By Lesin Ismail
The Annual African Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices (AN-PBO) Conference was recently held at Commonwealth Conference in Munyonyo, under the theme “The Role of PBOs in African Parliaments’ Fiscal Oversight: Contributions to the African Development Agenda 2030,” aligned with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which promotes inclusive and sustainable development.
The AN-PBO is a platform for African Parliamentary Budget Offices and similar institutions to share ideas and experiences about strengthening support for parliamentary fiscal oversight.
The inaugural conference, held in August 2016, established the AN-PBO and laid the foundation to build a platform for information sharing among African countries that have PBOs and those considering establishing them.
Parliamentary Budget Offices (PBOs) are departments established primarily to provide parliaments with the necessary capacity to perform their legislative and fiscal oversight role through the enhancement of fiscal scrutiny and decision-making.
Many parliaments do not have the necessary capacity in place which often affects the overall quality of government budgets.
The promise of financial scrutiny is that it improves accountability, promotes public participation and enhances budget transparency.
Among others, establishment of PBOs can mitigate the risks of financial indiscipline by disallowing amendments that could result in higher spending or budget deficits.
This conference also deliberated on how fiscal policy can respond to the economic vulnerabilities exposed by the crises and the role of fiscal oversight in ensuring transparent and responsible financial management as the call for greater accountability and fiscal prudence continues.
Given that the knowledge of Members of the Legislatures varies across the world, and that the budget offices have a crucial role to play in enhancing the fiscal oversight and technical capacity of legislative members in processes involving Budget or Money Bills, the Conference scheduled a session on ‘The role of PBOs in supporting Parliament processes with Budget or Money Bills Amendments’.
A key learning during the conference was the South Africa’s Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act of 2009 made establishment of the South African Parliament’s PBO possible.
The Act and the Constitution empowers Parliament to make amendments to the budget – not only to approve or reject it.
The PBO of the South African Parliament, in existence since 2013, has been assisting Parliament to exercise this substantive constitutional mandate.
Through its regular reports and assessments, the PBO has provided the means for Parliament to interrogate the budget more thoroughly.
Another key component that is under looked by the budget officers is the nexus between public participation by country citizens acting as individuals or represented through civic societies in national budget processes, and its crucial place in upholding democratic principles and promoting transparency, accountability, equitable public resource allocation and trust in government processes.
The fundamental characteristics of budget reforms places a different emphasis on the functions of a budget.
The early budget reforms shaped microeconomic stability and strengthened public spending while the recent reforms emphasise efficient resource allocation and effective service delivery.
Parliamentary Budget Officers are instrumental in shaping public fiscal policy and ensuring that government spending aligns with national priorities.
The writer is an Economist with the Parliament of Uganda.
ilesin@parliament.go.ug.
