| TERM | DEFINITION |
|---|---|
| Service delivery |
Programs or services that are provided either to the general public or to specifically targeted groups of citizens, either fully or partially using government resources. This includes services such as education and training, health care, social and community support, policing, road construction and maintenance, agricultural support, water and sanitation, and other services. It excludes those services provided on a commercial basis through public corporations. It also excludes policy functions, internal administration, and purely regulatory functions undertaken by the government, although performance data for these activities may be captured for internal management purposes. It also excludes defense and national security. |
| Service delivery unit | Unit that is delivering “frontline” services directly to citizens and businesses such as schools, health care clinics and hospitals, local police departments and agricultural extension units. |
| Small revenue payers | Individuals and small businesses with simple revenue circumstances that generally do not require detailed knowledge of revenue or accounting provisions. |
| Social contributions | Social security contributions and other social contributions. Social contributions are actual or imputed revenue receivable by social insurance schemes to make provision for social insurance benefits payable. Social contributions will be considered for scoring PI-3, if they are fully covered by the main budget, otherwise they will be considered as extrabudgetary revenue. |
| Social security contributions | Actual revenue receivable by social security schemes organized and operated by government units, for the benefit of the contributors to the scheme. It consists of employee contributions, employer contributions, self-employed or non-employed contributions, and unallocated contributions. |
| Stock of arrears | Total value of arrears. |
| Structured and systematic approach | Approach which has clearly documented procedures and steps, is methodical and regularly repeatable. |
| Subnational government | Any level of government below the national level (state/provincial or regional and local), provided these entities have the authority to own assets, incur liabilities, and/or engage in transactions in their own right. The right to borrow is not a requirement for treatment as a subnational government in the PEFA Framework. |
| Suspense accounts | Accounts in the government’s general ledger which are used to record items temporarily before allocation to the correct or final account. |
| Systematically (about follow up on recommendations) | Where a system for tracking recommendations exists and it is used to record recommendations and to record action or lack of action taken on recommendations, and where for every recommendation, the executive and the legislature is notified during subsequent hearings whether recommendations have or have not been implemented. |
| Tax expenditure | Revenue foregone due to preferential tax treatments such as exemptions, deductions, credits, tax breaks, etc. |
PEFA Handbook Volume 1: The PEFA Assessment Process – Planning, Managing and Using PEFA
