On ICAG’s November 2024 Public Sector Accounting and Finance paper, Question Three scored an average of just 9 out of 20 marks — not because the content was obscure, but because, in the Chief Examiner’s own words, some candidates simply didn’t read the question carefully enough. This post walks through the real question, the full marking scheme, and the two reading mistakes that cost the most marks.
The Question, In Full
Part (a) asked candidates to explain three objectives of a public financial management (PFM) system, then recommend two ways of enhancing each stage of the PFM cycle (10 marks). Part (b) gave a real PEFA assessment scenario — a local government scoring D on annual financial reporting, D+ on in-year budget reporting, and C on financial data integrity — and asked candidates to explain the results to a Municipal Chief Executive, then recommend two improvement strategies for each of the three areas (10 marks).
The Worked Solution
The three PFM objectives are aggregate fiscal discipline (keeping revenue and spending consistent with fiscal deficit targets), allocative efficiency (directing resources to strategic priorities), and operational efficiency (maximum value for money in service delivery). The five PFM cycle stages — planning, budget preparation and approval, budget execution, recording/accounting/reporting, and review/audit — each needed two distinct enhancement ideas; for example, the recording and reporting stage is strengthened by full IPSAS compliance and a robust recording system.
On the PEFA scenario, a D means poor performance, a D+ is also poor but marginally better, and a C is average — the task was simply to explain what those grades mean in plain language, not to recompute them using an alternative scoring methodology. The improvement strategies then had to be matched two-for-two against each of the three specific areas assessed: annual reporting, in-year budget reporting, and financial data integrity — for example, accelerating GIFMIS implementation directly strengthens financial data integrity.
EXAM TIP: “Objectives” and “stages” of a PFM system are two separate lists the examiner expects you to keep apart. And when a question hands you data and asks you to “explain” it, explain it — don’t reprocess it through a method you happen to know; the examiner called that “entirely unnecessary.”
Conclusion
A 24% pass rate on a paper is rarely a knowledge problem alone. Question Three proved it: candidates who knew the PFM cycle and understood PEFA still lost marks because they answered a slightly different question from the one that was written. Read every instruction word twice before you commit a paragraph to it.
Ready to Go Deeper?
This exact question, and every other Public Sector Accounting and Finance past question like it, is broken down in full inside the revision kits at Passkoguru.
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