Case Studies
This chapter provides a high-level overview of the crisis budgeting tools used by Colombia, Mongolia, and Seychelles in response to the COVID-19 pandemic between December 2019 and June 2021. The countries studied were selected based on: (i) the availability of PEFA assessments; (ii) the extent to which they demonstrated robust PFM performance based on their PEFA scores in areas deemed most relevant to a crisis response; (iii) the availability of data on their crisis management outcomes (i.e., vaccination rates); and (iv) geographic diversity. The readiness of these countries’ PFM systems to respond to crises is explored using their latest available PEFA assessments. The section then presents the crisis response measures taken by each country, the PFM response, the accountability measures put in place, and the key impacts. Each case study provides important lessons on how PFM systems can respond to crises.
Although the PEFA framework was not specifically designed to assess the performance of PFM outside of normal circumstances, the narrative of each assessment provides valuable insights into the robustness (and indirectly, the flexibility) of certain aspects of the PFM system that are relevant to any crisis response. For example, PEFA assessments describe a country’s rules for in-year budget adjustments (PI-18.4), the efficiency of their cash management procedures (PI-21.1), and the transparency of public spending. The latter aspect includes information on the extent to which governments provide the public with timely access to procurement information (24.3) and fiscal information through interim financial reports (PI-28). Most PEFA indicators have inbuilt mechanisms to ensure that one abnormal year as an exception does not affect their overall assessment and score. However, the in-depth description of these PFM components may offer insights into the strength of a country’s PFM system to ensure flexible, efficient, and transparent responses to crises.
Colombia
Tempering Budget Flexibility with Crisis Accountability
Key country statistics
gdp per capita
$6.2
K
population
51
M
Govt Debt
64.6
%
Covid vaccine rate
70.7
%
covid deaths
140
K
Colombia’s PFM Profile
The readiness of Colombia’s PFM system to manage the country’s fiscal response to crises was explored using the findings of its 2016 PEFA assessment. The assessment was performed using the 2016 PEFA methodology and covered the fiscal years 2012, 2013, and 2014. Generally, Colombia’s PFM system was found to be reasonably aligned with international standards and good practices. In particular, 24 of the 31 PEFA indicators (77.4%) scored between A and C+. The pillars that obtained the best scores are Pillar I “Budget Reliability” (PI-1 to PI-3), Pillar III “Management of Assets and Liabilities” (PI-10 to PI-13), and Pillar IV “Policy-Based Fiscal Strategy and Budgeting” (PI-14 to PI-18). In these cases, most indicator scores ranged from A to B, signifying them as strengths of the PFM system in Colombia.
Findings of the latest PEFA assessment in Colombia highlight the following key strengths that may support response to crises.
“I consider this the biggest challenge that we have faced as humanity maybe after the Second World War. And we have tried to accommodate a lot of measures so that we protect life, so that we protect the health care system, but at the same time we define a route so that we recover productive life and we can, as a society, adapt and adopt the right measures to face COVID-19.”
– President Iván Duque, Colombia
Colombia’s PFM response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Key Messages
1. Colombia utilized stabilization funds and flexible budget reprioritization mechanisms to help mitigate the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawdowns from a range of funding sources—including the National Emergency Mitigation Fund, National Guarantees Fund, and Occupational Risk Fund—were particularly helpful in closing the financing gaps. Notably, the government used transparent in-year adjustments to appropriate these stabilization funds for unforeseen contingencies and prioritized COVID-19 emergency spending. The availability and proper management of these resources assisted crisis management by serving as fiscal buffers and helping to build the resilience of the PFM system.
2. Colombia enhanced its fiscal management of the pandemic by making all COVID-19 expenditure publicly available. Full disclosure of crisis spending supported public trust and service delivery by enabling citizens to evaluate the extent to which they were receiving the services for which resources were allocated and spent.
3. Colombia’s experience demonstrates that civil society can play a pivotal role in effectively using fiscal transparency to ensure public accountability. The active involvement of civil society turned the spotlight on government procurement during the crisis. This experience underscored the importance of sharing fiscal information with the public and demonstrated how doing so can help hold public officials accountable.
Crisis Timeline
2020
End-January
Monitoring and evaluation mechanisms and the Unified Command Post are established to coordinate a unified public response to COVID-19.
2020
March 6
The first case of COVID-19 in Colombia is identified.
