A review of budget transparency in Tanzania
By Elias Mhegera – Lack of involvement of the civil society and other experts in the budget process is a major contribution to discrepancies which have always remained in Tanzania’s budget at least in every fiscal year.
A recent July debate at the British Council in Dar es Salaam being part of the Policy Forum monthly debates confirmed this theory as presenters and contributors to the discussion shared this notion that Tanzania budgeting process is not transparent enough.
Hon. Luhaga Mpina
Probably most encouraging was the fact that the legislator for Kisesa in Mwanza region through the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi ticket Hon. Luhaga Mpina was transparent enough as to admit that even many of members of parliament needs capacity building in order to make them conversant enough to discuss the budget more efficiently.
“There is a need for fundamental changes whereby the government is to avail stakeholders with necessary budget information so as to be able to make effective use of this space,” he remarked.
His stance is supported by the fact that even during the video conference on Open Government Partnership Initiative in Africa (OGP), in April 18 this year, at the World Bank Country Office it was realized that the government is not doing enough in involving other stakeholders in many of its conducts be it individual technocrats or even members of the civil societies (CSOs).
The youthful legislator advanced that lack of involvement in the budget process is more a problem of outdated philosophies from some functionaries that many of government functions must remain under the carpet.
Moreover despite the fact that the Tanzanian government has brought in a new budget cycle, citizens are yet to be fully engaged in the budget process. He was referring to the recent Open Budget Index survey (OBI-2012).
This report which was issued by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), assessed whether the central government in each country surveyed avails the 8 key budget documents to the public, data showed that Tanzania scored 47 out of 100 below Kenya 57 and Uganda 51.
The Open Budget Survey is designed to provide a better understanding of the current state of budget transparency and accountability, as well as how these have changed over time. Previous iterations of the Survey are already being used widely by individual country governments and civil society organizations, as well as by multi-stakeholder and sector-specific transparency and accountability initiatives.
Statistical analyses conducted for the IBP based on the OBI 2008 results, as verified by their application to the 2012 results, show that higher-income and more democratic countries tend to have higher OBI scores; oil-dependent autocracies tend to have lower OBI scores.
For his part Godfrey Bonaventura a research and policy analysis unit manager at the HakiElimu NGO, says that while at the international level the pace of involvement is increasing at a great rate in Tanzania the process is much slower.
National Aseembly Session
Bonaventura who conducted the Tanzania survey on behalf of IBP considers the main weaknesses as being even in the National Assembly itself as ideological affiliations attributes to this trend although he admits that there are slight improvements comparatively.
Elaborating on the criteria that were used Bonaventura said that these were developed by multilateral organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI)Budget Index is increasing in each round
He suggests a series of measures as follows, that expenditures presented by functional classification for the current and previous year must be well projected in expenditures of the future years.
Further, that there must be anticipations of revenues for at least two years beyond the budget year and non-tax revenue of the previous year, and that information on level and composition of government debt for the budget year and the year prior to the budget year.
Moreover this analyst considers macroeconomic forecasts and assumptions to be used in developing the budget. This is taking into consideration as well of policy narratives and performance measures.
Along with that it is extra-budgetary funds, quasi-fiscal activities, expenditure arrears, contingent and future liabilities, financial, nonfinancial assets, and tax expenditures.
It was under this background that Mpina said that the government provides the public with only some information on the national budget and financial activities during the financial year. “This is posing a challenge for citizens to participate fully to hold the government accountable for management of public funds,” he lamented.
On the changes to the budget cycle, he said that before the financial year 2013/2014 the national budget was debated and approved by the parliament before discussion of the ministerial ‘votes’. With the new budget cycle, however, MPs debate and approve the ministerial votes before the passing the national budget.
This, he stressed, provides room for the MPs and other stakeholders to advice and make necessary changes on the proposed budget accordingly.
He profoundly praised the establishment of the parliamentary budget committee which gives the parliament the chance to scrutinize and examine carefully the proposed budget and hence make changes before it is tabled in the house.
Previously, the executive’s budget office and other government officials dominated the budgeting process and there was no room for the changes. The establishment of the parliamentary budget committee has provided a link between the parliament, CSOs and the other stakeholders in the budgeting process, he said.
Furthermore, he said that the changes in the parliamentary regulations of 2013 allow the debate and approval of the national budget before 30th June of every financial year, allowing government to immediately begin implementation of the approved budget on the 1st July.
Before these changes, MPs and government officials were busy debating the budget up till August. The budget approval by the legislature was made during June through to August, hence the budget implementation started at the middle of September, meaning a delay of commencement on budget execution.
He concluded by saying that despite the changes made in Tanzania Budget Cycle, there are still some challenges affecting the budgeting process as a whole including the lack of a Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).
The proposed independent Parliamentary Budget Office would have technical capacity to analyze the budget and to help parliamentarians and other stakeholders to better understand what are otherwise complex technical documents, once established.
“This would help increase credibility, promote transparency, provide elaborate options for spending cuts and promote accountability.” He concluded.
Issues surrounding the Parliamentary Budget Office were elaborated in detail by the second presenter, Nicholas Lekule, the Manager of Policy Analysis at Policy Forum who discussed the role of the PBO in enhancing the budgetary oversight function.
He mentioned the typical roles of the PBO as being scrutiny and analysis of the budget and provision of related information to the Budget Committee and other financial select committees of the National Assembly.
Lekule gave examples of countries like Kenya and Uganda which have established a PBO in their respective countries and how they have benefited.
This included Budget Committees being fully supported the improved involvement of parliament in the budget process through enhanced MPs’ analytical capacity. Overall, he said, the quality of debates in the house improved and the oversight function of Parliament was strongly felt.
Tanzania’s Finance Minsiter Dr William Mgimwa
He concluded by saying that there is a great need to establish an independent PBO in our country which would respond to parliamentary committees requests and not individual MPs to avoid the risk of partisan politics.
But in quite a different stance a seasoned researcher, lecturer in economics at the University of Dar es Salaam, and an independent consultant in policy analysis Dr. Haji Semboja says what is done by legislators is enough up to the level of ordinary Tanzanians.
“I think what the MPs are doing is quite enough because the National Assembly is not an avenue for academic rigor, but it is a place where every Tanzanian of a normal thinking can understand and make follow up of what is being discussed.
He suggested that instead budgets should be subjected to many stakeholders including experts in the field and this should involve the media so that the scope of discussion can be widened, there after all ideas which will enrich it must be included.
In his view, this then will make it easier for MPs to make a follow up and debate issues in a more informed manner.
