Mozambique has slightly improved its score in the Open Budget Index, rising from 38 to 41 percent.
The Index assessment is a global initiative of civil society organisations in 115 countries coordinated by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), with the collaboration in Mozambique of the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP).
The results presented yesterday in Maputo show that Mozambique obtained 41 percent, an improvement of three percentage points compared to the last study, which was carried out in 2015.
“It’s encouraging, but not as radical as we expected,” study author Jorge Matine says. Mozambique now fits into the profile of offering “limited information” to the public, but is only one point below the global average of 42 points.
Matine believes that Mozambique could easily rise in the ranking if it published half-yearly State Budget reports. “Internally it already has the data, it just does not do it for lack of interest,” she says. Another helpful measure would be publishing a medium-term fiscal scenario.
Other southern African countries covered by the study include South Africa, which leads the region with 89 percentage, offering “exhaustive information”. Angola scored 25 points, providing only “minimal information”, and Lesotho scored none.
This is the fourth report on the index produced by the CIP, during which time Mozambique’s results have fluctuated from 28 points in 2010 to 47 in 2012, 38 in 2015 and 41 in 2017.
The study recommends that the government publish a pre-budget statement on the Internet and a biannual review, and also broadens the information available on the budget proposal.
In other aspects assessed by the study, Mozambique has a poor score on public participation (7 percent), but adds up to 37 percent in fiscal surveillance – a score that, although low, seems high for the country where the hidden debt scandal occurred , Margarida Martins from the Observatório do Mundo Rural (OMR) said at the presentation session.
Two billion dollars of debt was contracted in 2013 and 2014 by three public companies, with state guarantees issued outside the law and without institutional scrutiny.
Jorge Matine told Lusa that the hidden debts scandal was not yet reflected in the Open Budget Transparency Index, which only covers the period to December 31, 2016, at which time there was still no reference to hidden debts in official documents.
The topic eventually led to an exchange of views among those present at yesterday’s presentation, considering that it was necessary in Mozambique to apply legislation that already exists, rather than create new laws or enforcement entities.-Lusa
