BUJUMBURA May 16th (ABP) – MPs met on Tuesday May 14, 2019 in plenary session of the National Assembly to analyze the comments of the Court of Auditors on the bill setting the general State budget, for the year 2019-2020.
The Chief of the Court of Auditors, Mr. Elysée Ndaye, indicated that this report was established in accordance with the law nº 1/35 of 4 December 2008 relating to public finances which specifies, in its article 31, that the Court of Auditors addresses to Parliament its opinion on any budget bill within 15 days of its approval in the Cabinet Meeting. He took the opportunity to point out that Article 181 of the Constitution, which stipulates that the National Assembly is seized of the Finance Bill at the opening of its session in April, has not been respected if there is progress compared to previous years.
According to Ndaye, this report is based on the government’s 2019-2020 finance bill. To carry out this work, the Court first established and analyzed the laws, decrees, ministerial ordinances and circulars, Mr. Ndaye reported. He added that the same court then analyzed the data relating to the income and expenditure of the previous periods provided by the Ministry of Finance and the Burundi Revenue Authority (OBR).
Mr. Ndaye pointed out that after the analysis of the 2019-2020 Finance Bill, the Court found that the 2019-2020 budget framework letter showed weaknesses in its compliance. The Court regretted that the order to implement the administrative fee for issuing the approval card as an agency for air, land and sea transport was not made available.
The Court of Auditors therefore recommends that the Ministry of Finance comply with Decree No 100/100 of 3 June 2008 on the content of the letter of framing and the timetable for the preparation of finance bills in the preparation and transmission of the budgetary framework letters, produce the order for the implementation of the administrative fee for issuing the approval card as an agency for air, land and sea transport, correct the forecasts of the exemptions because the rate of execution of that heading reached 645.1% from July 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.
After noting that this bill contains irregularities, MPs suggested that at the next opportunity, a workshop be organized on the basis of the organic law for parliamentarians, the staff of the Ministry of Finance and that of the Court of Auditors.
