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Zimbabwe is hosting the 5th African Network of Parliamentary Budget Offices (AN-PBO) which will be exploring the different roles played by African PBOs in supporting their Parliaments’ fiscal oversight over the Executive.
In his keynote address during the official opening of the workshop today, Mr. Kennedy M. Chokuda, the Clerk of Parliament of Zimbabwe said the gathering is a platform for knowledge and experience sharing on good practices, concepts, challenges, and opportunities related to the design, establishment, and operation of PBOs in Africa.
“I am glad that the topic that I have been asked to speak on in my keynote, “The Role of parliamentary oversight in an environment of Geopolitical uncertainty, global economic downturns, and in emergencies like COVID-19 in relation to the 2063 development agenda” echoes in everyone in this room who has had their normal life and business disrupted by the Covid 19 pandemic.
“As with every institution and organization globally, parliaments were not spared from disruptions by the global pandemic. The 2020 and 2021 ANPBO Conferences were no exception as they were suspended due to the Covid 19 pandemic. I am reliably informed that the South African PBO, hosted the first three ANPBO conferences in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The 2019 edition of the ANPBO Annual Assembly which was the fourth in a row was hosted by the Ghanaian PBO in Accra, Ghana. This conference, therefore, would not have come at an opportune time than this, given the serious challenges our countries are facing on the economic, social, and political front due to the emerging geopolitical tensions and the covid 19 pandemic. In such emergencies, the need for more transparency and accountability in financial matters is now more crucial than ever,” Mr. Chokuda said.
Parliaments are critical state institutions whose functionality is a prerequisite to democratic growth, economic development, and poverty reduction. As such, geopolitical uncertainties, global economic downturns, and emergencies demand the assertiveness of Legislatures to ensure that not only the needs of the electorate are met, but also that public money is equitably raised, well spent, and properly accounted for.
Mr. Chokuda said inherited colonial legacies and resource challenges have always presented challenges for Parliaments to innovate with a view to enhancing transparency and accountability of scarce resources.
He revealed that more often than not, the technical hegemony of the executive always dwarfs Parliament in its quest for fiscal transparency. As a result, the Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation and exposed Public Finance Management (PFM) systems to the vagaries of corruption which often thrives during times of crisis. It is during such times that institutions and oversight mechanisms are weak as the Government and other stakeholders are under pressure to disburse aid rapidly and alleviate the suffering of those affected.
“I am enthralled by this gathering of technical minds who occupy very important offices which were created from the innovativeness of our respective Parliaments, motivated by the desire to bridge the technical gap between the Legislature and the executive in PFM. Independent and unconstrained parliamentary oversight requires that there be a clear separation of powers as well as checks and balances, particularly between the legislature and the executive. Where the boundaries are diffuse and the executive is clearly and overwhelmingly more powerful than the legislature in terms of information and material resources, it is unlikely that parliament, let alone oversight committees, will be capable of sustaining a strong critical stand against the government. This was precisely the compelling case for the establishment of Parliamentary Budget Offices, to bring the legislature on an equal technical footing with the executive as far as budgeting and economic policy issues are concerned.”
The Clerk said Legislatures have an unparalleled role in ensuring that “The Africa We Want” becomes a reality. The January 2013 African Union Summit which adopted Agenda 2063 as Africa’s blueprint and master plan for sustainable development and economic growth of the continent effectively imposed a huge role on the legislatures to oversee the transformation of Africa into a global powerhouse.
Mr. Chokuda quoted the wise words of the former South African President, Thabo Mbeki who said, in his ‘I am an African’ Speech delivered on 8 May 1996
“The evolution of humanity says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes, whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now. Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace.”
In the same vein, the affirmation by African Heads of State and governments of their commitment to transforming the lives of African people by placing greater emphasis on domestic resource mobilisation is a crucial scaffold in the process of rebooting economic growth, tackling poverty, and ‘inoculating’ our countries against aid addiction and debt dependence.
With the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the burgeoning USA-China tension in Taiwan, as well as other Covid-19-induced economic slowdowns, Mr. Chokuda said Africa cannot expect the world to turn its eyes on the continent.
He added that the pandemic and its associated ramifications have seen anticipated volatility in external funding as well as creeping aid fatigue which saw Official Development Assistance (ODA) falling well short of commitments and going largely unfulfilled.
“A cursory analysis of the natural capital in Africa including its mineral resource stocks, wildlife, forestry, fisheries, and arable land among others suggests that the continent’s resources are enough to finance its own development if the right mindsets, conditions, institutional, and legal frameworks are put in place. As such, Parliament Budget Offices have a big role to play in ensuring that legislators have access to well-researched policy options to aid their oversight and legislative roles.
“The paradigm shifts of relying on domestic resources and ensuring that every Rand, every Dollar, every Kwacha, every Cedi, every Naira, every Dalasi, every Leone, Every Metical, and every Shilling is accounted for offers the advantages of greater domestic policy ownership and greater coherence with domestic needs as foreign assistance is often divorced from the local objectives but of foreign donors tied to their aid. The political economy rationale for advocating for domestic resource mobilisation also relates to issues of governance and accountability wherein governments that are heavily dependent on external resources, may become more beholden to suppliers of those resources than accountable to their own citizens.”
