Value

Action

Immediate

I have participated in the 2013 GN-PBO event.

Potential

The presentation which I found the most useful was the one delivered by Mr. Rick Stapenhurst (the World Bank) on the role of the MPs in enhancing the PBO operations and visibility.

Realized

Upon my return, I presented this information to MPs in order to encourage them to take interest in the oversight of the Executive spending through inquires in their respective Committees. I stressed the importance of fulfilling their role, namely the financial scrutiny of the government actions.

Applied

As an outcome, some champion MPs started to take interest in the oversight of the Executive actions and appreciated the value of having an operational PBO.

For example, a project delivered with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (concluded in February 2015) encouraged the Congress to introduce quarterly reports on the Executive spending to be evaluated and presented to the public by the seven Standing Congressional Committees. The PBO’s role was to prepare information for the Committees to assess the execution of the funds by each Ministry. These kind of reports were not prepared earlier on regular basis, thus the Congress oversight role was not fully exercised. I believe that due to my participation in the 2013 GN-PBO event and my discussions with the MPs on their oversight role, the project has been successfully implemented.

Even though, there are no procedural consequences for the Executive in case of over- or misspending, the MPs are able to inform the public through the media on the cases of financial mismanagement. This often creates a push for the government to improve its operations. For example, in one of the quarterly reviews of Ministry of Health and Ministry for Women, the MPs discovered that the governmental project designed to tackle youth pregnancy was not executed. No funds were spend. The MPs shared their findings with the public which altered the Executive behaviour in this regard.

Value

Action

Immediate

I have attended the 2014 GN-PBO Annual Meeting held in Ottawa, Canada where I had a chance to present the Ghana case during one of the case clinics.

Potential

I presented the Ghanaian progress towards establishing a PBO and the challenges which we faced (lack of support within the Executive and lack of a PBO legislation). The network members provided us with the following advice, which we found very useful and relevant to our situation:

• in order to gain support for a PBO establishment, champion MPs interested in the formation of the Office must be found and encouraged to support the idea;
• a PBO can be established without passing a PBO specific legislations. 

Realized

In line with the advice received, upon our return we started to encourage the Speaker to support the PBO establishment within the Ghanaian Parliament.

Applied

As an outcome, the Speaker agreed to establish an Office of Scrutiny (suggested name of the PBO). Consensus was reached with Leadership of the House  to establish the Office without the need to pass any additional legislation.

Moreover, being a member of the National Project Implementation Team on the new Public Financial Management (PFM)Reform project being implemented with the support from the World Bank and the Component Lead for the Parliamentary Oversight Sub-component of the project, I had a chance to ensure the inclusion of the Scrutiny Office in the new PFM Bill to provide the legal backing for the Office.

The final draft of the PFM Bill is going to be discussed by the key stakeholders at a forum organized by the Ministry of Finance in March 2016. Parliament has been invited to make an input and I am to present a position paper at the forum on behalf of Parliament. The inclusion of the Scrutiny Office is a key component of the paper.

Value

Action

Immediate

In 2013 two Nigerian MPs attended the 2013 GN-PBO event: Hon. Micheal Bamidele Opeyemi - Chairman of the Legislative Budget and Research Committee and Hon. Mohammed Shamsidin Ango Abdullahi, Deputy-Chair of the Legislative Budget and Research Committee.

Potential

The MPs were exposed to different discussions on the need to establish a PBO.

Realized

Upon their return, they took actions to encourage other MPs to pass a PBO legislation.

Applied

The topics which were discussed during the 2013 GN-PBO meeting and the knowledge shared, encouraged the MPs to support and accelerate the passing of the Bill establishing the National Assembly Budget & Research Office (NABRO) which took place in 2013.

Value

Action

Immediate

Since the GN-PBO establishment, I have been an active member of the Community.

Potential

I was asked to represent the GN-PBO network at the Seventh Annual Meeting of OECD Parliamentary Budget Officials and Independent Fiscal Institutions, held in Vienna, Austria 16-17 April 2015. During the Meeting I had a chance to be exposed to the OECD operations and structure, as well as to establish new relations.

Realized

During the 2015 GN-PBO Annual Meeting I presented my report on the Meeting together with information on the OECD structure. I hope that my participation in the Vienna Conference will enhance the future cooperation and knowledge exchange between our networks.

Applied

TBD

Value

Action

Immediate

I have participated in the 2015 GN-PBO Meeting held in Ottawa, Canada.