2020
March 16
The government imposes a national quarantine and lock-down.
2020
March 16
A 0% percent tariff is applied on all products needed for the management of COVID-19 in Colombia (Decree 410 of 2020).
2020
March 17
The President declares a State of Economic, Social and Ecological Emergency (Decree 417 of 2020).
2020
March 19
Twenty-four crucial items are exempted from sales tax/VAT, such as vital signs monitor, secretion aspirator, defibrillator, oxygen concentrator, and hospital bed, pediatric hospital bed (Decree 438 of 2020).
2020
March 20
Emergency procurement procedures are specified, including the suspension of contractor selection processes, direct contracting, and use of the Revolving Fund of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to contract foreign entities to address issues arising from the pandemic (Decree 440 of 2020).
2020
April 4
Social transfers are implemented through the Solidarity Income programme to support households in poverty and vulnerable situations (Decree 518 of 2020).
2020
April 13
A list of biomedical equipment, furniture, medical devices, protection equipment, and medicines is authorized for acquisition on the international market following private enterprise law instead of public procurement rules (Decree 544 of 2020).
2020
April 15
A sub-account for the emergency mitigation of COVID-19, of the National Fund for Disaster Risk Management, is created (Decree 444 of 2020).
2020
April 15
80% of the resources of the Occupational Risk Fund ($412.7 billion pesos or US$111.8 million) is transferred to the National Emergency Mitigation Fund as a loan payable over 10 fiscal periods at a 0% interest rate (Decree 552 of 2020).
2020
April 15
A solidarity tax for COVID-19 is implemented, applicable from May 1, 2020 to July 31, 2020 and payable by public servants, service providers or mega pensions with incomes greater than $10 million pesos (Decree 568 of 2020).
2020
May 14
The Central Bank of Colombia exchanges public debt instruments (debt swap) with the national government for $1,766 billion pesos at market prices. The process involves an exchange of instruments with maturities up to 2021 for instruments with longer maturities.
2020
December
The Government published its Budget Execution Report on the General Budget of the Nation for the fiscal year 2020 showing that $44.396 billion pesos was the amount of the Covid-19 Emergency budget.
2021
June 15
The fiscal rule is suspended for a duration of two years by the Fiscal Rule Advisory Committee (CCRF) to exclusively combat the pandemic.
2021
June 30
Approximately 13% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Crisis Revenue
The financing gap in May 2020 was US$5.1 billion. The gap rose to US$12.7 billion under an adverse scenario at the time of the Flexible Credit Line augmentation request.
External Loans
$950
M
world bank
$10.8
B
IMF
$350
M
CAF Development Bank
Internal Loans
$2.8
B
National Emergency Mitigation Fund
Budget Response
The Government of Colombia used several crisis budgeting tools to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Overall, the country’s private and public external financing needs were approximately 16.7% of GDP or US$45.3 billion in 2020.
The appropriated budget was increased in April 2020 through Decree 572 of 2020 which provided additional expenditure (mandatory investment measure) of $9811.3 million pesos to support the National Emergency Mitigation Fund (FOME) from the Special Funds of the Nation.
A transfer of 80% of the resources of the Occupational Risk Fund to the National Emergency Mitigation Fund was authorized (Decree 552 of 2020).
The National Emergency Mitigation Fund was used to finance emergency spending. Initially, approximately 2.8% of GDP was earmarked.
An amount of $773 million pesos was allocated.
Additional Crisis Measures
1. Emergency Procurement: Rules of public procurement were suspended to allow private law to apply to all medical equipment needed to address the state of sanitary emergency. Notably, all procurement contracts had to be published in the Public Procurement Electronic System.
2. Multi-sectorial coordination: The government established a Unified Command Post to facilitate quick and unified public responses to COVID-19. The team consisted of representatives of the ministerial cabinet, national emergency entities, the Pan American Health Organization, United Nations agencies, academia, and the private sector.
3. Fiscal Rules: On June 15, 2021, Colombia suspended its fiscal rules for a duration of two years to allow for flexibility in anticipation of a fiscal deficit exceeding 8%.
4. Sub-accounts: The government created the National Fund for Disaster Risk Management sub-account to finance the emergency mitigation of COVID-19. The fund was privately managed and used to consolidate state resources and donations from international and private partners to finance pandemic-related expenditures.
