In his budget speech, we read that Famara Jatta is resorting to a
Cash Budgeting System. Well, let's take a look at what that is and what it
means to the ordinary Gambian. A Cash Budget - from business
perspective - is a projection of the amount of money coming in and
going out. It shows that if everything goes according to plans, you'll have
enough money to take care of your obligations as they become due. With
a properly prepared Cash Flow Budget, you should know if you can or
cannot afford to do things you want to. For businesses, Cash Flow
Budgets are usually prepared on a monthly basis beginning with the
amount of money in the bank and showing the forecasted receipts (cash
inflow) and payments (cash outflow) to arrive at the expected cash
balance at the end of the month. Cash Flow Budgeting is repetitive
budgeting in its extreme form and will prove to be a major deficiency in
our budgetary process because it will coexist with uncertainty. How many
times has Yahya Jammeh commandeered huge sums of money from the
government coffers to satisfy his personal agendas like buying second
hand generators that never work during election time? Is Fams trying to
accommodate such impulsive expenditures by introducing Repetitive
Budgeting and calling it a Cash Budget System?
Supposedly, this system should set ceilings for every spending unit.
Guess who's going to be the first to break the ceiling set for his unit.
Why didn't Fams disclose the so-called ceilings for all the spending units?
He laments that it is crucial to restrict expenditure to budgetary
allocations, but guess what? The budgetary allocation will keep changing in
accordance with dictates of his highness the Emperor of Kanilai. Who is
Fams fooling?
What may happen as a result of repetitive budgeting is that the entire
recurrent budget might be funded on an incremental basis - with no
systematic planning involved. Budgetary negotiations and reliance on
Supplemental Appropriations becomes common practice and eventually,
the erosion of budget discipline. It is obvious what would happen to
accountability henceforth. I think Fams knows better!
Inadequate expenditure control and lack of accountability is obviously
our major issue. The lack of control of the rate of growth of public
expenditures has resulted in chronic fiscal deficits in our case. Moreover,
lack of stringent expenditure control measures is making it almost
impossible to determine whether funds appropriated for specific
purposes are spent efficiently and effectively where that determination is
extremely important. Does performance targets exist for government
agencies and are these evaluated or compared with their actual work
accomplishments? The audits intended to deter fraud, waste, and
mismanagement of public funds are not adequately performed if and
when attempted. Due to the inadequacy of budgetary control and
accountability, corruption is common game. For the budget to be an
effective tool for financial control, a functional auditing system must
exist. Ideally, such a system should ensure a high degree of
accountability in government where public officials are held responsible
for their actions and performance. In addition, auditing should be applied
to assess the performance of government units during specific periods of
time.
Can we associate the inadequate budgetary control and accountability in
Gambia with lack of a strong and functional legislative branch of
government? We all know that just a few actors dominate the budgetary
process in Gambia. Thus, budget transparency or openness is virtually
non-existent. The result is that of closed budget procedures where public
expenditure management is confined to a small group of public officials
who make unchecked budgetary decisions.
(more coming)
-BambaLaye
==============================================
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
-Martin Luther King Jr.
====================================================
"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have
acted, the
indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the
voice of justice
when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph."
-Halle Selassie I
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
