The Partners for Transparency Foundation issued a press release today, Tuesday, stating that for the fifth year the Egyptian government approves the state’s general budget in a parliamentary absence, and with the exception of the 2012/2013 fiscal year, in which Parliament participated partly in approving its general budget, all other budgets, including the budget The next fiscal year 2015/2016 was approved without submitting to the elected body that is constitutionally mandated to approve the budget.
The Foundation continued that the Egyptian government approved the state’s general budget for the fiscal year 2015/2016 in preparation for submitting it to the President of the Republic for approval. Apart from the details of the budget that require in-depth and objective analysis, the Foundation believes that the government has not been keen to provide mechanisms for community participation in the budget preparation process. The general state of the state, the political harmonization required that the government overcome the gap of absence of parliament by more involvement of national stakeholders in discussing the budget and arranging its priorities and biases.
Although Partners for Transparency PFT commends some of the measures taken by the Ministry of Finance before preparing the budget, specifically the issuance of the Citizen Budget Manual, and the issuance of a preliminary budget statement explaining the general framework within which the budget is prepared. Sufficient to discuss the budget in the mass media before it is approved by the Council of Ministers and submitted to the President of the Republic.
The Foundation calls on the Ministry of Finance to issue a simplified guide for the state budget for the fiscal year 2015/2016, that includes specific numbers related to revenues and expected spending items, in order to achieve the required transparency principle, and to enable citizens to hold government authorities accountable during the next fiscal year.