CPDI releases second annual report on national budget transparency

Lahore: Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI) released its second annual report on national budget transparency at Toba Tek Singh in a meeting of NGOs and media persons.

The report pointed out shortcomings in the budgeting process at the federal and provincial levels and called for budget proposals to be widely discussed with civic groups, government agencies and key stakeholders. District CPDI  coordinator Muhammad Shahid said in his speech that reports on budget implementation,should be shared with pubic and audit reports should be uploaded on the Auditor General’s websites on regular basis. In addition, the participation of citizens in the budgeting process should be given legal protection and government agencies should be required to consult with the citizens during the various stages of budget making process,he added. He further stated that particularly the role of parliamentarians should be enhanced during budget formulation.He said that for the last 10 years,CPDI has been working to improve the budgeting process from the district to the federal level to promote transparency in it. This report not only examines budget transparency  but also helps to gauge the effectiveness of access to information laws in obtaining budget information,he said and added that first section of the report deals with requests for information to various federal ministries and provincial departments seeking information about the various stages of the budgeting process and second section examines the comprehensiveness of budget documents and citizen’s participation in budgeting. He claimed that in this regard, 152 requests for information, of which 38 to the federal, 28 to Balochistan,29 to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 28 to Punjab and 29 to Sindh were sent to selected federal ministries and provincial departments to test reactive disclosure in budgeting process but surprisingly, not a single response to any of these requests was received within the stipulated time which was very disappointing. In addition to the comprehensiveness of the budget document and the inclusion of citizens, overall federal government ranked first with 62 points out of maximum 87 points. CPDI Project Manager Faisal Manzoor said that according to the report, participation of citizens in budgeting, legislature oversight, duration of budget debate in parliaments and equitable budgeting are required to be  addressed. He said there was no mechanism for issuing quarterly, half-yearly or annual reports by any government while audit reports have not been regularly uploaded on the Auditor General’s websites.He added that it is also worth noting that governments do not provide revised estimates timely with concerned stakeholders but are presented during the budget approval process. He demanded that the provincial and federal governments ensure the implementation of access to information laws and remove obstacles in order to promote budget transparency and accountability.