Govt fails to release budget reports

Failure by the government to release budget reports to its citizens has limited access of information to the majority citizens in making follow-ups about the country’s development projects.

THE Open Budget Survey  (OBS) tracker being managed by International Budget Partnership (IBP) in collaboration with HakiElimu has revealed that such failures of releasing such reports has left a critical gap in the public’s ability on how their funds are being managed.

The move has also denied the public to ultimately assess how well the essential services such as health, education are being delivered.
The OBS tracker is a tool that provides regular monthly updates on whether the central government in respective countries publishes each of the key budget documents on time as per international standards.

HakiElimu Acting Executive Director Godfrey Boniventura who is also managing the OBS Tracker in Tanzania said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that the government was mandated to releasing eight budget reports every fiscal year as per international standards.

Boniventura said so far only five reports have been released failing short of three reports from 2012/13 and 2013/14 financial years.

“Failure of the citizens to ask on how their funds are being used denies them access to question on how such funds are being used on different development projects which have failed to be implemented.

He said such remaining budget reports have not yet been released since 2012 to 2014 financial year, yet still some were untimely published, making the Tanzania among five countries that failed to publish such reports including Nigeria, Niger, Iran and Timor Leste.

The OBS tracker requires that the first quarter of such reports be issued by September 30, with the second quarter being issued by December 30, the third quarter should be issued by March 30, while the last quarter by June 30.

According to OBS, such reports need to have a comprehensive update on the implementation of the budget including a review of economic assumptions underlying the budget. OBS is an independent, regular, and comparative assessment of budget transparency and participation worldwide conducted every two years.

It measures the amount of budget information a country's central government makes publicly available, whether it engages citizens in budget processes, and the strength of formal oversight institutions.