DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA - While Parliamentary sessions are going on throughout East African Countries, a Survey carried out by an independent organization has revealed that budget transparency in East Africa is low by international standards and citizen engagement in the budget process is almost non existent.
According to Tanzania Uwazi-Twaweza, in association with the International Budget Partnership (IBP), East African nations give limited information about budgets to the public. They also often do not publish key budget documents. The countries covered in the open budget survey 2010 were Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Sudan and Kenya who all performed poorly in budget transparency; scoring only 34 points out of 100. Compared to South Africa (92 points) or even the global average (42 points).
These countries largely ignore the public voice in the budget process. In this way they make it virtually impossible for citizens to hold their governments accountable for the way tax money is spent.
In terms of individual country performance, Uganda outperformed her counterparts, scoring 55 points while Rwanda and Sudan were bottom.
The analysis show that the oversight bodies; National Audit Offices and Parliaments in East Africa have great difficulty in performing their duties of holding the Executive to account. The Supreme audit institutions scored 45 out of 100 points in terms of effectiveness of their engagement in the budget process, while the Parliaments scored even less, 39 out of 100 points.
It shows how these institutions only play a moderate role in overseeing the budget process on behalf of citizens.
Without concrete information about budget allocations and execution, citizens are left clueless on how their tax money is spent.
The brief notes that EA countries can change this situation through some simple steps. The simplest would be to start publishing documents that are being produced but which are not released. Countries could also start creating space for the public to engage with the Parliament and the National Audit Offices in the budget process. Efforts should also be taken to enhance the comprehensiveness of budget documents, and to strengthen oversight institutions.
According to the Open Budget Survey 2010 report, Tanzania produced five and released only three out of the eight key documents to the public during the 2009-10 budget cycle. In 2011 Uwazi is tracking how many of the 8 key budget documents Tanzania will release to the public and the point in the budget cycle when they are released.
Tanzania's budget year starts in July and ends in June the following year.
Public scrutiny of the budget process is an important element of any system of checks and balances. How do countries in East Africa fare in this regard?
To assess how accessible or 'open' budget processes are to citizens, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) has implemented the Open Budget Survey (OBS) for several years now.
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