5. Grants: Grants accounted for 1.6% of GDP in 2020 and were allocated to support vulnerable households (1.0% of GDP), firms, and employment (0.6% of GDP).
6. Guarantees: On April 6, 2020, the government implemented a 16-trillion-peso guarantee program backed by the National Guarantee Fund for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
7. Risk sharing: Colombia was the first Latin America country to implement quantitative easing as a deliberate policy instrument to inject liquidity into the economy to combat the pandemic. The quantitative easing aligned with the policy of maintaining a low benchmark interest rate of 1.75% from September 2020 through to October 2021. The Central Bank also facilitated a debt swap with the government for instruments that had a longer maturity, provided credit facilities to businesses, and paid over profits/financial distributions to the Ministry of Finance.
COVID-19 Impact
Data on COVID-19 vaccinations, cases, and deaths were sourced from Our World in Data. Data on public debt was sourced from the IMF.
Mongolia
Coordinating Early Crisis Response
Key country statistics
gdp per capita
$4.4
K
population
3.3
M
Govt Debt
94.6
%
Covid vaccine rate
66.4
%
covid deaths
2.1
K
Mongolia’s PFM Profile
The readiness of Mongolia’s PFM system to manage the country’s fiscal response to crises was explored using the findings of its 2021 PEFA assessment. The assessment was performed using the 2016 PEFA methodology and covered the fiscal years 2018, 2019, and 2020. Generally, Mongolia achieved better than basic levels of performance in most aspects of PFM. In particular, 26 of the 31 indicators (83.9%) scored between A and C+. The pillars that obtained the best scores are Pillar IV “Policy-Based Fiscal Strategy and Budgeting”, Pillar V “Predictability and Control in Budget Execution”, and Pillar VII “External Scrutiny and Audit”. In these cases, most indicator scores ranged from A to B, suggesting that these are areas of strength in Mongolia’s PFM system.
The following is an assessment of the readiness of Mongolia’s PFM system to ensure efficient liquidity management and timely fund disbursement when responding to crises based on the findings of the country’s 2021 PEFA assessment.
“Three factors have helped Mongolia to date…Firstly, Mongolia has a long history of continuously evolving its systems to respond to health challenges. Secondly, COVID-19 cases were relatively low for the first 10 months of the pandemic, allowing the country to prepare. Finally, existing capacity in Mongolia’s local family and soum (district) health centres provided public health caste, supported innovative home-based care, and maintained the continuity of essential services, allowing hospitals to devote resources to patients who were severely or critically ill”
– Dr Sergey Diorditsa, WHO Representative to Mongolia
Mongolia’s PFM response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Key Messages
1. The Government of Mongolia used multiple tools to tackle the crisis. These included grants, loans, (credit) guarantees, and Central Bank monetary policies, which helped the country meet its financing gap and provide enhanced social protection. Also, the temporary suspension of fiscal rules played a key role in enabling the government to finance emergency policy measures.
2. Mongolian authorities acted decisively but also early and quickly. The creation of a multi-sectorial coordination body, declaration of a state of high alert even before the first confirmed case of COVID-19, and allocation for additional health spending through the Government Reserve Fund aided the pandemic response.
3. The government balanced the fiscal support provided with medium-term fiscal sustainability, especially public debt sustainability. The country’s public debt increased and there was also a reversion to some policy measures that were being reduced or eliminated before the crisis, including Bank of Mongolia (BOM) quasi-fiscal activities.
Crisis Timeline
2020
January 6
A multi-sectoral incident management team is established. The team consisted of over 70 officials from 21 agencies covering health, transportation, border control, law enforcement, state administration, emergency management, communications, information, and others who worked in unison to contain the potential spread of the virus.
2020
January
The State Emergency Committee is activated under the 2017 Disaster Protection Law.
2020
January 24
The Government of Mongolia, through its State Emergency Commission, ordered the closure of all formal and non-formal educational institutions, the prohibition of public events, and limitations on domestic and international travel.
2020
February 13
The Government of Mongolia passed a resolution, tasking the Authority for Fair Competition and Consumer Protection (AFCCP) to take measures to prevent and combat excessive pricing, the creation of artificial scarcity, misleading advertisements, commodity overstock, and speculation in an emergency situation.
2020
February 13
State of High Alert is declared.
2020
February 19
MNT17 billion (0.04% of GDP) of additional health spending is approved and allocated to epidemic prevention and control, acquisition of medical supplies and medical staff overtime salaries. This measure is financed by the Government Reserve Fund.
