World Bank has said that the Balochistan government has been devising an unrealistic deficit budget since 2013-14 which it cannot finance due to the absence of a debt management strategy as it cannot borrow without one.
The assessment report which is titled “Balochistan: Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Performance Assessment report” states that the government has been able to curtail annual spending within the budget over the years, however there exist shortcomings that have compromised budget reliability.
The report is part of the province’s efforts to conduct a public financial management (PFM) assessment to provide a baseline for the preparation of future financial strategies.
Based on the results of the assessment, the provincial government has prepared a 10-year reform strategy for robust and sustainable PFM systems and effective and sustainable use of public resources. It also aims to improve budget preparation process for the year 2016-17 by developing a budget strategy paper and effective communication with departments that require large spendings.