Pakistan’s rank in Open Budget Index has increased to 50 during the year 2012 which was recorded at 38 in 2008 and
2010.
According to the survey conducted by International Budget Partnership-an independent budget transparency survey organisation-Pakistan has scored 58 points out of a 100.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday said the report reflected significant improvement and demonstrated the government’s commitment to achieve budget comprehensiveness and transparency.
In its latest `Open Budget Survey’ report 2012, the International Budget Partnership has acknowledged improvement in comprehensiveness of the budget that has been achieved through the Medium-Term Budgetary Framework reform supported by the Department for International Development (DFID), UK from 2003 to 2011 and implemented by the Finance Division under the guidance of the Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.
It further said that the international best practices include publishing of eight key budgetary documents at various points in the budget cycle.
Pakistan’s score of 58 out of 100 is higher than the average score of 43 for all the 100 surveyed countries.
The Open Budget Survey report appreciated that Pakistan’s pre-budget statement, called the `Budget Strategy Paper’ was adequately prepared and advised its publication.
The Budget Strategy Paper that presents mid-year review, medium-term fiscal framework and government’s policies, will improve budget transparency and encourage people of Pakistan to provide their comments on policies and related finances that impact their daily lives, it added.
The survey report also acknowledges that presentation of the ‘Green Book’ in the Parliament together with the annual budget has increased the comprehensiveness of the budget by many folds.
The `Green Book’ provides policy priorities, performance definition, and budget by services to be delivered over the next 3 years.
The Green Book is an important document for the Parliamentary Standing Committees that should review it at the time of budget presentation (through at least a month long review budget process as opposed to the existing 12 days), and monitor performance on a regular basis.
The survey report suggests publishing a citizen’s budget report together with the annual budget. A citizen’s budget is a non-technical presentation to enable broad public understanding of government’s plans for raising revenues and spending public funds in order to achieve policy goals.
In addition, the survey report also suggests that Pakistan should publish a `mid-year review report’ that provides actual expenditure of the past six months vis-à-vis the original enacted budget including changes made by the Executive in the budget and movement between budget heads.
The survey report also suggests for providing a year-end report that should include performance achieved vis-à-vis the performance planned in addition to the expenditure against budget.
The performance monitoring report is vital for people of Pakistan to understand what the government has delivered by using their taxes.