By: Nghiinomenwa Erastus
Namibia has scored zero out of 100 when it comes to allowing the public and civil society to influence resource allocation within the country’s national budget.
The 2021 Open Budget Survey (OBS) revealed this. The country’s OBS results were presented to the public on Wednesday by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) in Windhoek.
The Open Budget Survey is the world’s only comparative, independent and regular assessment of transparency, oversight, and participation in 120 countries. The results were based on published documents, events, activities or development done by the government by 31 December 2020.
The survey assessed three components of the national budgeting process: transparency, oversight and public participation.
According to the IPPR presentation of the results, “public engagement in budget decision-making is the weakest link in accountability systems”.
The budget is the country’s plan to utilise the limited resources at its disposal, which are collected through taxes, levies, debts, and donations in a year to advance its people’s economic and social agenda.
IPPR director Graham Hopwood, who presented the result, explained that a country’s budget is the most important matter to all in the country.
As a result, public budgeting processes are an essential space for governments to engage meaningfully with their citizens on decisions that can help communities.
However, in Namibia, “budgets remain a primarily elite conversation with few avenues for ordinary people to engage and have a say,” stated Hopwood.
He said that accountable public spending restores public trust that government can deliver.
According to the survey, out of the 120 countries assessed, only four countries (South Korea, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Georgia) offer moderate opportunities for public participation.
While some countries engage with the public when formulating or approving budgets, very few do so during the implementation and oversight phases.
Hopwood updated that the government treasury, the finance ministry, has started to formally consult civil society and other sectors in 2021, however not in the scope of the survey.
The presentation also noted that the consultation mostly comes after the budget process was done, mainly during the implementation phase, which provides no avenue for alteration as the budget is a law.
The survey also revealed that less than a third of the assessed countries provide sufficiently detailed information to understand how their budget addresses poverty. Only 14 per cent present their expenditures by gender.
It recommended that the finance ministry pilot a mechanism to engage the public during the budget formulation and monitor budget implementation.
Parliament should also allow members of the public or civil society organisation to testify during its hearings on the budget proposal of various public entities before approval.
Given that parliament is the most significant body in the country in terms of oversight, it is recommended that when the audit reports are presented, it should allow members of the public and civil societies to testify during hearings on the reports.
As for the Office of the Auditor-General, it is recommended that the entity formalise mechanisms for the public to develop its audits programme and contribute to relevant audit investigations.
The survey has also ranked Namibia on its budget process’ transparency and oversight, which The Villager Business Desk will scrutinise for the public next.
The pandemic has been used as a scapegoat to relax some accountable measures. However, scrutiny from the survey indicated that most countries preserved accountable spending practices in their annual budget processes during the period.
The survey results are based on 228 questions that remain the same for each country, conducted by civil society researchers or academic institutions in each country.
The questionnaires for the survey were reviewed by independent experts and the finance ministry.
Email: erastus@thevillager.com.na
