Under the Local Government Budget Rules 2003, the draft budget for the year 2007-08 should be ready by the end of March, and it must be presented in the district or town councils in April for debate and the feedback of councillors.
However, it seems that, as in the past years, the district and town authorities in Rawalpindi have no intention to meet this requirement this year either. In view of this, Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives, Pakistan (CPDI-Pakistan) on Sunday demanded the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) as well as town administrations to ensure full implementation of Budget Rules 2003 in the process of preparing the budget for the Year 2007-08.
It said that last year the district and town authorities had violated the Budget Rules by not presenting the Draft Budgets in the respective Councils in April 2006.
And these would be committing the same violation again if the draft budgets were not presented in the respective councils in early April 2007.
However, violation of Budget Rules would not be tolerated this time, as CPDI-Pakistan plans to take appropriate public mobilisation and other initiatives to demand accountability and promote citizens' right to be consulted and be informed about the budgetary proposals.
Last year, the CDGR had failed, on the one hand, to develop and present the Draft Budget in the council in April 2006. On the other hand, when it presented the final budget in June 2006 in the council, it did not include any information about the new development schemes to be implemented in 2006-07.
The budget document presented in the council included the relevant budget information only on 4 pages, while leaving out all the useful details including information about development schemes.
Rest of the document contained information about the previous year and not about the budget, which was to be considered by the council for approval.
It would be most unfortunate and highly condemnable if the CDGR again violated the Budget Rules this year.
CPDI-Pakistan also expressed its deep concern on the reports that the city government and town administrations prepare the annual budgets in the last few days of June, which amounts to the complete disregard of the budget cycle provided in the Budget Rules 2003.
Under the rules, the budget preparation must begin a lot earlier and actually the draft budget, including all development schemes, should be ready by April for presentation and debate in the council.
Such a debate in the council could enable the councillors to give their feedback on the draft and, hence, allow the government to refine the budget document accordingly. The CDGR would be better advised to not only ensure compliance with Budget Rules 2003 but also learn from the national and international best practices for budget preparation.
In this regard, it must particularly take note of the budget document prepared by District Sheikhupura last year, which is based on the new accounting model and which ensures transparency by providing detailed information about budgetary allocations for all institutions and facilities.
Rawalpindi is a city district and it must set good examples for smaller districts, instead of demonstrating the very poor performance like the way it did last year. CPDI-Pakistan also demanded the CDGR and town administrations to implement Section 114(5) and Section 137 of the Local Government Ordinance 2001, which are about transparency and citizens' right to information.
These legal requirements have been largely ignored so far, which is also a matter of serious concern.
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