Gov’t set to launch budget process for 2010/2011 today

In order to accelerate efficient management of public resources, government will, today Tuesday, officially launch the budget process for the fiscal year 2010/2011. The move will see budget circulars distributed in government institutions. This follows alignment of Rwanda’s fiscal calendar to the East African Community’s (EAC) as mandated by the EAC treaty. Beginning July this year, the government started implementing a new budget calendar that runs from July to June of the following year, as opposed to the old calendar, which used to run from January to December. In an interview with Business Times on Saturday, Elias Baingana, the Director General of National Budget at Ministry of Finance, revealed that the budget process would be launched during the government retreat. “This is the first time it is being done officially (launching the budget process for people to participate). Government institutions will start preparing for the budget that we are going to table in parliament in April next year,” he said, underscoring that this will pave way for government institutions to start preparing their respective budgets that will be incorporated into the national financial plan for next year. Baingana also stressed that the process will facilitate government institutions to adequately plan for resources that are expected to be financed by the national resource envelope. “What we have observed is that institutions have not been getting enough time to plan and prepare budgets that respond to the needs of the beneficiaries. This is intended to address that gap,” he said, referring to the previous budget process where budget circulars were issued in May as the financial year began in January. The budget call circular Baingana explained, is aimed at giving advance information to facilitate timely coordination and effective planning within sectors to allow formulation of policy based budgets with individual budget agencies at a later stage. “It is meant to provide advance information- kind of alert government institutions that it is time to start planning the budget coming for the next year, “The circular contains information, what should be done; how planning should be done now and how that planning should be linked to the budget that will submitted next year.” Rwanda’s 2010/11 fiscal year will be the second to align with the EAC’s budget calendar since the country joined the community mid 2007. Burundi is yet to align to the calendar of EAC member states Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Ends

News

Gov’t set to launch budget process for 2010/2011 today