By CHUSA SICHONE –
THE Ministry of Finance says it has this year slightly changed the format of receiving submissions from the public on the National Budget following numerous complaints after the final document is presented in Parliament.
The Ministry of Finance, starting this year going forward, will not be restricting itself to only receiving written submissions from members of the public upon placing advertisements in the Press without interacting with those stakeholders behind the proposals.
Ministry of Finance Economic Management and Finance Permanent Secretary Mukuli Chikuba said the Government would now be encouraging dialogue in an open forum on the Budget.
Speaking during a 2018 Budget public hearing in Lusaka on Thursday, Mr Chikuba said the Ministry of Finance observed that the old format of receiving submissions had resulted in people complaining that some of their proposals did not reflect in the final Budget without them being told why.
“This year what we have done is to change the format a little bit, get yourselves in meetings such as the one you are having today, you deliberate, you come up with a report, we interact with you,” he said.
Mr Chikuba said officials from the Ministry of Finance were going to be present during such public meetings to take note of what was being discussed with a view to including some of the submissions in the final Budget.
Mr Chikuba also said that the Government was coming up with the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and would see which submissions would be incorporated in 2018, 2019 and 2020 budgets.
He said that efforts made to bring together civil society, religious organisations and other interested stakeholders to discuss the Budget were of paramount importance to the Government as this demonstrated that the participants were willing to participate in the development process given an opportunity to do so.
Mr Chikuba further said that the Government came up with an Economic Stabilisation and Growth Programme, which was now in document form, and that Cabinet approved it at its last sitting on Monday.
Mr Chikuba said the programme would outline what was happening in the medium-term in terms of economic recovery and Budget management.
Speaking on behalf of the consortium of civil society organisations under whose auspice the public hearing was held, Civil Society for Poverty Reduction executive director Patrick Nshindano said such meetings would ensure coordinated and enhanced submissions.
Mr Nshindanosaid that public submissions to the Budget had in the past been limited, because of the technical nature of the Ministry of Finance advertisements, but was hopeful that such meetings would result in simplifying the technical aspect and result into consolidated proposals.