Increasing Budget Transparency at the Sub-National Level Tales from Two Regions in Cameroon

7/30/2019 Increasing Budget Transparency at the Sub-National Level Tales from Two Regions in Cameroon

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SOCIALDEVELOPMENT | www.worldbank.org/socialdevelopment

Increasing Budget Transparency at the Sub-National Level

Tales from Two Regions in Cameroon

ICGFM ConferenceMay 23, 2013

Governor Abakar AhamatMartin Luis AltonSanjay Agarwal


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Budget transparencyrefers to the extentand ease with which citizens can access

information about and provide feedback ongovernment revenues, allocations, andexpenditures.

Budget transparencyleads to:

Less corruption Efficient use of resources

More trust in government

Higher revenues

Budget TransparencyUsing Budgets to Empower Citizens


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Transparency Feedback Loop


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The Cameroonian Context Cameroon ranks 144th on 2012 Corruption Perception

Index

Score of 10 on OBI 2012: provide scant or no information Ongoing decentralization program

Thus BTI is both necessary and timely

Two regions chosen for pilot due to expressed interest of

governors Stark differences between two regions (development,

administration, density of population, literacy, civil societycapacity)


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Number of Pilot Institutions

40 Primary Schools

30 Secondary Schools

32 Health Centers

15 Municipalities

55 Primary Schools

26 Secondary Schools

26 Health Centers

13 Municipalities

North-West Adamawa


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Budget Transparency Initiative Activities Creation of regional steering committees

Simplified budgets disseminated widely (public

meetings) Radio programs on budget issues and Facebook page

Cameroon Budget Inquirer

Budget transparency day
http://cameroon.openspending.org/en/index.htmlhttp://cameroon.openspending.org/en/index.html


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School Specific Activities

Drama and arts

competition/performances

Budget clubs in secondary

schools

Open Books certificationprocess


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Secondary School Template


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Local Councils Specific Activities

Simplified budgetsdisseminated widely in

public meetings

Local Council CitizenBudget

Local BudgetTransparency Index


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Tignre Council Citizen Budget


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Key Findings from Schools Budgets are generally opaque

Closed budgets hinder cooperation between

principals and PTAs

Students show lively interest in budgetdissemination

Budget disclosure reveals problems (medicalbooklet) and clarifies use of funds (laboratory fees)

Facilitation keyRegional Delegates well placed to

facilitate


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Key Findings from Local Councils Mayors claim to be very transparent; disputed by

other stakeholders

Reliance on councilors to disseminate budgetinformationthis does often not work due to:Low capacity; councilors not residing in constituencies;

budget documents not being shared in advance

Budget documents at best available upon requestand at own cost (as per law)

Participation lowmobilization requires concertedefforts


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Preliminary Recommendations Process guidelines to strengthen budget transparency, which include:

Communiqus announcing council sessions through radio and othermeans

Stipulations to share budget documents a minimum of two weeks in

advance with councilors; and that councilors communicate their content totheir constituents through public meetings and/or radio

Encourage councilors active participation in sessions though, e.g.: Broadcasting council session in community radios Publishing performance index for councilors Publishing records of councillors attendance at council sessions

Actively monitor timely dissemination of council session meetingminutes

Benchmark local councils budget transparency with index (cf. OpenBudget Index or Local Budget Transparency Index)

Institute Local Council Citizens Budgets


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Promoting Accountability


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Lessons Learned and Challenges Reluctance of some heads of institutions to participate; need

to sensitize and assist them in data collection Finding good implementing partner is difficult but crucial

Understanding books of account and getting data Creation of simplified templates (need to be user-friendly but

capture relevant information) Inclusion of traditional authorities and all other stakeholders

including women; Mobilization of communities Language barriers Making budget issues somehow interesting Sustainability (continuing involvement of authorities; securing

funds)


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Results (NWR)

GTHS Bamenda reallocates over 1million XAF to computer labmaintenance

Over 5 million recovered from illegal fees

collection from GBHS Bafut A corrupt hospital director at Tubah

District Hospital removed aftercommunity reacts against him for notdisclosing budget

Community members support Atuakomhealth centre with night watchman andhospital janitor after realising thathospital allocations are low

Increased bonuses for staff at Bambili

hospital


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Results (Adamawa)

Increased tax revenues (cattle tax inNgaoundre III, Adamawa, increased from 0 to763 000 XAF from 2011 - 2012)

More trust and better relations between mayorsand community (Mbe, Adamawa, andNgaoundre I, Adamawa)


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From a Trickle to a DelugeSome Ideas

Global efforts to promote fiscal transparency shouldconsider the following:

Targeting fiscal information directly and proactively atcitizens by simplification, visualization and dissemination

Encouraging governments to publish data in standard,machine-readable formats.

Closing the Fiscal Transparency Feedback Loop:Supporting governments to respond to fiscal informationrequests

Creating spaces for citizens to collaborate


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Thank You!

Governor Abakar Ahamat ([email protected])

Martin Luis Alton ([email protected])

Sanjay Agarwal ([email protected])
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

Documents

Increasing Budget Transparency at the Sub-National Level Tales from Two Regions in Cameroon