Phased approach will be taken to establish Parliamentary Budget Office

Aug 14, 2015 News

Considering the fact that a Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) will bring savings, efficiency and value-for-money, Finance Minister Winston Jordan disclosed that a phased approach will be taken to establish such an office for Guyana.
He expressed this sentiment during his 2015 Budget presentation on Monday.
Jordan told the National Assembly that there has been a movement, mainly in developing countries, to establish a PBO. He said that in Canada, the PBO supports Parliament in exercising its oversight role in the Government’s stewardship of public funds by ensuring budget transparency and promoting informed public dialogue, with an aim to implement sound economic and fiscal policies in Canada.
In Australia, the Finance Minister said that the role of the PBO is to inform the Parliament by providing independent and non-partisan analysis of the budget cycle, fiscal policy and the financial implications of proposals.
In Guyana’s case, he recalled that Presidential Advisor on Sustainable Development, Dr. Clive Thomas, strongly advocated for the establishment of such an Office.
Jordan noted that the Government finds the idea attractive and worthy of pursuing in the medium term. He expressed that the phased approach to the establishment of such an Office and will start by examining the scope and functioning of the Public Accounts Committee.
For nearly 23 years, there has been the longstanding issue of distrust in statistics regarding the performance of the country when it was produced by the previous government. It is believed by several economists and business analysts that a PBO would serve to restore faith in statistics when provided by the new government.
In an interview with this newspaper, Dr. Thomas had emphasised that, “a Budget Office is extremely important to the National Assembly. In fact, it was pioneered by the USA, but the office is one that should be tasked with several important responsibilities”.
“It will give Parliamentarians an economic office that will allow them to make demands and test the validity of statistics brought by the government. It will also help them to measure various programmes to be brought from government. The office should be another important aspect of the budget debates and the general discussions of the economy.”
“But generally, most of our Members of Parliament (MPs) are not well informed on economic matters, whereas the average parliamentarian abroad tends to be more informed simply because their economy is discussed as though it’s a natural thing. So it is going to be empowering for the MPs, particularly those in the opposition, as they will be able to have this office at their disposal. They can enjoy the benefits of an initiative they neglected for so many years.”
Dr. Thomas had noted that under the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) there were some essential questions raised about the integrity of the data, information, calculations and statistics they provided.
The economist had said that the aforementioned was often used to inform the three principal tasks of the budget, namely: to review the economy for the period of the previous budget; to indicate the outlays and revenue measures for the budget period and to estimate the impacts on the performance of the economy of the proposed measures and targets.
He said that the value of the Budget Office in restoring faith in the national statistics cannot be underestimated. The Presidential Advisor had stressed that it is important, because it guides the nation in ascertaining whether what government proposes to do is too much, too little, or just right. (Kiana Wilburg)

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Phased approach will be taken to establish Parliamentary Budget Office

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