PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

142 I PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
The reform means that a comprehensive and unified budget proposal is
presented to the Riksdag by the Swedish Government at the beginning
of the autumn when Parliament assembles and is considered for three
months. The budget proposal contains a proposed expenditure ceiling
for central government spending. The budget is approved in two stages.
In the first stage the Riksdag approves the expenditure ceiling and
spending limits for 27 expenditure areas on the basis of proposals
submitted to it by the Committee on Finance. In the second stage, the
Riksdag approves appropriations for various purposes within each
expenditure area on the basis of proposals submitted by the various
specialist committees. The sum total of appropriations in each expenditure
area may not exceed the previously determined limits.
In Senegal, an increased measure of parliamentary influence over the shape
of the government budget has been achieved since 1998, with the introduction
of a procedure for debate on the budget’s main features prior to the
presentation of a full budget to parliament. This example below is based on
an innovation introduced in the French Parliament two years previously:
The budget orientation debate is held during the session preceding the
one that adopts the budget. It is an opportunity for parliamentarians
to influence the choices made by the Government. It takes place as
follows:
a. The Finance Committee debate. The Minister of Finance reads and
submits an introductory report on budget orientation in the Finance
Committee. After the debate in the Finance Committee, a deputy
draws up a report for the plenary of the National Assembly.
b. The plenary debate. The plenary considers the report and then holds
a general debate on the deputies’ concerns regarding the budget
allocations. The deputies try to put forward their priorities, which
are not necessarily the same as the Government’s.
In Zimbabwe, parliament’s scrutiny process is divided into a pre-budget
phase of review by committees of the spending bids of the individual
ministries, and a phase after the budget is formally presented, when, in addition
to further review by sectoral committees, the Budget, Finance and
Economic Development Committee prepares a composite report on the budget’s
macroeconomic framework and overall priorities. Before the reforms of
1998 which introduced this procedure, ‘Parliament dealt with the budget in an
ad hoc fashion. The budget was crafted by the Executive and passed by