Complex drafting of papers puts off scrutiny

Before the Budget Speech, the minister for Finance must go through a rehearsal where he reads the statement before a selected group of top Treasury mandarins in the strict privacy of what is known as the “strong room”. The minister reads the statement as many times as possible to get into the rhythm of it and to make sure that he can deliver the speech within the stipulated time frame.

The speech itself is written by either the department of Economic Affairs under Dr Geoffrey Mwambia or the recently created Fiscal Affairs Division under Mr Justus Nyamunga. The person driving the compilation and printing of the printed estimates is the director of the Budgetary Supply Division, Mr Paul Ngugi.

The annual budget process usually starts very early in the fiscal year with reviews of the previous year. These days — and since the government adopted a system known in jargon as the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in 2001 — the annual budget process has become too lengthy and complex.

The budget documents are too many. There will be a Budget Outlook Paper, Medium Term Budget Strategy Paper, printed estimates of recurrent expenditure and development expenditure — usually published a day before the Budget Speech.

The jargon of budget-makers has changed dramatically over the years. Today, you hear of “sector working groups”, “sectorial ceilings envelopes”, “sector hearings” and “ring-fencing” of “core poverty” programmes. In terms of availability, the budget documents are not too difficult to access. The problem is that the documents are presented in formats that make scrutiny unappealing.

Long annexes

In the first place, the documents are bulky. This year, the printed estimates for recurrent expenditure alone are a total of 1,607 pages plus long annexes, tables and graphs. The Finance Bill that contains taxation proposals is presented in a complex format that renders it relevant only to lawyers, accountants and tax consultants.

Since deliberations on the budget in Parliament start very close to the beginning of the financial year — in line with the Westminster tradition — the budget is not formally adopted until after the start of the fiscal year, sometimes as late as November.

To cater for this period, the Constitution provides for a “vote on account” authorising spending on up to one-and-a-half of the submitted budget, which takes place a few days after the budget is submitted.