IMF：完善基础设施治理能杜绝公共投资浪费
（本文中英文来自IMF官网，相关权利归IMF所有）
How Strong Infrastructure Governance Can End Waste in Public Investment
By Gerd Schwartz, Manal Fouad, Torben Hansen, and Geneviève Verdier
COVID-19 has had a profound impact on people, firms, and economies all over the world. While countries have ramped up public lifelines to individuals and firms they will face enormous challenges to recover from the pandemic, amidst low economic activity and unprecedented levels of debt.
Public infrastructure investment will play a key role in the recovery. But with resources tight, governments need to spend taxpayer money wisely on the right projects. For this, countries need good infrastructure governance—strong institutions and frameworks to plan, allocate, and implement quality public infrastructure.
Our new book addresses how countries can design good infrastructure governance. All too often, public investment results in expensive and poor-quality infrastructure with limited benefits for people and the economy. It tends to involve projects that are large, long-term, and complex—all fertile ground for corruption, delays, and cost overruns. Strong infrastructure governance is key to cutting this waste.
Our analysis shows that, on average, countries waste about 1/3 of their infrastructure spending due to inefficiencies. The loss can surpass a staggering 50 percent in low-income countries. Unlocking this potential should play an important role as countries recover from the pandemic. The good news is that efficiency losses and wasteful spending in infrastructure are not inevitable. Our estimates show that over half of these losses could be made up through better infrastructure governance.
A bridge to the future
The economic recovery from COVID-19 presents a unique opportunity for countries to build a bridge to the future through well-designed and well-implemented public infrastructure.
Done right, public investment to stimulate weak aggregate demand can help boost more inclusive growth, reduce inequalities, and create economic opportunities for all. Investment in health systems, digital and environmentally-conscious infrastructure can improve people’s lives, connect markets, and improve the resilience of countries to climate change and future pandemics. Countries will also need to increase public investment to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while advanced economies need to tackle aging infrastructure like roads, bridges, and healthcare systems.
But every dollar spent has to count, and when spending more on infrastructure, countries also need to spend better and smarter to get the most bang for the buck.
Drawing on the Fund’s analytical and capacity development work, including the Public Investment Management Assessments carried out in more than 60 countries, our book provides a roadmap for countries to move from “aspiration to action” to achieve quality infrastructure outcomes and reap the full economic and social dividends from public investment.
The book highlights the foundation of strong infrastructure governance and includes innovative practices in key areas. We give examples on how to control corruption in infrastructure projects, how to mitigate and manage fiscal risks, integrate planning and budgeting, and adopt sound practices early in the public investment cycle, as well as during project appraisal and selection, an area in which many countries tend to fall short.
Chile, for example, has developed a comprehensive infrastructure governance system that has generated cost-savings. And in Korea, a national one-stop shop for public procurement, has brought improvements in the transparency and integrity of the public procurement system.
The book also covers emerging areas in infrastructure governance such as the importance of maintaining and managing public infrastructure assets and building resilience against climate change. South Africa, for example, has established guidelines and standards for the maintenance of public infrastructure to avoid deterioration in the value of public assets like roads and bridges.
The book underscores how infrastructure governance institutions tend to look better on paper than in practice. This points to the importance of not only having well-designed frameworks, but also focusing on how well they function in practice.
The overall message is simple: countries can end waste in public investment and create quality infrastructure with specific actions to improve infrastructure governance. To rebuild economies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be more important than ever.
The October 2020 Fiscal Monitor will include more of the IMF’s analysis and policy advice on how countries can best invest in infrastructure to build a sustainable economy and recovery.
强健的基础设施治理能如何杜绝公共投资浪费
新型冠状病毒疫情（COVID-19，简称新冠疫情）对全世界民众、企业和经济体产生了深远的影响。在经济活动低迷和前所未有的债务水平下，尽管各国增加了对个人和企业的公共救助，它们仍面临从疫情中复苏的巨大挑战。
公共基础设施投资将在经济复苏中发挥关键作用。但由于资源紧张，政府需要将纳税人的钱明智地花在正确的项目上。为此，各国需要完善的基础设施治理——具备强健的制度和框架来规划、分配和落实高质量的公共基础设施。
我们的新书探讨了各国可以如何设计完善的基础设施治理。在很多情况下，公共投资都带来昂贵但质量低下的基础设施，对民众和经济的效益十分有限。这往往会涉及到规模大、工期长和复杂的项目，这都为腐败、延期和超支提供了肥沃土壤。强健的基础设施治理是减少浪费的关键。
我们的分析显示，各国的基础设施支出因效率低下导致的浪费平均占到1/3。在低收入国家，这种损失的占比达到令人惊讶的50%以上。随着各国从疫情中复苏，释放这一潜力应该能发挥重要作用。好消息是，基础设施领域的效率损失和浪费性支出并非不可避免。我们的估计显示，改善基础设施治理可以弥补超过一半的损失。
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通往未来的桥梁
新冠疫情之后的经济复苏为各国提供了一个独特的机会，可以通过精心设计和妥善落实的公共基础设施架起通往未来的桥梁。
如果得到妥善落实，旨在刺激疲软总需求的公共投资有助于促进更具包容性的增长，缓解不平等现象，同时为所有人创造经济机遇。投资于卫生体系以及数字化和具有环境意识的基础设施能改善人们的生活条件，连接市场，加强各国抵御气候变化和未来流行病风险的能力。各国也需要增加公共投资以实现可持续发展目标（SDGs），而发达经济体需要解决道路、桥梁和医疗体系等基础设施老化的问题。
但每一分钱都必须发挥作用；在扩大基础设施支出时，各国的支出也要更合理、更明智，以获得最大的效益。我们的新书借鉴了国际货币基金组织（IMF）的分析和能力建设工作，包括在60多个国家开展的公共投资管理评估（PIMA），为各国提供了“从愿景转向行动”的路线图，以实现高质量基础设施成果，并从公共投资中获得充分的经济和社会红利。
该书强调了要奠定强健的基础设施治理的基础，并涵盖了关键领域的创新做法。我们围绕一些问题提供了相关案例，包括如何控制基础设施项目中的腐败，如何缓解和管理财政风险，如何整合规划和制定预算，以及如何在公共投资周期早期以及项目评估和遴选阶段采纳稳健的做法——这往往是很多国家落后的领域。
例如，智利构建了全面的基础设施治理体系，实现了成本节约。在韩国，全国公共采购一站式平台改善了公共采购系统的透明度和诚信度。
该书还探讨了基础设施治理的新兴领域，例如维护和管理公共基础设施资产和构建抵御气候变化能力的重要性。例如，南非建立了公共基础设施维护的指引和标准，以避免公共资产（如道路和桥梁）价值出现损耗。
该书强调了基础设施治理制度往往在纸面上比在实践中表现得更好。该书指出不仅要有精心设计的框架，而且要关注这些框架在实践中如何发挥作用。它传达的整体观点很简单：各国可采取具体行动改进基础设施治理，以杜绝公共投资的浪费现象，并构建高质量的基础设施。为在新冠疫情结束后重建各国经济，这比以往任何时候都更加重要。
2020年10月的《财政监测报告》将包含更多IMF关于“各国如何以最佳方式开展基础设施投资以构建可持续的经济和复苏”的分析和政策建议。
