1. Report on Pilot Questionnaire Results
Budget Frameworks
Budget Comprehensiveness
Off-budget expenditure
Revenue and Expenditure Classification
Alta Fölscher and Mickie Schoch

2. CABRI questionnaire on budgeting practices
Why questionnaire?
Database of budget practices in African countries for reference and research
New information: identification of aggregate trends
New presentation format for annual seminar: variation in type of session
Pilot questionnaire
Is it useful?
What can be done differently?
What other themes can be explored?

3. Report 5 sections 10 countries completed, 8 analysed
General information on budgeting institutions
Budget framework for central government
Comprehensiveness
Classification
Budget documentation
10 countries completed, 8 analysed
Still time to complete for post-seminar documentation

4. General information on budgeting institutions
Most countries have
legal framework, but not always comprehensive or followed
Clear and comprehensive timetable for budget, but it is not necessarily followed
Central budget office mostly in the Ministry of Finance and has senior civil servant at helm.
One country central budget office split
Some have political appointees as head
Different countries different relationship between centre and line
Majority line ministry budget offices report directly to finance ministry (devolution of responsibility and accountability?)

5. Do budget frameworks assist in coordination?
Most countries report using relatively sophisticated central government budget frameworks to coordinate macro-economic, fiscal and budget policy
Most countries follow good practice rules concerning sequencing of decisions for budget frameworks and have arrangements to ensure the coordination and quality of information going into the central government frameworks.
However, in most countries less attention is paid to ensuring the comprehensiveness of information considered during the fiscal and budget policy processes. Most countries have less than 20% of donor resources included in fiscal frameworks, and do not include extra-budgetary funds, fiscal operations in the wider public sector or contingent liabilities.

6. Role of central government frameworks
Central government budget frameworks commonly used to coordinate macro-economic, fiscal and budget policy
Most countries have explicit fiscal policy process, resulting in medium term fiscal policy…
…and have a consistent framework stating targets or ceilings for main aggregates…

7. Most countries subject to external fiscal interventions
Half of the responding countries are subject to fiscal limitations
and most are subject to fiscal interventions by regional or international institutions.
Three quarters reported IMF and/or World Bank involved, half as a condition for loans.

8. Managing uncertainty and change
Most countries have an explicit fiscal prudence factor built into the economic assumptions which reduces the final economic estimates…
Most countries reported including reserve funds in the budget framework to cushion against macro-economic uncertainty and unforeseen expenditure
But contingent liabilities mostly not considered
Some countries update fiscal framework during spending year, but most stick to targets for revenue and borrowing and adjust expenditure upwards or downwards

9. Central government budget framework: who is involved?
Fiscal policy process involve diverse sources of information
On average 4, in some cases 7 institutions involved
But mechanisms exist to coordinate information
Cabinet approves fiscal framework in only two countries
Mostly done at level of finance ministry

10. Central Government Budget Framework: accuracy
Most countries use models to forecast main macro-economic variables
But more than half reported that method to estimate current GDP not always transparent and that future revenues given current tax policy are not modeled
Only two countries allow independent review of main assumptions before publication
Most countries reported only small variations between estimated and actual fiscal aggregates

11. Budget comprehensiveness (i)
Donor funds
Most countries reported that less than 20% of donor funds are considered in the fiscal policy process
Donor funds that do not flow through government accounts not included
Most countries do not consider long-term effect of donor spending
But most publish information on donor conditionalities

12. Budget comprehensiveness (ii)
Extra-budgetary funds and the wider public sector
Half of countries occasionally include projected impact of fiscal operations in wider public sector, but only quarter do so systematically
Most countries do not include information on extra-budgetary funds
Most countries have only limited frameworks for general government
Transfers shown but not broken down
Subnational government own revenue not included

13. Classification (i)
Most use consistent classification, allowing for a single ‘version of truth’ and consolidation
Most countries have undergone substantial classification reforms in past decade
Government accounts are not comprehensive
Only half the countries receipts and payments included general government sector appear in government account
Majority only include domestically-financed transactions
Majority of countries have well-defined rules to distinguish between current and capital expenditures
How capital expenditures are financed differs from country to country

14. Classification (ii)
Half the countries appropriate financing for investment incrementally; recurrent cost implications usually incorporated in budget documents
Significant percentage of public investment is donor financed
In most countries, appropriations are divided in development and recurrent budgets, but are commonly by a single ministry
The development budget against recurrent budget defined differently across countries (largely on account of external resources)
Classification not always used consistently across

15. Budget documentation
Most countries report that budget documentation forms effective demand for information in budget process
Scope of budget documentation
Few countries publish comprehensive fiscal frameworks that include fund flows outside of main appropriations
Significant contextual information now included, particularly regarding macro-economic and fiscal outlook and policies and tax policy
Most countries reflect multiple classification dimensions in documentation