2020
March 10
The Mongolian authorities announced the first confirmed case of COVID-19. The government bans all international flights and entry by foreigners.
2020
March 27
A comprehensive set of fiscal measures is adopted to protect vulnerable households and businesses and to support the economy. These include: (i) tax exemptions on several imported food and medical items; (ii) an increase in child allowance and unemployment benefits; (iii) exemptions on corporate income tax (CIT), personal income tax (PIT), and social security contributions until the end of September 2020; and (iv) an increase in credit guarantees to SMEs and soft loans from the development bank to cashmere producers.
2020
April 29
The State Great Khural, Mongolia’s unicameral parliament, adopts a law to prevent the spread of the virus and mitigate its socio-economic impact (Law on Prevention, Combat and Reduction of Social and Economic Impacts of COVID-19). The law authorizes the government to regulate quarantines, traffic movements, and other public safety measures to stop the spread of the virus.
2020
May 6
A second package of fiscal measures (amounting to roughly 2% of GDP) is announced to protect vulnerable groups. These include: (i) a further increase in child allowance benefits; (ii) a scale-up of the food stamp allowance; and (iii) an increase in social welfare pensions for the elderly, disabled, orphans, and single parents with more than four children.
2020
June 24
Parliamentary elections are held and the ruling party (Mongolian People’s Party or MPP) wins.
2020
August 5
The government announces the extension or modification of COVID-19 fiscal measures through the end of 2020. The modification of certain measures includes: (i) an increased food stamp allowance; (ii) increased social welfare pensions; and (iii) reduced social security contributions.
2020
August 28
A supplementary budget containing fiscal measures for responding to the crisis (amounting to about 7.5% of GDP in total including the previous measures) is approved by Parliament. The Parliament also approves an extension of the CIT exemption on SME business income and rent income as an amendment, and an exemption of customs duty and VAT on certain imported goods (medical).
2020
November 18
The government announces further extension of selected COVID-19 fiscal measures through end-June 2021 in response to the potential adverse effects of the country’s lockdown associated with domestic transmissions. These include: (i) the exemption of rent income tax; and (ii) the exemption from customs duties and VAT on certain imported goods.
2020
December 2
The government announces additional COVID-19 measures that include (i) MNT3 billion in financial support to selected provinces affected by domestic transmissions; (ii) the temporary exemption of tax penalties and charges on late payments; and (iii) coal briquette price subsidies to districts in the city of Ulaanbaatar.
2020
December 13
The government announces COVID-19 measures that will be financed by selected state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The measures include: (i) the temporary suspension of utility payments (electricity, heating, water, and waste disposal); (ii) payments to business entities and households; and (iii) a reduction in the price of coal briquettes by 75%.
2021
January
The Anti-Pandemic Law is extended until end-June 2021. As a result, the BOM’s quasi-fiscal operations, notably the subsidized mortgage program and concessional financing to gold miners, are also extended.
2021
February 10
The Prime Minister announces a three-year economic recovery plan for 2021—23, estimated at 5% of GDP and largely financed by the Bank of Mongolia.
2021
April 8
The government announces a cash handout of MNT300,000 per citizen (MNT1 trillion in total equivalent to 2.5% of GDP) to compensate the income loss associated with the renewed lockdown (support for employees).
2021
May 5
The government announced a bonus of MNT50,000 to individuals that are fully vaccinated.
2021
May 27
Parliament proposes an amendment to the Law on Social Insurance to repeal the 2-percentage-point increase in social insurance contributions implemented in January 2021. The reduction is to be implemented in July 2021 and the resulting additional financing needs (estimated at MNT94 billion for 2021) to be addressed under the Anti-Pandemic Law.
2021
June 28
The government announces a further extension of (1) the temporary increase in the child money allowance and (2) the waiving of utility (electricity, heating, water, and waste disposal) payments to end-December 2021.
2021
June 30
Approximately 52% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Crisis Revenue
Approximately 91.3% of Mongolia’s total public debt stock in 2020 was external. The financing gap in 2020 was US$2,741 million. Multilaterals provided almost US$1,000 million.
