The 6th annual seminar of the Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI) on the theme "Good Financial Governance: Towards Modern Budgeting", opened yesterday at La Plantation Hotel in Balaclava. Some 70 delegates, namely senior government officials from 28 countries across the African continent, are participating along with their Mauritian counterparts.
The seminar which is being held from 18 to 20 May is organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development under the aegis of the Regional Multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence (RMCE). It aims at providing an opportunity for the participants to debate and discuss on modern budgeting practices and systems that will impact on the future direction of public financial management in Africa. In addition to sharing and learning from each other's experiences in the field of budgetary reforms, the delegates will also take stock of the achievements of these reforms in each particular country.
Several topics are being discussed during the three-day forum. They are namely; understanding the opportunities for and complexities in good financial governance in Africa, examining the results of the recent joint country case study on programme-based budgeting in Mauritius, launching of the CABRI-OECD exercise to assist Ghana in using country systems for the delivery of development assistance and exploring the role and management of private sector involvement in public infrastructure development.
In his opening address at the seminar, the Director at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mr K.N.Bunjun, who was speaking on behalf of the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, highlighted that Mauritius has come a long way since the programme-based budgeting approach was adopted in the fiscal year 2008-2009 and he stressed that the PBB which is Government's tool to enhance service delivery to the population, should be further re-modelled to render it more realistic and suitable to the local environment.
He added that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development also intends to set up a Delivery Unit under the Vice-Prime Minister's leadership to secure delivery of about 10-15 major domestic policy priorities selected by the Prime Minister. The major priorities will be selected from across the areas of health, education, policing, criminal justice and transport. The Delivery Unit will lead in building the overall capacity of Government to speed up the reform process by establishing a pragmatic, evidence-informed approach to policy making and implementation.
It will be recalled that CABRI is a network of about 38 countries and has now become a legal and independent membership-based organisation which has as objectives to promote efficient and effective management of public finances to fulfill governance requirements as well as foster economic growth and enhance service delivery for the improvement of living standards of African people. CABRI has already held five successful Budget Reform seminars and the fifth seminar was held in Senegal in April 2009 on the theme: "Strengthening Budget Practices in Africa".
The seminar which is being held from 18 to 20 May is organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development under the aegis of the Regional Multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence (RMCE). It aims at providing an opportunity for the participants to debate and discuss on modern budgeting practices and systems that will impact on the future direction of public financial management in Africa. In addition to sharing and learning from each other's experiences in the field of budgetary reforms, the delegates will also take stock of the achievements of these reforms in each particular country.
Several topics are being discussed during the three-day forum. They are namely; understanding the opportunities for and complexities in good financial governance in Africa, examining the results of the recent joint country case study on programme-based budgeting in Mauritius, launching of the CABRI-OECD exercise to assist Ghana in using country systems for the delivery of development assistance and exploring the role and management of private sector involvement in public infrastructure development.
In his opening address at the seminar, the Director at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mr K.N.Bunjun, who was speaking on behalf of the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, highlighted that Mauritius has come a long way since the programme-based budgeting approach was adopted in the fiscal year 2008-2009 and he stressed that the PBB which is Government's tool to enhance service delivery to the population, should be further re-modelled to render it more realistic and suitable to the local environment.
He added that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development also intends to set up a Delivery Unit under the Vice-Prime Minister's leadership to secure delivery of about 10-15 major domestic policy priorities selected by the Prime Minister. The major priorities will be selected from across the areas of health, education, policing, criminal justice and transport. The Delivery Unit will lead in building the overall capacity of Government to speed up the reform process by establishing a pragmatic, evidence-informed approach to policy making and implementation.
It will be recalled that CABRI is a network of about 38 countries and has now become a legal and independent membership-based organisation which has as objectives to promote efficient and effective management of public finances to fulfill governance requirements as well as foster economic growth and enhance service delivery for the improvement of living standards of African people. CABRI has already held five successful Budget Reform seminars and the fifth seminar was held in Senegal in April 2009 on the theme: "Strengthening Budget Practices in Africa".
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