LAW AND BUDGET SYSTEM PRACTICES IN MALI MINISTRY OF FINANCE REPUBLIC OF MALI ---------- One People – One Goal – One Faith General Directorate of Budget -------------- ---------- 5TH CABRI ANNUAL SEMINAR LAW AND BUDGET SYSTEM PRACTICES IN MALI Abdoulaye TOURE Director General of Budget

SUMMARY Insight on the source of Law and budget practices Introduction Budget timeline Insight on the governmental phase Formulation of the policy and budget alternatives Role of the National Assembly Flexibility in the transparency of the budget implementation Challenges

The sources of budget legislation and practices The Constitution of the 25th February 1992; The Budget Law Act, (No. 96-060 of the 4th November 1996 The Basic Principles of Public Accounting Act, (No. 96-061 of the 4th November 1996 WAEMU guidelines and convergence criteria Economic and financial programmes Budget reform programmes

INTRODUCTION - Constitution :(adopted by referendum on the 12th of January 1992 and promulgated by the decree No. 92-073/P-CTSP of the 25th February 1992) Article 53 : The Government determines and leads the policy of the Nation and has authority over the Administration and the Armed Forces. Article 54 : The Government is responsible to the National Assembly under the conditions and following the procedures as contemplated in articles 78 and 79. Article 38 : The operations of execution of the State budget are subject to a triple administrative, jurisdictional and parliamentary scrutiny. The principles of the Budget law that controls the practices according to the Financial regulations Yearly basis (Annuality)- Art.24 (the financial year starts the 1st of January and ends the 31st of December of the same calendar year. The budget implementation complies with the management system accompanied by a complementary period of advice of payment which may not exceed one month.) Universality - Art. 23 All revenue and expenditure must be entered in full without any adjustment against each other. Unity- Art. 22 The budget consists of all the accounts that describe, for a calendar year, the total permanent resources and expenditures of the State. Specificity -Art. 10 … The funds are allocated to a service or a set of services. They are specified per chapter, grouping the expenditures according to its nature or its allocation.

Budget Timeline Article 65 of the Constitution: The National Assembly by rights meets in two ordinary sessions per year. The first session opens on the first Monday of the month of October. It cannot exceed a period of seventy-five days. The second session opens on the first Monday of the month of April and cannot exceed a period of ninety days. Article 77 of the Constitution “The Finance Bill is submitted to the National Assembly on the opening of the ordinary session preceding the budget period”. On the basis of this constitutional time period, the full government timeline for the preparation and approval of the Finance Bill is determined.

Insight on the governmental phase of the budget timeline Time period of 4 to 6 weeks reserved for the Secondary Authorizing Officers to prepare the budget drafts; Budget circulars : May Budget arbitrations : Technical and ministerial :July – August Council of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet : Beginning of September Review and adoption of the Finance Draft Bill of the year n+1 by the Cabinet meeting : Mid-September Submission of the Finance Bill and of the Budget Execution Bill of the year n – 1: End of September

Article 47 of the Finance Act. “Should the budget not be approved before the beginning of the fiscal year to which it relates, the Government is authorized to undertake appropriations by a provisional of one twelfth, on the basis of the recurrent expenditures of the previous fiscal year “.

Formulation Foundation of the formulation of the budget Economic and social development project of the President of the Republic; General policy statement of the Prime Minister; C.S.C.R.P. and macro-economics and Medium Term Budget framework (rolling); Convergence criteria of the Budget policies within the WAEMU; Economic and financial programmes agreed upon with the technical and financial partners…

Role of the National Assembly Amendment : Article 81 of the rules and procedures of the National Assembly stipulates that « Can only be introduced in the deliberations on Budget or in the deliberations regarding the provision for appropriations or additional appropriations some provisions aimed directly at the revenue and spending of the budget year : No proposal of resolution, interpellation, motivated agenda can be added, and no additional item can be presented there, except if it tends to cancel or reduce expenditure , to create or increase revenue or to ensure the control of the public spending. The amendments relative to the spending statement can only concern the chapters of the said statement. Article 77 of the Constitution :If the National Assembly does not pronounce itself before the opening of the budget period or does not vote the budget, the Government refers the Budget Draft within fifteen days to the National Assembly convened for that purpose in a extraordinary session. The National Assembly must then give a decision within eight days. If this deliberation does not result in a vote on the budget, this is then established without consultation by the Government on the basis of the revenue of the previous fiscal year and after recommendation of the Supreme Court.

Flexibility of the budget implementation Decree of the Prime Minister relative to the allocation per item – paragraph of appropriations made available to the general budget; Increase of the appropriations by decree on advances; Transfers and Virements of appropriations; Increase of appropriations made available as a special appropriation account within the limits of the revenue surpluses by decree of the Minister of Finance; Cancellation of the appropriations which became not implemented during the execution phase.

Budget implementation Budget Credibility indicators (PEFA) * Current budget expenditures always contained within the limits of the parliamentary authorisation * The gap between the estimates of the domestic revenue et the ones effectively achieved didn’t exceed 8 % * Domestic and external debt payment within the time period * Existence of potential unpaid debts less than 10 % of the expenditures. The possibilities of budgetary adjustment. Roughly it is about the regulation standards which are determined by the Finance Act. ANNEX IV – statement D : Quarterly appropriations for the current expenditures other than the ones relative to the personnel Biannual appropriations for personnel expenditures Opening of payment appropriations on request Transfer and Virements Freezing of appropriations. * The Amending Finance Law : Article 2 of the Finance Act, No.96-060 “The Amending Finance Laws… amend during the course of the year the Finance Act provisions of the year”. From 2002 to 2008, there were no more than 2 supplementary Finance Bills .

Fiscal transparency The Finance Act is made public. No restriction exists regarding its dissemination to the public. Since 2008, the introduction of measures to make available the budget alternatives of the Finance Act in the principal national languages. The legal information annexes to the Finance Bill : Report defining the financial balance, the result of the execution of the Finance Act of the previous year, the result of the execution as on the 30th of June of the in-year Finance Act and perspectives; Annexe introducing per chapter and item, the voted services costs and new measures; Annexe regarding the phasing out of payments for future years resulting from the authorisation of programmes.

The list of the Treasury special accounts (the budget options ); Full list and evaluation of any form of taxes of a like nature; Investment operations funded by the external resources for which the management is not done by the direct accountants of the Treasury; Capital expenditure set; Monthly projected Treasury Plan; Projected Standards of the appropriation regulation; Statement of the outstanding payments as well as of the outstanding debt of the State; Any other annex intended for the National Assembly for information and scrutiny purposes.

Challenges : Modernisation Improve the participation in the budget process in these different phases : Preparation, Execution Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability ; Improve the budget timeline thus giving more time to the Secondary Authorising Officials and to the Credit Administrators ; Establish the results-based management with the programme budgeting et strengthen the multiyear estimates; Strengthen the Budget deconcentration and decentralisation Finalise the entire spending chain in order to make available the budget information as soon as possible ; Strengthen the alignment of partners on the budget management country system through the harmonised calendar of Reviews with the budget cycle.