Economic Governance and Management Chapter 4 resources and abilities with the ICT export sectors and achieves optimal use of resources. 499. Mauritius would like to become a regional reference centre for promoting the ICT industry in sub-Saharan Africa. It hopes to do this through collaborative measures that will help to assist this industry and succeed in achieving economic progress in partner countries. However, the CRM believes that, to achieve its objectives, the strategy should be part and parcel of shared and harmonised regional integration policies that recommend partnerships. iii. Recommendations 500. The APR Panel recommends that the government continues to pursue its stabilisation efforts by: • • • • Developing a coherent macroeconomic framework based on its economic projections that are consistent with its political objectives and its investments and on the factors that promote economic and social development. [Government] Defining sector policies and operational action programmes that are consistent with its priorities and which are clear in their sequencing and cognisant of their implications. [Government] Promoting the effective participation of the whole of civil society, including trade unions and the grassroots population, in the process of developing economic and social policies in order to promote a more responsible partnership in their implementation and evaluation. [Government and civil society] Reforming parastatal enterprises to help them to clarify their objectives and roles and to transform them into real instruments for the government’s strategies, and, consequently, to correct the distortions that they impose on the budget and which affect all operations of the state. [Government] Objective 3: 198 Promote sound public financial management i. Summary of the CSAR 501. The CSAR analyses the procedures for preparing budgets, the origin of public resources, the composition of public expenditures, and the control institutions established to ensure transparent and efficient management of funds. The CSAR emphasises the management of SOEs particularly. Chapter 4 Economic Governance and Management 502. However, it does not analyse the institutional framework that guides actual management and its operations or the tools and mechanisms established to facilitate efficient management. 503. With regard to the procedures for preparing budgets, the CSAR mentions the two main budget management tools. These are the MTEF and the PBA. These were adopted in the context of the reforms initiated in 2003 for improving the efficiency of budget management, promoting financial productivity, improving the allocation of resources and improving the efficiency and quality of public services. The CSAR does not analyse the strengths and weaknesses of these tools, their effect on the quality of the policies they enforce, the capacity of administrators to implement them or the results achieved following their implementation. 504. With regard to resources, the CSAR mentions their composition without analysing them thoroughly. It highlights the legal reforms carried out to grant autonomy to the MRA. However, it does not analyse how well the MRA functions or how it collaborates with the other structures in financial administration. 505. Its analysis of public expenditure is also limited to descriptions. The report offers no analysis to help determine whether the expenditure mechanisms and polices help to achieve government objectives and increase the productivity of the expenditures. 506. The CSAR introduces the NAO, the main body for controlling the management of the national budget. However, the analysis does not mention other bodies like Parliament, the Public Procurement Unit and the FIU. All of these have roles to play to ensure that public resources are managed transparently. Besides, there is no critical analysis of the efficiency and output of the director of audit. 507. In its analysis of SOEs, the CSAR stresses their weight on public debt. However, it does not recall the objectives that led to their establishment or the results they achieved. The CSAR stigmatises the poor governance of these entities, since no transparent procedure was used to appoint their managers. ii. Findings of the CRM 508. Sound and transparent management of public finance depends on: (i) the relevance of the projections made on the basis of the economic 199