South Africa MPs benchmark Parliament’s Budget Office

A delegation of 15 legislators and staff of Parliament from the Gauteng Provincial Legislature of South Africa are in Uganda to benchmark best practices from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

The delegation from the Ad-hoc Committee on Money Bills and Related Matters led by Hon. Radebe Mbongeni paid a courtesy visit to the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, on Monday, 12 November 2018.

The Parliamentary Budget Office was the first of its kind in Africa and has seen many delegations visit it before starting their own. PBO was established through a Private Member’s Bill in 2001 and has helped streamline and deepen Parliament’s involvement during the budget process.

“We are here to benchmark on the best practices from your PBO. We have studied a lot of what you have done and we intend to use that to set up a Budget Office and amend the budget process in our Parliament,” Mbongeni said.

Kadaga said that the Budget Office has made a great impact in the way Parliament works.

“This is a great step you are taking and it has made a difference in the way we work in this Parliament. It is also supported by the Budget Act, which has helped us participate in the planning, allocation and dealt with issues like equity in the budget,” Kadaga said.

The Speaker informed the delegation that, “we have started on the budget process and soon, the budget framework paper will be presented before we finally pass the budget by the end of May.”