financial Management, later becoming Director of the Fund’s Office of Budget and Planning in 2001, and the IMF’s Special Representative to the United Nations in 2007. He is the author (with Jack Diamond) of Guidelines for Public Expenditure Management, International Monetary Fund, 1999, and several other publications.