It must be clearly understood that the reviews fit within an agreed fiscal strategy and are not treated as an opportunity to bid for additional funds. The scope of such a review does not always cover all departments, or necessarily all areas of expenditure within departments. The focus should be on the major areas of spending, including health and education expenditure. As far as possible, the reviews should draw on existing information and previous reviews or studies, rather than reinventing the wheel. Cautions are appropriate since improvements resulting from functional reviews can be very short term if they do not originate within a hard budget constraint.
Donors often soften hard budget constraints with aid additionality.
In such cases, functional reviews can become simple staffing exercises, with the focus on how existing functions can be carried out with fewer staff. Functional reviews in Kazakhstan in 1998-99 were effective, linking the reviews with a reform of the budget process. In Nicaragua structure and function diagnoses of 9 government agencies led to a program of emergency cuts and a new Executive Branch Organization law streamlining the central government. Thailand has embarked on functional reviews of its six economic ministries. These reviews have supported some re-engineering of processes in the Department of Commercial Registration of MOC and the Lands Department, as well as reforms in the Revenue Department, Customs Department, and Social Security Office.