Pre-Budget indaba is no holiday getaway

Zvamaida Murwira Mr Speaker Sir
Members of Parliament are converging in Victoria Falls this week for a pre-Budget consultative conference to brainstorm on the 2015 national budget to be presented by Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa before year end. The conference offers legislators an opportunity to interact with Minister Chinamasa to exchange views on Budget formulation.

At the conference all Government departments would meet to brainstorm on how the economic projections underpinned by Zim-Asset can be achieved.

The conference should not be just a hotel thing where legislators take it as an opportunity to refresh away from the capital.

Instead, they should seize the opportunity to critically analyse ways to formulate the 2015 national Budget in a manner that would enhance the spirit of Zim-Asset.

There is a tendency by some people to trivialise conferences and take a business as usual approach instead of taking the opportunity to seriously brainstorm on possible fiscal measures the Finance Minister should consider.

The pre-Budget conference presents to legislators an opportunity for them to discharge some of their constitutional roles which are of representation and oversight.

They need to take Government ministers to task on why things are not moving in their portfolios and proffer solutions where possible.

The rainy season is upon us, what is Government doing in terms of provision of inputs.

Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Dr Joseph Made has been given a slot to deliver a paper on the agriculture status. It is an opportunity for the legislators to interrogate agricultural policies if they indeed help in enhancing productivity.

If there are deficiencies in the policies again, the Minister would be at their disposal to ask for answers.

No need to overemphasise that all this should be done in the spirit of separation of powers as enshrined in the Constitution which clearly defines roles of the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary.

There is also a tendency by Government ministers to blame Treasury for every omission or commission.

At this conference, fiscal authorities will be represented at the highest level, meaning by the minister.

It is common cause that the national cake is small but legislators need to know what Government is doing to expand it and there is also need for them to provide possible solutions on how the cake should be shared.

There seems to be agreement that raising revenue should not only be confined to taxing people because they are already overtaxed.

There is, therefore, need to seek convergence on how Government revenue could be raised and one way is to maximise revenue from the natural resources of the country.

It is common cause that Zim-Asset is the compass of all Government programmes.

Legislators need to realise that they face an onerous task of formulating the national Budget that should help in steering the country’s economy to prosperity.

To start with, one ordinarily expects legislators coming to such platforms to have adequately consulted their constituencies in terms of what they want included in the Budget. This should go a long way in enriching their contributions that would in turn help Finance Minister Chinamasa in his Budget formulation.

They need to know the budget envelope that the Ministry of Finance would be working with so that they would advise Ministries and their constituencies accordingly so as not to create wild expectations.

The Victoria Falls conference provides an opportunity for legislators to interact with economic think-tanks who have been lined up to speak. These include the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Dr John Mangundya, labour economist Dr Godfrey Kanyenze, municipal expert Mr Percy Toriro, Econet wireless chief executive officer, Mr Douglas Mboweni, among others.

The conference should sharpen legislators with critical skills that would strengthen them in analysing the Budget, once it is tabled.

A thorny issue on national budget debate is the whipping system by political parties.

The challenge of whipping is not something that is peculiar to one political party or even one country because political parties also have to protect their interests in parliament so that they are in tandem with their manifestos.

What legislators need to do is to strike a balance between the desire by political parties to safeguard their political interests and the need to serve the people by objectively, and critically analysing the Budget both in terms of fiscal policy framework and distribution of the resource envelope.

We have seen in the past, particularly during the inclusive government, where debate would sometimes be decimated due to the whipping system.

This has had the effect of frustrating legislators particularly the portfolio committee on Budget and finance that would be expecting robust debate on the Budget.

The committee would expect a robust debate on the report they would have presented after they make public hearings countrywide.

That brings us to another pertinent, related point.

This is November, the portfolio committee on budget and finance is to conduct public hearings on the 2015 national Budget. Presentation of the national Budget is just around the corner and one wonders whether time would be enough for the committee to move around the country seeking people’s views.

The new constitution places immense importance on public consultation on a given subject.

Section 141 of the Constitution provides as follows; “Parliament must (a) facilitate public involvement in its legislative and other processes and in the processes of its committees.

(b) ensure that interested parties are consulted about Bills being considered by Parliament unless such consultation is inappropriate or impracticable.”

Coming to the Budget itself, legislators need to read the blue book for them to have an appreciation of budget votes that each Government Ministry or department would be allocated. There has been embarrassing incidents when portfolio committees invite ministries to hear their views on their allocation.

Legislators would express ignorance on what a ministry before it was given. As a result, essential time is lost as the ministry official walks through the Budget votes instead of devoting time to analysing the estimates.

What it means is that Members of Parliament should adequately research before inviting ministries.

In the final analysis, there is need to make use of the pre-Budget conference.

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