How parliamentary budget offices help MPs hold the line, across Africa
They are a crucial bridge between the highly technical knowledge of finance departments and the MPs who must hold politicians to account
Close scrutiny of government spending and revenue collection is key to Parliament fulfilling its constitutional mandate of maintaining oversight over executive action and policy implementation. The parliamentary budget office, established in 2013, is a way to enhance this oversight. The Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act of 2009, made its establishment possible and also established Parliament’s standing and select committees on finance and standing and select committees on appropriations. The act, with its genesis in the Constitution’s provision that: "an act of Parliament must provide for a procedure to amend money bills before Parliament", has empowered Parliament to make adjustments to the budget as a whole, as well as to the budgets of specific national government departments and entities. Before the act, Parliament could either approve or reject the budget, not make adjustments to it. The act places great responsibility on Parliament. This responsibility ha...
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