This article reviews the efforts of the Government of Bangladesh aimed at r
eforming the public sector financial management system as part of overall p
ublic administration reforms through a technical assistance project jointly
sponsored by the government and the Department for International Developme
nt, Government of the UK. It has evolved through initial setbacks into a hi
ghly successful project delivering tangible outputs over the last three yea
rs, with prospects for future extension until reforms are internalized and
become self-sustaining. Attempts have been made in this article to analyse
and evaluate the underlying reasons for the problems in the first year of i
mplementation as well as the Factors that contributed to the recovery of th
e image of the project and its continuing successes in successive phases. T
he article highlights the lessons learned from the project in its bad as we
ll as good times and suggests that this experience can be of great Value to
those undergoing the same type of reform experiment. Copyright (C) 2000 Jo
hn Wiley & Sons, Ltd.