- _Medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) document_ . The MTEF document is a framework for integrating fiscal policy and budgeting over the medium term by linking a system of aggregate fiscal forecasting to a disciplined process for the maintenance of detailed medium-term ministerial budget estimates that reflect current government policies. Forward estimates of expenditures become the basis of budget negotiations in the years following the budget, and these estimates are reconciled with final outcomes in fiscal outcome reports.

Table 3.1 provides a tentative list of the national and international institutions from which to gather fiscal documents.

**Table 3.1  Indicative checklist of data sources and documents**

|Source|Key documents|
|---|---|
|Ministry of Finance or equivalent,<br>the Central Planning Unit or equivalent|Central government budgets (including approved budget, release and<br>actual) and budget speech.|
|Central Planning Units or local governments|Local government budgets (either consolidated total or three largest<br>authorities).|
|Ministry of Finance, Central Planning Units, SOEs, regulators, office<br>of the comptroller, and/or line ministries|Annual reports of SOEs and special budgetary funds.<br>Financial accounts (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow<br>statement).|
|Ministry of Finance, Central Planning Units, SOEs, and/or line<br>ministries|List of ongoing investment projects in infrastructure (current).|
|Ministry of Finance and/or Central Planning Units|Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) document.|
|Ministry of Finance|Relevant acts or laws relating to public financial management.|
|World Bank|Country Financial Accountability Assessment (CFAA).|
|International Monetary Fund|Fiscal transparency—Report on Observation of Standards and Codes.|
|International Monetary Fund|Recent economic developments.|
|_Source:Authors’elaboration_.<br>_Note:_Ministry of Finance = Ministry of Finance; SOEs = state-owned e|nterprises.|

# Framing the scope of fiscal data

The data collection process for the fiscal component is divided into a number of parts:

- _National level._ There are two templates that support the collection of fiscal-related data at the national level. Quantitative variables related to the overall budget and basic macroeconomic indicators are collected following template 8. Template 9 should be filled in for the central government only. The best sources for this information are the ministry of finance, ministry of planning, and the budget offices of the parliament.

- _Government level._ Budgetary flows are collected for the central government and local governments separately following fiscal data template 10. This template should be filled in _separately_ for the different stages of the budget (estimates, releases, and actual expenditures) and, in the case of dual budgets, for each budget (development and recurrent). For example, in the case of Uganda‘s central government, which uses a dual budget, this template should be used six times for each year of data collected: development budget estimates, development budget releases, development budget actuals, recurrent budget estimates, recurrent budget releases, and recurrent

34