ST. LUCIA Effective institutions and systems of public financial management How Disaster Resilient is (PFM) play a critical role in the preparation and response to St. Lucia’s Public Financial disasters. Strong PFM ties together often scarce available resources with their appropriate and sustainable use to ensure Management? that governments can function reasonably well even in times of disasters. Figure 1: Extent to which disaster resilience and recovery considerations are integrated into key PFM functions and processes. ST. Lucia Regional Average Regional Frontier Full F Advanced A Moderate M Basic B Low L PFM Resource Gender Sensitive Expenditure Information Procurement Public Rules and Planning Resource Tracking Systems and Procedures Investment Regulations Allocation Record Keeping Management Institutional Budget Expenditure Auditing Procurement Procurement Public Asset Arrangements Appropriation Controls Practices Planning Templates and Management for PFM Documents NOTE: The assessment is based on the “Disaster Resilience systems by pinpointing critical PFM policies, practices, foundations; budget appropriation arrangements; financial and Recovery Public Financial Management Review”, and procedures that can be strengthened to improve management controls; procurement arrangements, and developed by the World Bank Group’s Governance Global a government’s capability to respond more efficiently public investment and asset management. Countries Practice, Latin America and Caribbean Team in 2019. It and effectively to disasters, without loss of the integrity assessed in the sample include Antigua and Barbuda, is an analytical instrument that seeks to help countries and accountability. The DRR-PFM review focuses on five Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, and build resilient, responsive public financial management key elements of the PFM system: legal and institutional St. Vincent and the Grenadines. KEY STRENGTHS LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK BUDGET APPROPRIATION • Adequate segregation of financial management • Well-documented protocols for declaring • Access to a reasonably good mix of financing duties to minimize conflicts of interest. events that have implications for sources to respond to disaster risks of high, • Strong basis to track disaster spending at the accelerated public spending. medium, and low severity. sub-program and activity levels. • Well organized and coordinated • Sufficient budget flexibility to reallocate, institutional arrangements for disaster supplement, or advance approved provisions PUBLIC PROCUREMENT response and financing. for unforeseen disaster expenditures. • Flexibility in procurement rules that allows for expedited contracting. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CONTROLS • Clear protocols to govern the accounting and reporting of disaster-related expenditures. • Resilient information systems and data recovery protocols. KEY CHALLENGES OPPORTUNITIES LEGAL AND INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK Unclear operating rules and definitions for PFM in emergencies, leading to Provision of specific support for disaster response in PFM legislation. disparate budget reallocation. Public finance officers are not adequately trained or knowledgeable on Development of emergency PFM education and updates to government response management to natural disasters. continuity, and disaster recovery plans and operating procedures. BUDGET APPROPRIATION No guidelines on how much, between what categories, and in what Interim finance procedures in place and in accordance with the sequence adjustments to the budget can be done for emergency situations. provisions of emergency-related legislations. Inclusiveness and gender-sensitive considerations are absent in the Inclusiveness and gender-sensitive considerations are incorporated in allocation of resources for disaster response. the allocation of resources for disaster response. FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT CONTROLS Insufficient external and parliamentary audit scrutiny and no follow Increase in the frequency of audits, tracking implementation of audit through to ensure corrective actions are implemented. recommendations, and strengthened oversight by the legislature. Weaknesses in the design of the data center and inadequate off-site Policy created to guide the management of critical IT systems and backups expose vital government information to the risk of loss. data registers; and to enhance resilience of data centers. PUBLIC PROCUREMENT Inadequate contract oversight and weak internal controls for vendor Creation and implementation of internal control plan for contract registration. management. Lack of procurement planning and limited use of data and analytics to Procurement policies for disasters and strengthened sourcing inform and optimize purchasing decisions proactively. strategies. PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND ASSET MANAGEMENT Climate-informed selection criteria are not systematically applied in pre- Formal mechanisms established and documented for the appraisal, appraisal of public investment projects. selection, and approval of public investments.