Expenditures must be effective To comply with its MAR obligations, a government must spend its money effectively. The expenditures must have the effect of enhancing people’s enjoyment of their rights. This means that even if a government spends its money efficiently, intending to realize people´s rights, it would be failing to meet its MAR obligations if the spending does not, in fact, help increase people´s enjoyment of their rights. In such a situation the government should look at its plans, the design of its programs and activities as well as their Corruption can take many forms. Government agencies may, for example, buy goods and services from friends of employees at inflated prices, or funds may be siphoned off at various stops along the way from the national treasury down to the point of service delivery. Whatever shape or form it takes, failure by a government to tackle corruption is also a failure to comply with its obligation to use the maximum of available resources to advance ESC rights, because the funds that have been diverted or misused are wasted funds. Funds allocated for ESC rights must be fully spent implementation, to determine how the spending might more effectively realize people’s rights. (See case study on The Use of Maximum Available Resources: Expenditures on items that are not effective in guaranteeing rights.) Under-spending is a common problem in many countries. There are a number of reasons why this occurs. They include: • A lack of capacity within government. This capacity gap may slow down implementation or result in a program never being implemented at all.

Select target paragraph3