External Loans
$225
M
World Bank
$99
M
IMF
$335
M
Asian Development Bank
$100
M
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
$256
M
Identified bilateral support
Internal Loans
$1.7
B
People’s Bank of China
Budget Response
The government used crisis budgeting tools to satisfy its gross financing needs of approximately 24.8% of GDP, or US$2.741 billion, in 2020.
A supplementary budget was approved on August 28, 2020, and amounted to an additional 7.5% of GDP in measures.
Reallocations included US$1.4 million under an ADB-financed health sector operation and a US$1 million grant from the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Facility for procurement of medical equipment €680 thousand under the Strengthening Governance in Mongolia project funded by the European Union and the World Bank, was reprioritized to support the COVID-19 response; and US$24 million was repurposed from the ADB’s Credit Guarantee Fund.
The Government Reserve Fund provided an amount equivalent to 0.04% of GDP (MNT$17 billion) for COVID prevention and control, acquisition of medical supplies and medical staff overtime salaries. Additionally, SOEs finance subsidies for utility payments and coal briquettes through the following measures: temporary suspension of utilities payments (electricity, heating, water, and waste disposal); payments to business entities and households; and a reduction in the price of coal briquettes by 75%.
Additional Crisis Measures
1. Emergency Procurement: The government allocated US$4.3 million from the state budget for the procurement of medical equipment.
2. Coordination: The government established a multi-sectoral incident management team, with support from the WHO. The team consisted of more than 70 officials from 21 agencies covering health, transportation, border control, law enforcement, state administration, emergency management, communications, information and more working in unison to contain the potential spread of the disease.
3. Lockdown measures: The State Great Khural enacted a law to prevent the spread of the virus and mitigate its socioeconomic impact (Law on Prevention, Combat and Reduction of Social and Economic Impacts of the COVID-19).
4. Inflation control: The government passed a resolution to prevent and combat excessive pricing, the creation of artificial scarcity, misleading advertisements, commodity overstock and speculation in an emergency situation. This action helped to control inflation and demonstrated the government’s commitment to integrity and value for money as elements of crisis management.
5. Grants: Fiscal measures, amounting to approximately 2% of GDP in 2020 and 2.5% of GDP in 2021 were approved by the State Great Khural to protect vulnerable groups.
6. Guarantees: An increase in credit guarantees to SMEs – guarantees to support vulnerable business amounted to US$39 million including US$24 million repurposed from the ADB’s Credit Guarantee Fund.
7. Quasi-fiscal operations: In accordance with the Anti-Pandemic Law, the BOM implemented several unconventional measures to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic. These included an SOE-issued bond purchase to compensate banks’ revenue shortfalls caused by the cancellation of the pension-backed loan program in January 2020, short-term concessional financing to gold miners, and a temporary resumption of the subsidized mortgage program which ended at end-2019. At end-December 2020, these unconventional quasi-fiscal operations amounted to MNT825 billion (2% of GDP). The government’s stimulus package for 2021 was estimated at 5% of GDP and financed mainly by the BOM.
Crisis Accountability
Audit
The government committed to audit and publish COVID-19 expenditures by June 2021.
Fiscal transparency
The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has a citizen’s budget webpage that aims to promote fiscal transparency. There is a dedicated COVID tab showing spending information.110 Also, the government published COVID-19-related procurement contracts on the MOF website. This includes, among other information, the companies that were awarded contracts.
COVID-19 Impact
Data on COVID-19 vaccinations, cases, and deaths were sourced from Our World in Data. Data on public debt was sourced from the IMF.
Seychelles
Expediting Financing for Crisis Response
Key country statistics
gdp per capita
$15
K
population
98
K
Govt Debt
72.5
%
Covid vaccine rate
82
%
covid deaths
167
Seychelles’ PFM Profile
The readiness of Seychelles’ PFM system to manage the country’s fiscal response to crises was explored using the findings of its 2017 PEFA assessment. The assessment was performed using the 2016 PEFA methodology and covered the fiscal years 2013, 2014, and 2015. About 23 out of 30 scored indicators scored at least C (77%). This is in line with international PFM trends. The pillars that obtained the best scores are Pillar I “Credibility of Fiscal Strategy and Budget”, Pillar II “Comprehensiveness and Transparency”, and Pillar VI “Accounting and Reporting”. These areas of PFM were particular robust in the Seychelles.
The following is an assessment of the readiness of Seychelles’ PFM system to maintain transparency in public finance while responding to crises based on the findings of the country’s 2017 PEFA assessment.
