Background
Cambodia’s public financial management system governs how the state plans, allocates, executes, and monitors public spending across ministries and institutions. Public financial management reform in Cambodia has progressively shifted budget administration from an input-focused and centralized model toward a system that emphasizes results, performance, and greater decentralization.
Performance-based budgeting links public expenditure to outputs and policy objectives rather than only to line-item inputs. A Financial Management Information System (FMIS) is a government digital platform used to automate budget execution, accounting, reporting, and financial control processes across the public sector.
Cambodia’s public financial management reform program uses a platform approach, under which each reform stage is designed with a defined core objective and serves as a foundation for the next phase. This governance approach combines legal instruments, digital systems, and performance monitoring to strengthen budget credibility and administrative accountability.
Key Developments
At a reform forum, H.E. Hel Chamroeun, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Deputy Secretary-General of the General Secretariat of the Steering Committee for Public Financial Management Reform, presented the background, achievements, strategic framework, and lessons from implementation of Cambodia’s public financial management reform program.
The presentation stated that the reform vision is to build a public financial management system in Cambodia that moves from an input-focused, centralized system to a results- or performance-focused and decentralized system aligned with international standards and good practices.
The program continues to apply a “Platform Approach” as its reform strategy. According to the presentation, this approach includes three features: each stage has a clear core objective linked to the overall reform vision; each stage provides the basis for subsequent reform stages; and achievements from earlier stages are further strengthened in later stages.
For Stage 4 of the Public Financial Management Reform Program for 2023–2027, the presentation identified several priority actions. These include preparing implementing legal instruments to support the 2023 Law on the Public Financial System, strengthening digitalization of public financial management with particular emphasis on FMIS automation, reinforcing performance-informed budget implementation through stronger monitoring and evaluation systems, and preparing performance agreements while linking annual ministry and institution performance plans as annexes to the draft budget law.
Implications
The Stage 4 priorities indicate continued institutional change in Cambodia’s budget governance framework, especially through legal implementation, digital financial administration, and stronger use of performance information in the budget process. Ministries and public institutions may need to align planning, reporting, and monitoring practices more closely with budget preparation and execution requirements.
Greater use of FMIS automation and performance agreements may support more standardized financial processes and clearer links between annual plans and budget allocations. For businesses, development partners, and policy researchers, the reform direction is relevant to understanding how Cambodia is structuring public expenditure management and administrative accountability over the medium term.
Official Source
Source: Ministry of Civil Service Facebook post citing a presentation by H.E. Hel Chamroeun, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, on Stage 4 of Cambodia’s Public Financial Management Reform Program (2023–2027), published on April 3, 2026.
