This technical note examines the use of indirect methods in a taxpayer audit. Indirect methods involve the determination of tax liabilities through an analysis of a taxpayer’s financial affairs utilizing information from a range of sources beyond the taxpayer’s declaration and formal books...

At an informal Board meeting in January, there was broad support for removing the current blanket prohibition on the provision of non-audit-related consulting services by the Fund's external audit firm and replacing it with a blacklist approach, subject to robust safeguards to ensure the...

This technical note on strategic issues in Development Bank (DB) reform for Mexico examines advances in the area of DB and funds in 2000–05. There have been significant but uneven changes in the institutional setting, instruments, transparency of subsidies, and performance behavior of DBs...

This technical note explores the reasons for a comparatively high interest rate spread in Kazakhstan in the context of competition in the banking sector. In spite of significant gains in efficiency made in recent years, operational costs and provisioning for loan losses remain high compared with...

This Annual Progress Report reviews the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Economic and Social Plan for 2007 for Mozambique. The report presents the new simplified structure adopted in the Review of the First Half of 2007. In the international context, the evolution of the international...

This paper presents the Joint Staff Advisory Note on Guinea-Bissau’s Second National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP II) covering 2011–15. The PRSP II, adopted by the government in July 2011, provides the framework for the implementation of a comprehensive strategy aimed at...

The Union of the Comoros’s Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRGS) paper reports that the government’s macroeconomic objectives under the PRGS framework entail preserving major economic equilibria. To increase control over government spending, the government intends to reduce the...

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) prepared by the Burkinabè government forms the principal benchmark for all development actors, and reaffirms the urgency of attacking poverty from a structural perspective. It is the primary tool for coordination of all interventions and of public aid...

This strategic paper discusses Ethiopia’s growth and transformation plan (GTP) for the periods 2010/2011 and 2014/2015. The Ethiopian government’s main development agenda has been poverty eradication. The government has designed, and is implementing, strategies, policies, and plans...

This paper reviews the Annual Progress Report (APR) on Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) on Benin. The APR presents an overview of the implementation of the strategy addressing in turn the new vision of development in Benin, the major projects initiated for the creation of national wealth...