Public Sector Governance and Accountability Series: Budgeting and ...

510 Alta Fölscher
2004
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
2005
January
February
March
Medium-term policy review
(Top-down)
Cabinet lekgotla
(strategic planning)
New spending
priorities are
considered.
MTBPS is tabled.
Cabinet lekgotla
Macroeconomic assumptions,
fiscal policy framework, and
division of revenue are
revised.
Cabinet approves new MTEF.
National budget and provincial
budgets are tabled.
Departmental and agency
planning and budgeting
(Bottom-up)
Departments
prepare budget
proposals.
Medium-term expenditure
committee hearings are held.
Budget
documentation
is prepared.
Source: National Treasury of South Africa 2004b.
FIGURE 15.1 The Budget Process, Fiscal Year 2004/05
Although a sequenced budget process has been a necessary part of
reforms, the establishment of budgetary rules and improvements in transparency
and accountability has made as important a contribution to creating
a credible budget system.
Key Budgetary Institutions
Institutionalizing of an MTEF
The MTEF operates at the center of the South African budget reforms and
frames, in the final instance, all policy discussions in the country. In the case
of South Africa, the benefits of the MTEF have been realized, in part,
through the application of clear objectives. The first of these objectives has
been to ensure affordable program budgets through the preparation of
spending plans within the context of existing macroeconomic and fiscal