Mr. Chokuda said the principle started way back in 2001 with the framework document of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) emphasizing the need for Africa to strengthen domestic resource mobilization. The Addis Ababa Action Agenda (2015) reaffirms that mobilization and effective use of domestic resources, underscored by the principle of national ownership, are central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Our budget therefore should be reflective of the centrality we place on transparency and accountability.
A Budget, being a socio-economic and political document, affects the life of every citizen as it primarily involves a legitimate process of raising revenue and an equitable distribution of public resources amongst various sectors. It is the clearest expression of the government’s priorities and targets, reflecting its fiscal plans, and social and financial commitments.
“For us, a budget is a fundamental tool in the implementation of public policy and a more telling indicator of the priority accorded to ensuring the realization of our aspirations as enshrined in the agenda 2063, the SDGs, and indeed our economic blueprint, the first National Development Strategy (NDS1). The role of Parliament is therefore to bridge the gap between the grassroots and the executive as far as these national priorities and aspirations are concerned.
“Representative democracy demands a more active role of parliament in budgetary governance and budget decision-making. A former United States Secretary for the Treasury, Jacob Lew, perhaps had the answer, when he postulated: “The budget is not just a collection of numbers, but an expression of a nation’s values and aspirations”. The current US president also summed it up when he said “Show me your budget, and I will tell you what you value.” As such, legislative powers over the budget should be jealously guarded by the national legislatures because of their beholdenness to the electorate who expect nothing short of adequate checks and balances on this important fiscal tool.”
Mr. Chokuda warned that National budgets, however, often tend to be large, complex, and require technical expertise hence the need to build budget expertise within parliament cannot be overemphasized. Legislatures require reliable and unbiased information to be able to constructively participate in the budget process. It is in view of this argument that parliaments are seeing the need to establish their own Budget Offices in order to enhance their budget and financial oversight functions.
While crises and disasters are not new and inherent to the human condition, Mr. Chokuda said he was encouraged to see that over time, all societies face various crises of smaller or greater magnitude, but governance systems have to deal with them.
“For societies to develop, and thus for the quality of human life to improve over time, we need to learn how to deal with those crises so as to limit short-term devastation, and also how to take the right decisions in order to bounce back with minimum long-term damage. It is, therefore, no secret that unpredictable crises that challenge public safety and health or the stability of a society’s socioeconomic foundations put the pillars of parliamentary democracy to the test. Martha Nibley Beck an American author and life coach saw through a crisis when she said “Any deep crisis is an opportunity to make your life extraordinary in some way.”
“Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States asserted your role as the PBOs in a crisis when he said “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”With well-researched and scientifically proven analytical information from you, the oversight role of the legislature is cut out.”
As the management of such crises increases, the need to take rapid decisions, some of which significantly encroach on fundamental and civil rights, political systems resort to instruments and procedures of emergency legislation that expand the decision-making rights of governments at the expense of parliaments. Parliament will then need to strengthen its ex-post role and this calls for robust support systems. The role of our Parliament is not only limited to ex-post tracking of budgets but also enhancing the continent’s resilience against health emergencies and geo-political threats through enacting effective policies to support economies and the general populace.
The support systems are handy in the ratification of international agreements, translation of the SDGs into action-oriented national programmes that respond to country-specific development priorities, monitoring their implementation, and ensuring the government is accountable to the people for national progress on the SDGs.
Mr. Chokuda urged PBOs to thoroughly examine proposals for new programs, policies, and legislation. Parliamentarians are expected to receive reports on green recovery pathways; resilient energy and infrastructure; climate-smart food production; nature-based solutions and green value chains so that Africa can respond quickly and build long-term resilience in the wake of climate change-induced natural disasters.
He said to effectively play the oversight role in an environment of Geopolitical uncertainty, global economic downturns, and emergencies in relation to the 2063 development agenda, Parliaments must be capacitated to ensure effective oversight of government.
“They need to confirm both that the actions of government are addressing emergent needs and that government is treating citizens fairly and justly in circumstances where many are vulnerable and unable to protect themselves. Parliament must also exercise its power of the purse and approve budgets that address the crisis, from human rights, gender, youth, and disability perspectives, and again ensure that those funds are spent properly.
“The Legislature should help to ensure a balance of views and inputs in budget decisions and thus providing a platform for establishing broad based consensus with regards to difficult budgetary trade-offs, a major shift from the primitive way of preparing budgets behind locked doors in the corridors of the Ministry of Finance. The citizens expect Parliament to play a significant role in ensuring that development strategies are adequately represented in government budgets and that they take into account their citizens’ views. Parliaments must also look to ensure that there are mechanisms in place for oversight of public finance, with a view to ensuring adherence to development strategies.”