“In difficult times, we may discover new skills that we never knew we had, because we were in our comfort zones”
– Naddir Hassan, Minister of Finance, Economic Planning and Trade, Government of Seychelles
Seychelles’ PFM response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Key Messages
1. A range of crisis revenue and crisis budgeting tools helped the Seychelles to mitigate the impact of the crisis.
2. The quick establishment of decision-making mechanisms played a crucial role in enabling the government to expedite its fiscal response to the crisis.
3. Seychelles’ experience suggests that governments can safeguard public trust during crises by maintaining or establishing accountability mechanisms that ensure that emergency spending is reported, transparent, and audited.
Crisis Timeline
2020
March 20
Public Health Emergency is declared.
2020
April 7
A supplementary budget is passed to reprioritize spending, including by reducing travel and entertainment budgets and increasing allocations for health expenditure (by US$316,000) and a Contingency vote (by USD$374,000) for the procurement of medicine and equipment.
2020
May 25
Transparency and accountability mechanisms are implemented, including monthly reports of emergency spending on the wage subsidies, health and social spending to the Finance and Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly and an annual audit of COVID-19 spending by the Auditor General.
2020
June 29
The African Development Bank (AfDB) provides US$10 million for Seychelles.
2020
July 1
A credit facility of SCR500 million is established to assist commercial banks with emergency relief measures to assist businesses affected by COVID-19.
2020
July
A relief scheme of SCR10 million provides support to more than 4,000 beneficiaries (whereas prior to COVID-19, some 1,000 benefited).
2020
July
Seychelles Employment Transition Scheme (SETS) allows persons made redundant by COVID-19 to re-skill and pursue another economic activity. This works in tandem with a wage subsidy.
2020
December 11
A second supplementary budget is passed to finance COVID-19-related expenses, including social programs, subsidies to business organizations, and student allowances that were impacted by depreciation.
2021
January 10
Seychelles is the first African country to launch a vaccination campaign.
2021
March 2
The Central Bank of Seychelles and the Seychelles Bankers Association launches a SCR750 thousand Credit Line Facility to provide relief to large private enterprises for a period of six months. The government pledges to guarantee 50% of up to SCR$750 thousand under the facility.
2021
June 30
Approximately 68% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Crisis Revenue
What did the government do to raise additional revenue during the crisis?
External Loans
$7
M
world bank
$47
M
world bank
$31
M
IMF
$10
M
AfDB
Internal Loans
2.25
%
Government securities
Budget Response
The first supplementary budget of SCR1.2 billion was adopted on April 7, 2020, and increased expenditure by 12.4% over the 2020 approved budget of SCR9.3 billion to SCR10.4 billion. The second supplementary budget was adopted on December 11, 2020, Act 30 – Supplementary Appropriation Act 2020 and increased by SCR1.1 billion or an additional 12.3% above the approved budget for 2020.
The National Disaster Relief Fund was established in 2013 and receives contributions for the COVID-19 emergency.
SCR105 thousand (compared with the SCR45 thousand in the original budget and an average of SCR48 thousand for fiscal years 2018 and 2019).
Additional Crisis Measures
1. Emergency procurement: The government employed pooled public procurement through the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and SIDS Pooled Procurement for COVID-19 vaccines. Also, Section 65 of Act 33 of 2008, the Emergency Procurement Act, enables the government to purchase goods, works or services from a single supplier without competition under emergency circumstances.
2. Human resource actions: Emergency recruitment of health care workers
3. Social protection: Unemployment Relief Scheme of SCR10 million provided support to more than 4,000 as of July 2020 (whereas prior to COVID-19, some 1,000 benefited); and Grants to the Agency for Social Protection (SCR30 million) supported individuals in need and individuals operating businesses in the informal sector.
4. Business Stimulus: Small Business Support Fund launched to provide interest-free loans to small businesses impacted by COVID-19.
Crisis Accountability
transparency
Monthly reports on emergency spending to the Finance and Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.
Audits
The Seychelles has a top-ranking Office of the Auditor General. It remained active during the pandemic, reviewing emergency expenditures incurred in response to COVID-19 pandemic during 2020. Emergency procurement processes were also reviewed, and reports are made public.
COVID-19 Impact
Data on COVID-19 vaccinations, cases, and deaths were sourced from Our World in Data. Data on public debt was sourced from the IMF.