Enhancing the Strategic Role of the Office of the Accountant General (OAG): Research Insights and Recommendations

Over the last two decades or so, reforms of Public Financial Management (PFM) systems have spread across Africa. Yet many countries continue to experience gaps between PFM policy reform, implementation of PFM systems and actual institutional performance. A key actor in the PFM space is the Office of the Accountant General (OAG), whose mandate generally encompasses fiscal integrity, financial reporting, cash management, internal control, and public accountability. Drawing on Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) and Open Budget Survey trends alongside a review of academic and practitioner research, this policy paper analyses the systemic conditions that shape the PFM outcomes and the implementing institutions, with an emphasis on the OAG. The paper contends that the OAG’s performance and effectiveness face challenges due to capacity constraints, limited autonomy, political incentives, and fragmented digitalisation, which hinder public transparency, accountability and governance. The paper makes the case for the African OAGs to be repositioned as strategic foresight organisations, and not merely as compliance-oriented units. It proposes a multi-dimensional OAG reform trajectory combining institutional autonomy, professionalisation and capacity building, strengthened and holistic accountability, and better digital integration, supported by regional collaboration and learning through the African Association of Accountants General (AAAG).