Potential

I have established man good working relations, among others with Mr. Mohammed Hardi, Director of the Research and Budget  Department for the Parliament of Ghana

Realized

Since the 2015 GN-PBO meeting, I have been in contact with Mr. Mohammed. In 2016 I invited him to visit our Office and introduced him to the South African PBO Director and some of the colleagues

Applied

Since then the two Directors have been in contact with each other. In one of their communications. Mr. Mohammed indicated that he would like the South African PBO to peer review Ghana Office outputs. The peer review process between the two countries hasn’t started yet but there are good relations being built between the two Offices.

Value

Action

Immediate

I have participated in the 2015 GN-PBO Meeting held in Ottawa, Canada.

Potential

I have joined the 2015 GN-PBO Working Group on Budget Analysis.

Realized

After participating in the 2015 GN-PBO Assembly, I reported back to the Director and to my colleagues in the South African PBO. As I became a member of the GN-PBO Working Group on Budget Analysis, I recommended to the Office that our PBO should be represented in the GN-PBO Modelling Task Team as well. I felt that the Office would benefit if it was represented in the Modelling Task Team as we are in the process of defining/building our modelling processes and skills.

Applied

As an outcome my colleague Sean Muller is now representing the South African PBO in the GN-PBO Modelling Task Team.

Value

Action

Immediate

I have participated in the 2015 GN-PBO Meeting held in Ottawa, Canada.

Potential

Among others, I especially enjoyed the presentation by Mr. Moon Jong Jeong from the South Korea National Assembly Budget Office (NABO).

Realized

I talked to Mr. Moon regarding the possibility of organizing a study tour for the KPI to South Korea NABO. Upon my return, I provided an input about the Korean experience to the KPI Secretary General as well as the availability of funding from the WB. The KPI requested the Thai embassy in Korea to contact NABO for study visit

Applied

The study tour took place October 6-8, 2015 and was attended by the Executives of the KPI and me. The purpose was to study the methods of establishing the organization, the structure of NABO and the staff and management recruitment processes in each department. The KPI sent priority questions to the NABO for preparing data for KPI’s teams. The KPI received a warm welcome from the Chief of the NABO (Mr. Kim Junki) and learned about methods used to set up NABO and the process of its development from the establishment date until present.

The NABO is planning to visit the KPI between March 31 and April 1, 2016.

Value

Action

Immediate

I have participated in the 2015 GN-PBO Meeting held in Ottawa, Canada.

Potential

Among others, I especially enjoyed the presentation on writing an effective report.

Realized

Even though, we already were implementing 80% of the guidelines outlined in the presentation, we realized the importance of paying more attention to producing simple and easy to read reports in a timely manner. Therefore, we started to implement this advice while preparing “business trips to districts” reports.

Applied

As an outcome, in just one or two days after the trip took place, we are producing simple and very clear reports containing all related information. The MPs are very satisfied with our work.

Value

Action

Immediate

I have participated in the 2014 and 2015 GN-PBO Meeting held in Ottawa, Canada.

Potential

Through various discussions held during the meetings, I appreciated the value of study tours and attachment programs for the PBO staff to enhance knowledge and improve skills .

Realized

Upon return, in line with learning from the experience of other GN-PBO network members, we decided to organize a study tour for the Zambian PBO staff.

Applied

As an outcome, in 2016 the four Zambian PBO staff participated in the two weeks long attachment program in Kenya. In addition, the Principal Clerk of Committees, who supervises the PBO was part of the team to enable him to provide a direct feedback on the operation and integration of PBOs into the operations of Parliament.

The objectives of the attachment in Kenya was to help the PBO Staff to appreciate the pre - budget legislative analysis and outputs; to appreciate the process and procedures of technical backstopping for direct involvement of MPs in the budget process; to appreciate the process undertaken by the Parliamentary Budget office in analyzing the Budget Policy Statement (BPS); get hands on training on budget analysis from an established Parliamentary Budget Office; and create a PBO to PBO as well as staff to staff networks for future collaboration and technical support.

The attachment presents the Principal Clerk of Committees an opportunity to learn how meetings to consider the budget are organized with the assistance of the PBO experts and generally how the budget is considered in the Kenya National Assembly.

It is expected that that the Principal Clerk of Committees who is a member of the Management Team will learn some valuable lessons from administration and human resource policy issues associated with the introduction of PBO experts into the Parliament. As part of Senior Management, the Principal Clerk may find it convenient to seek further clarification on the human resource and administration policy issues and the treatment of PBO staff and their collaborators (partners) from outside the Parliament in the institution