Botswana bottom in budget transparency

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Thursday February 8, 2018 10:04

 

In his official response as the Leader of Opposition (LoO), Boko said the survey measuring the governments’ budget transparency, was carried out by the International Budget Partnership and covered 102 countries across the world.

“It produced a world Open Budget Index Ranking in which Botswana fares embarrassing low,” he said.

He noted that the highest score of 89% went to two countries, South Africa and New Zealand. “Botswana ranks at eight percent in the company of Somalia, Comoros, and Zambia, with dysfunctional countries like Myanmar, Burundi and suchlike occupying the same bracket,” he said.

Boko said such low ranking proved that the Legislature provides very limited, if any, oversight during the budget cycle. He added that the Parliament of Botswana as observed by international agencies, only runs on less than 25% of the budget it needs to run effectively.

He said in other words, Botswana operates a feeble and ineffective parliamentary regime, which means in other words, it is incapable on the resources allocated to it, to carry out constitutional duties properly and effectively.

“One has only to look across the border at South Africa to see what an effective Parliament can do to hold the executive accountable. It is patently clear that the committees of this Parliament are a sorry excuse for what they should be and should be doing,” he said.