'Unskilled MPs rubberstamp budget'

Staff Writer | Tuesday September 14, 2010 00:00

 

Although the National Assembly annually debates and approves the national budget as a part of its core duties, ministry officials note that the quality of interrogation is undermined by the legislators' 'inadequate capacity'.

Speaking at a meeting of International Public Service Accounting Standards (IPSAS) last week, the Acting Assistant Accountant General, Leungo Mafokate, identified lack of capacity as being among several concerns associated with the national budgetary process in Botswana.

'The legislature appears to be rubberstamping the budget as proposed by the executive,' Mafokate said. 'The skills capacity level of the legislature is inadequate, hence the rubberstamping during budget interrogations after the budget speech.'

He proposed the empowerment and engagement of MPs and society in general, saying this was key to a more rigorous budgetary process, going forward.

'Strategic and deliberate change is advised,' he said. 'Stakeholder participation is key, going forward. There is no law stipulating public access to information, the budget included, (nor is such) access prohibited.

'Legislation needs to accommodate the needs and rights of various stakeholders. The budget needs to talk to people outside the accountancy profession.'

While MPs have previously argued that inadequate access to budgetary information and the budgetary process inhibited their ability to interrogate the financial plan adequately, many commentators believe legislators do not possess the requisite knowledge to dissect, interpret and debate the budget.

These arguments came to the fore in 2004 during a debate on the State of the Nation address when the MP for Letlhakeng East, Gordon Mokgwathi, called for the use of the Gini Coefficient to gauge national wealth distribution as opposed to GDP per capita income.

The late Minister of Finance, Baledzi Gaolathe, explained that while the Gini Coefficient could describe income distribution, it could not measure poverty, whose eradication was a key government goal.

However, Gaolathe noted that when the Gini Coefficient was applied, it demonstrated improvements in rural and urban income distributions.

Most MPs were tight-lipped during this discussion, with only a few asking why 'highly technical' terms were being introduced into debating the State of the Nation address