The Pre-Budget Strategy Paper: A Transparency and Accountability Perspective

Introduction 

On 16 October 2020, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development released the 2021 Pre- Budget Strategy Paper under the theme: “Building Resilience and Economic Recovery Post COVID-19.” According to the prebudget statement, this is in line with the Government of Zimbabwe’s “commitment of ensuring broader stakeholder involvement in policy formulation processes”, which will in turn generate “effective public participation in policy and programmes implementation.” However, the 2021 Pre-Budget Strategy Paper which was supposed to “guide consultative discussions and sharing of ideas on national priority policies, programmes and projects for the forthcoming 2021 National Budget”, was launched on the last day of the National Budget Consultations which were rolled out on 12-16 October 2020. A question to pose would therefore be, whether the Pre-Budget Strategy Paper saved its purpose or it just fulfilled the legal obligation on the part of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development to publish the pre-budget strategy paper as required by Statutory Instrument 135 of 2019. It is against this backdrop that this week’s Weekend Digest interrogates the usefulness of the Prebudget Strategy Paper in informing citizen engagement. It also provides insights into the  government’s indicative commitments to address corruption and the promotion of transparency and accountability. For the full article kindly read the pdf document attached.