Analyses achievements and shortcomings of Nigerian National Plans from the Ten-Year Plan 1946-1955 to the Fifth National Development Plan 1988-1992.

This substantial treatment of budgeting in poor countries and discussion of the relationship between planning and budgeting covers over eighty nations and three-fourths of the worlds population. While there are many treatments of planning, the approach of this study is radically different. The authors argue that the requisites of comprehensive economic planning do not exist in poor countries, and that in the effort to create them, planners merge into the environment they have set out to change. Caiden and Wildavsky provide a unique and thorough examination of planning and budgeting by governments of poor countries throughout the world, and recommend reforms that are workable and realistic for these countries. They analyze the political, economic, and social developments that influence budgeting and planning in developing countries.

African governments are increasingly assuming new functions to respond to social and economic needs, and these functions are slowly becoming part of the accepted responsibilities of government. These book addresses the need to modernise and improve budgetary concepts and procedures; and documents work achieved so far to make the budget system responsive to the increasing responsibilities of the state, and people's search for a better quality of life. The study discusses and provides practical guidance on how the budgetary system can be an effective device for planning, reviewing and controlling government operations, particularly in relation to the implementation of national development within the scope of public budget. Contents: budget policy; programme performance and the budgeting system; budget preparation, legislative authorisation; budget execution; budget accountability; government financial management; and the governmental budget department. The author is a member of the Department of Management and Accounting, at the University of Ife, Nigeria.