Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) Training

About This Course

Public funds are the backbone of development — yet in many countries a significant share of budgeted resources never reaches intended beneficiaries. Schools remain under-resourced, health clinics run out of medicines, and infrastructure projects stall, not because the money was not allocated but because it was lost, diverted, or poorly tracked along the expenditure chain. The Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools available to governments, civil society organisations, and development partners seeking to close this accountability gap.

Developed originally by the World Bank and refined over two decades of application across Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, PETS provides a structured methodology for following public money from the central treasury through intermediate layers of government — districts, counties, local authorities — all the way to the facilities and communities that are supposed to benefit. By comparing what was released at each level with what was actually received at the next, PETS reveals where leakages occur, at what scale, and with what consequences for service delivery.

This five-day intensive course offered by TrainingComplex takes participants through the full PETS cycle: from problem diagnosis and survey design, through data collection and quality assurance, to quantitative analysis, interpretation of findings, and the crafting of actionable policy recommendations. Facilitators combine conceptual instruction with hands-on exercises using real datasets, questionnaire templates, and case studies drawn from education, health, agriculture, and infrastructure sectors across the African continent.

By the end of the programme, participants will be equipped not only to understand published PETS reports but to commission, manage, and conduct their own surveys — making them invaluable assets to budget offices, audit institutions, parliamentary oversight committees, donor-funded programmes, and civil society accountability initiatives.

Who Should Attend

• Budget and public expenditure officers in central and local governments
• Internal auditors and external audit staff in supreme audit institutions
• Monitoring and evaluation officers in government ministries and departments
• Development partners and donor programme managers overseeing public financial management reforms
• Civil society and non-governmental organisation staff engaged in budget tracking and social accountability
• Parliamentary budget analysts and legislative oversight staff
• Public financial management consultants and advisors
• Researchers and academics studying public sector governance and service delivery

Learning Objectives

• Explain the conceptual foundations of PETS and its role in public financial management and accountability
• Map the public expenditure chain from budget appropriation to front-line service delivery in a given sector
• Design a PETS study, including defining objectives, scope, sample frame, and data collection instruments
• Develop structured questionnaires for facility-level, district-level, and community-level data collection
• Apply appropriate sampling strategies, including stratified and cluster sampling, to ensure statistical validity
• Conduct fieldwork and enforce data quality protocols during survey implementation
• Clean, manage, and analyse PETS datasets using standard quantitative and qualitative methods
• Calculate and interpret leakage rates, capture rates, and distribution equity indicators
• Triangulate PETS findings with complementary data sources such as public accounts, administrative records, and community scorecards
• Prepare evidence-based PETS reports with clear policy recommendations for decision-makers and stakeholders

Course Modules

Requirements & Prerequisites

Participants should have a working knowledge of public financial management concepts, including budgeting, expenditure management, and government accounting. Familiarity with basic research or data collection methods — such as conducting interviews or reviewing administrative records — is recommended. Prior experience in audit, monitoring and evaluation, or public sector programme management is an advantage but not strictly required.

Training Methodology

• Guided case study analysis of landmark PETS studies from Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, and Mozambique to illustrate methodology design choices and their consequences
• Structured questionnaire design workshop in which participants draft and peer-review PETS instruments for a selected sector scenario
• Hands-on data cleaning and leakage calculation exercises using actual anonymised PETS datasets in spreadsheet environments
• Sampling design practicals where participants define sample frames, calculate sample sizes, and apply stratified cluster sampling to realistic country contexts
• Role-play fieldwork simulation in which participants act as enumerators, facility managers, and district finance officers to experience data collection challenges first-hand
• Group analysis sessions requiring participants to triangulate PETS findings with public accounts, audit reports, and community feedback data
• Facilitated policy brief writing exercise, producing a concise, evidence-based recommendation memo targeting a finance ministry audience
• Plenary debriefs after each practical session to consolidate lessons, resolve conceptual questions, and connect exercises to participants' own country or organisational contexts

Organisational Benefits

• Strengthened capacity to independently design and conduct public expenditure tracking studies
• Improved detection and quantification of budget leakages, enabling targeted corrective interventions
• Enhanced credibility of public financial management systems through evidence-based accountability mechanisms
• Better alignment between budget allocations and actual service delivery outcomes at the facility level
• Greater confidence in presenting findings to senior officials, development partners, and legislative bodies
• Reduced dependence on external technical assistance for expenditure tracking and public finance diagnostics
• Improved organisational reputation for transparency, rigour, and value-for-money assurance
• Strengthened inter-agency collaboration between finance, audit, and sector ministries on accountability initiatives

Where Is Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS) Training Offered?

This course runs in-person across: Nairobi, Johannesburg, Nakuru, Kampala, Riyadh, Cape Town, Lagos, Abuja, Kigali, Mombasa, Naivasha, Pretoria, Dar es Salaam, Dubai, Zanzibar, Accra, Kisumu, Arusha, Addis Ababa, plus Live Virtual (online) cohorts. Browse live dates for your city below.

Upcoming Schedules

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