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

2
The Budget and Its Coverage
SALVATORE
SCHIAVO-C AMPO
T
he government budget is often viewed as a purely technical
assemblage of words and numbers, to be left to the bureaucrats
and a few politicians. In reality the government budget is at the center
of public policy and the development prospects of a country.
Under legitimate governance, the government is expected to fulfill
the roles and respect the limitations decided by society. Those roles
are articulated into policy objectives—quantitative ones, such as
raising the literacy rate by a certain amount, or qualitative ones,
such as correcting market imperfections. Some of these policy
objectives may be met by issuing regulations or prescriptions,
granting loan guarantees, or intervening in other ways that do not
require direct and immediate expenditure. Most policy objectives,
however, require financial resources, which can come only from the
public in the form of taxes and fees—and, for most African countries,
are complemented by aid from external partners.
The fundamental principle of fiscal management in countries
with good governance is that the executive branch of government
can neither take moneys from the public nor make any expenditure
from those moneys, except by explicit approval of the legislature as
the representative organ of the citizens. Consequently, properly
understood, the budget should be the financial mirror of society’s
economic and social choices and, thus, at the very center of the
country’s governance structure. As such, the budget is anything but
a mere technical document and should reflect all components of
good governance.
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