New development: Lessons and recommendations from South Korea’s experiences with integrated financial management information systems

ABSTRACT

The South Korean government has been reforming its public expenditure management system since 2004. During this time, South Korea adopted new budgeting processes (for example mid-term expenditure framework, top-down budgeting, performance-based budgeting) and developed a new integrated financial information management system. In the course of implementing these reforms, South Korea has important insights and lessons to share with developing countries.

IMPACT

South Korea may have valuable lessons for developing countries that want to create an advanced financial information system. Developing countries often use the World Bank and the IMF’s ODA (official development assistance) to build an IFMIS. However, South Korea's second-generation DBAS is an alternative to consider and pilot. Governments adopting the South Korean model can specify particular subsets of IFMIS modules that fit their particular needs and budget systems, and a fully functioning adaptation can be assembled quickly and effectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Budgeting process
• digital budget and accounting system (DBAS)
• fiscal reform
• integrated financial information management system (IFMIS)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID

Seong-ho Jeong http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4301-304X