Road to Success
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- Category: Budget Policy and reform directorate
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Introduction
The budget is a key tool a Government has for translation of its policies into programs and project that will address economic and development needs of the country and its citizens. The National Budget is a document that shows the estimated money available to government (revenues, grants and loans) and planned expenditure for the following year. The most important aspect of the National Budget is that it is fiscally sustainable. This means that the government should not spend more money than it has available. Ultimately, the Parliament approves (or appropriates) National Budget, and the President then signs it, after which it becomes a law. However, the process for creating the National Budget begins almost a year before this and involves many people.
Budget Policy, Coordination and Reporting Unit has been one of the key components of the Budget Policy and Reform Directorate., established with the aim to lead and coordinate overall budget formulation and budget preparation process, on behalf of the Government of Afghanistan. This includes development of budget preparation guidelines and instructions, such as: Budget Calendar, Budget Manuals, budget circulars; and drafting budget documents including: Mid Year Review, Pre-budget Document, Budget Statement and Citizens Budget.
Budget Policy Unit Team:
Budget Policy Unit (BPU) is led by Mr. Mohammad AdhamAkbari who has several years of experience in public finance and budgeting.
Other team members include:
- Mr.AbdullahSaleh, , Budget Policy and Coordination Officer
- Mr. Aminullah Amini, Mr. Ahmad Reshad, , Budget Policy and Coordination Officer and
- Mr. Sayed Naseer AhmadBudget Policy and Coordination Officer
- Muhammad Mustafa Hanifi (ASI, National Advisor)
Work done so far
In the recent years considerable efforts have been made by Ministry of Finance in implementation of a number of reforms in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of the Public finance management. These reforms are aimed at ensuring Government priorities for economic development and poverty reduction are implemented through the budget, addressing needs of the people across all provinces, and ensuring that gender differentiated needs of women and men are met. In addition, the Government intends to improve performance by providing results-orientation to policy making and prioritization.
Budget Policy Unit will play a significant role in introducing and implementing these reforms and initiatives in order to strengthen the budgeting systems and procedures that will further strengthen the GIRoA public financial management.
Budget Policy Unit guides the Budget Sectors, the budgetary units, Budget Committee, Cabinet and the other stakeholders on the budget activities during the course of the year. The chronological order of the budget activitiesis set in the Budget Timetable (Budget Calendar) and is developed and published by the Unit each year to facilitate in-time implementation of the budgetary steps and sound budgeting practice.
The unit also devises policies and procedures to encourage sound prioritization and resources allocation. For this purpose, user-friendly budget instructions (Budget Circular -1 and Budget Circular -2) are maintained. Budget Circular -1 is used to acquire broad prioritization and cost estimation so that resources are allocated broadly based on the available funds.
The key budget documents developed by the Unit include:
- The Medium Term Budget Framework (MTBF): is also known as the Pre Budget Report. It shows estimated revenues and grants, identifies new spending priorities, and sets the maximum expenditure (or ‘budget ceiling’) for each ministry and agency.
- The National Budget Statement: is the actual budget document that is approved by Parliament and signed by the President to become law. It shows detailed costs of the Government activities and projects and identifies services to be delivered.
- The Citizen’s Budget: is a simpler and shorter version of the National Budget, which is useful for people who want a basic overview or who do not have time to read the detailed version.
Strategy - going forward
BPU will continue to improve integration of the Government policies into the budget. Strengthening of the Medium Term Budget Framework will be one of the Unit’s priorities in the coming years. MTBF should include 'hard' budget ceilings for each ministry, based upon revenue estimates and donor's commitments to fund specific priorities. Measures will be regularly taken to devise methodologies that will calculate ceilings as realistic as possible. These budgetary ceilings will serve as the ultimate level for costing out the detailed Budget submission called the BC-2 submissions.
The objective is to move toward Medium Term Expenditure Framework in the next 3-5 years, i.e. to progressively include more analysis of the ministry’s programs and performance achievements
BPU will carry on preparation, coordination and implementation of the National Budget Statement. As program budget has become the approach to budget presentation since 1390, it is BPU who will take the ownership to compile the 1391 National Budget in a program format. National Budget Statement will also include more details on sub-national budget allocation (to provinces and municipalities).
BPU will periodically organize Steering Committee meetings to involve high level officials of the government in budgeting processes and procedures.
The unit will also take responsibility to communicate budgets and achievements in terms of its implementation to Civil Society and general public. This will be achieved through organizing civil society workshops and sharing all budgetary information on the website.
BPU will continue its efforts to manage the budgetary reforms across the country. Currently Pro-poor and Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) are the two major reforms. The unit will be responsible to identify, trackand report on the pro-poor expenditures during the year. For better analysis of specific needs and adequate allocation of resources to both gender (male, female and other social groups), facilitating measurable improvements in women’s lives and status, the Unit will also implement the Gender Responsive Budgeting.