Budgeting delicate

Part of the struggle for institutional reforms in the past two decades is the desire to give Parliament more say in governance.

Several milestones have been made on this front and to date, it can be plausibly argued, that the institution has clout and stature.

In the drive to empower Parliament, it has been argued that MPs need to have a say in the budgeting process. That, as people’s representatives, they should interrogate how the taxes are used and this is principally aimed at guaranteeing equity and fairness in resource allocation.

To that end, a law was enacted last year, given presidential assent in June, and as we reported yesterday, is soon getting legal instruments for implementation.

Underpinning this thinking is that the Budget should not be an ambush on MPs; that they should be adequately informed so that they can make intelligent decisions when voting for it.

Of course, there has been counter propositions. One, involving MPs in the budgeting process blurs the line between the Executive and the Legislature.

Two, MPs lack capacity for budgeting — although this is a temporal challenge that can be overcome through training and resource provision.

Granted, it is was time that MPs participated in the Budget process, but then, there must be limits to insulate the Executive from meddling politicians.