The minister also said that there was some inherited bureaucratic culture that needs to be reformed. Everyone must work together for openness as there is still room for improvement
The budget is now more transparent than ever before, but everyone has to work together to make it more accessible, said Planning Minister MA Mannan on Monday.
He was speaking as the chief guest at a virtual event titled “Open Budget Survey 2021: Findings and Reflections,” organized by the Research and Policy Integration for Development (Rapid).
“However, there is disruption in the flow of some information. This is due to various reasons,” he added.
The minister also said that there was some inherited bureaucratic culture that needs to be reformed. Everyone must work together for openness as there is still room for improvement.
“There are electric boards outside my office, where all the information about all the projects is given. This is how everyone has to work together,” he added.
Mustafa Murshed, deputy secretary of the Ministry of Finance, said that the country is moving forward and the economic capacity of the country has increased.
“Bangladesh has undergone an economic transition. As the size of GDP increased, efficiency also increased,” he added.
Regarding the Open Budget Survey (OBS) 2021, he said that some challenges were mentioned such as not being able to produce documents on time.
“Actually, we want a complete, resource-full and error-free report, which requires a lot of checks and cross-checks,” he added.
That’s why there is a four month gap in uploading data. But they are working to keep a gap of three months.
SM Rashidul Islam, general secretary of the Economic Reporters Forum (ERF), said that earlier, there were pre-budget discussions with journalists, economists, businessmen and other stakeholders. But it has not happened for several years.
“Where the budget discussion goes on for a month before the budget formulation, the reflection of the budget is very little. Rather, the discussion is more from the philosophy of the political parties,” he added.
Moreover, the ADPs are not being discussed with the stakeholders. The projects are also being taken according to the preferences of the influential members of the cabinet, he added.
Sayema Haque Bidisha, research director of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (Sanem) said that although there is a lot of discussion about the budget, there is not much discussion about the process.
“A few things can be adopted to make the whole process of budgeting more meaningful. These include reducing delays and bringing in dynamism. The budget should be made transparent and participatory, and it should be made sure that the implementation aligns with our development philosophy,” she added.
For this, challenges need to be addressed through monitoring and evaluation.
“We should identify problems through observation and find solutions too,” he added.
Moreover, the budget has to be coordinated with other projects like the five-year plan, perspective plan etc.
In the keynote presentation, M Abu Eusuf, executive director of the Rapid said that OBS is the world’s only independent, comparative and fact-based research instrument that uses internationally accepted criteria to assess public access to the central government’s budget information.
“The survey helps local civil society assess and confer with their government on the reporting and use of public funds. This 8th edition of the OBS of 2021 covers 120 countries. In OBS 2021, Bangladesh’s ranking was 95 out of 120 countries,” he added.
In the field of transparency, Bangladesh scored 30 out of 100 while scoring 13 out of 100 in the field of public participation and 39 out of 100 in the budget oversight field.
In the presentation, Professor Eusuf made a set of recommendations like publishing the pre-budget statement, in-year reports and year-end report online in a timely manner.
In-year reports should be produced and published online within three months after the end of the reporting period, and the year-end report should be published within one year of the end of the reporting period.
Moreover, produce and publish the mid-year review online in a timely manner. The comprehensiveness of the enacted budget will be improved by publishing details on expenditures and revenues.
He also recommended ensuring that participants of pre-budget deliberations have sufficient prior information to participate meaningfully, and that inputs are considered during budget formulation.
The executive’s budget proposal should be submitted to legislators at least two months before the start of the budget year and legislative committees should examine the executive’s budget proposal and publish reports with their analysis online.
MA Razzaq, chairman of the Rapid, moderated the event while Atiur Rahman, former governor of Bangladesh Bank chaired the event.
