Nepal performance on budget engagement poor
KATHMANDU, APR 15:
At a time, when the Auditor General has questioned public spending of government that is almost equal of revenue mobilisation, another global institution has reported that the government is not accountable for the management of public money.
“With a score of 44 out of 100, the country is only marginally higher than the average score of 43 among the 100 countries surveyed but is well below the scores of its neighbours in South Asia,” said Open Budget Survey 2012 that has attributed the low score indicating to less information sharing on budget and financial activities by the government with public during the course of the budgetary preparations. “It makes challenging for citizens to hold the government accountable for its management of the public’s money,” it said, adding that Nepal’s Open Budget Index, however, has remained largely constant since 2008.
The Open Budget Index is composed of sub-scores for each of the eight key budget documents — pre-budget statement, executive’s budget proposal, enacted budget, citizens budget, in-year reports, mid-year review, year-end report and audit report — assessed in the survey.
“Of the key components, Nepal must start citizens budget to engage public in the process,” according to the chairman of Freedom Forum — that has helped survey in Nepal — Taranath Dahal.
Nepal has the potential to greatly expand budget transparency by introducing a number of short-term and medium-term measures, some of which can be achieved at almost no cost to the government, the International Budget Partnership that publishes the report has recommended, adding that the country can increase comprehensiveness of the executive’s budget proposal, specifically by focusing on providing information on expenditures classified by programmes for the budget and previous year, multi-year estimates of aggregate revenue for at least two years beyond the budget year, impact of different macroeconomic forecasts and assumptions used in developing the budget and extra-budgetary funds, transfers to public corporations, quasi-fiscal activities, expenditure arrears, contingent and future liabilities, financial and non-financial assets, earmarked revenues, tax expenditures and percentage of the budget devoted to secret items.
It has also suggested to link the budget to government’s stated policy goals and quality of non financial and performance data for expenditure programmes, apart from increase in comprehensiveness of the in-year reports by comparing actual year-to-date expenditures and revenues with either original estimates for that period or same period in the previous year and by providing information on actual borrowing for the budget year related to the composition of government debt.
The recommendations also include increase in the comprehensiveness of year-end report by including explanations for the differences between estimates and actual outcomes for both expenditures and revenues, for macroeconomic variables, for nonfinancial data and performance indicators, for funds intended to directly benefit the country’s most impoverished populations and for extra-budgetary funds and increase in comprehensiveness of audit report by publishing reports on the audits of extra-budgetary funds and reports listing actions taken by the executive to address audit recommendations.
“Moreover, the supreme audit institution should provide the legislature with detailed audit reports on security sector and secret programmes,” it said, asking to strengthen Legislatures and Auditor General in budget oversight as they play a critical role in planning and overseeing the implementation of national budget.
Similarly, the Open Budget Survey assesses whether legislatures provide effective budget oversight by measuring performance on 11 indicators, like consultations with executive prior to tabling in the legislature of draft budget, research capacity, formal debate on overall budget, time available to discuss and approve budget, legal authority to amend budget proposal, approval of shifts in expenditure budget and excess revenues collected.
Source: THT
