The Sunday Mail
Lincoln Towindo
Parliament
THE Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor Mthuli Ncube, was in Parliament recently seeking condonation for failing to table the Budget Strategy Paper (BSP) before the House on time.
Tabling of the crucial document, which is used for formulating the National Budget, was delayed by nearly three months for a variety of reasons which the Minister used to seek condonation.
In terms of Section 11.1 (c) of the Public Finance Management (general) regulations of 2019, the Ministry of Finance must present the BSP to Cabinet no later than June 30 and table it in Parliament, for information and comment, no later than July 31.
The BSP is a critical document which the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget uses for nationwide public consultations.
The paper is also used as a central discussion instrument by Parliamentarians and stakeholders during the Pre-Budget Seminar.
The BSP affords not only Parliamentarians but the general citizenry and all stakeholders in the economy a general picture of where Government intends to direct the economy during the forthcoming year.
Owing to the inordinate delay in tabling the BSP, the Budget Committee undertook its public consultations without the paper.
This means there was no radar to direct the interactions between citizens and the Parliamentarians during the consultations.
Budget Committee chair Mr Felix Mhona (Chikomba Central) succinctly captured this anomaly while contributing to the motion for condonation, saying the delay hindered the participation of citizens in the key process.
“Maybe just to reiterate the essence and the importance of this Budget Strategy Paper that is enshrined in our Constitution under Section 141, as a Committee of Parliament, we are mandated to go to the public and solicit views and the only radar that we have under our purview is the Budget Strategy Paper which will then give us the priority areas to focus on,” said Mr Mhona.
“If you have noticed, with your indulgence and wise counsel from your office, you had mandated us to get hold of the Ministry and in particular the Minister to raise that anomaly to say why the BSP was not tabled as enshrined in the supreme law but to no avail.
“The BSP only managed to be tabled last Friday which was way behind in terms of the schedule that we had to consult the masses of Zimbabwe.”
Similar concerns were raised by Kambuzuma National Assembly representative Mr Willias Madzimure at a recent breakfast meeting for the committee.
He questioned why the Minister of Finance did not table the BSP before the August House.
“When we were in Mutare one question that people were asking was where is the BSP, meaning that people now understand that for them to contribute the paper must be there. But it was not there and it was not presented to Parliament; and Members of Parliament are not even aware.”
However, Treasury had cogent reasons for the delay — a force majeure and not an apparent disdain for process was behind the deferral. Standing in for his boss in seeking the condonation, Deputy Finance Minister Clemence Chiduwa said the Covid-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown regulations were largely behind the interruption.
Also the transition between two economic development strategies — the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP) and the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) — occasioned the delay.
“We are moving from TSP to the NDS1,” said Deputy Minister Chiduwa.
‘”The NDS1, which is starting January 2021, is supposed to inform the 2021 National Budget.
“Because of the Covid-19 containment measures, we delayed the consultation processes.
“It is because of the consultation processes that we were not in a position to come up with the draft NDS1 in time.”
Treasury’s justification was reasonable by all intents, hence the granting of the condonation by the House.
However, what is worrying is that this is not the first time the tabling of the BSP has been delayed for a varying number of reasons. It has happened before under different Finance Ministers.
That Treasury has undertaken to religiously follow the law in future is a positive.
“I would also want to assure this August House that going forward, this is not going to happen again and we are going to present the Budget Strategy Paper as per the provisions of Statutory Instrument 135 of 2019,” said Deputy Minister Chiduwa.
This undertaking is within the spirit of the Second Republic, which is that of engendering citizen participation in the management of public resources and governance.
There is no better way of involving citizens in their governance than giving them a voice in budgeting the national cake.
This should mark the end of instances of whimsical budget formulation where the citizens’ views are an afterthought.
