1. Yemen Experience in Budgeting
and
what is a citizen budget
Adel Alzoom
Specialist in public reform
Ministry of finance

2. Session goals: Yemeni + Technical
(educational)
A glimpse on the Yemeni
situation on budgeting
transparency
Where we
failed
Efforts of
Reform
Challenges Standards

3. What are the Assessments in Fiscal
Transparency ?
The Open Budget Survey

4. What measures the open budget
OBI
Eight documents
are issued and
become available
to the public
Complete and benefiting
Opportunities of
Public
participation
The power of
legislative and
regulatory bodies
Aggregate Index

5. Yemen Performance
11
25
10
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2012
2010
2008
Yemen Scores - OBI

6. Statement before budget-posts of
Budget preparation
Budget projects
Budget Law
Citizen budget
Mid Year reports (reviewing)
Financial reports through the year-
budget implementation
End of the year reports
(closing account)
Reviewing independent reports (Report of
the Central Agency for Control and Audit)
What the situation of Yemen: 2012 survey
What are the eight documents for a budget and the can the public
access it?
What was not done
What was not done
What was not done
Issued
Issued
Issued for internal use
Issued
What was not done

7. • The absence of legal frame work
for a budget
• Use of internet
• Technical Cases:
• Absence of consultations with
parliament in planning the
budget
• Absence of important technical
information in the budget
 Information on performance
 Information)-shortage in the
auditing system

8. Social Participation
Needed Result
unavailable
unavailable
unavailable
unavailable
unavailable
Available but can
be improved
Consultation process
Necessary procedures before consulting with the public
The official needs for public transportation
Communication with the supreme audit institution after publishing the
auditing reports
Mechanisms being developed by executive power for the
participation process during planning for the budget
Public hearings in the legislation on the macroeconomic framework
of the budget
Individual Public hearings in parliament on the budgets of agencies

9. Societal Participation
Needed Result
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
A process that is adhered to after consulting
A chance for the public to give testimonies during the budget hearing
session
Mechanisms being developed through the executives for participation
during execution
Mechanisms being developed the supreme audit institution for
participation of audit agenda
Observations by the executive power on the use of the provided by
the public
The launch of the reports on the budget hearings by Parliament
Observations by the Supreme Audit Institution on the use of the
inputs provided by the public

10. Challenges on Societal Participation
•
The absence of a legal framework for the
participation of civil society and citizens.
•
The decrease in the capacity of most of the
CSOs to undertake the task of participation,
analysis and publishing for transparency
•
Illiteracy
•
Cost (state, civil society organization)

11. Successes
•
Publishing of budget and final accounts reports on
the ministry website
http://www.mof.gov.ye/budget/general-budget.html
•
Financial Information Unit for the public
•
Auditing process inside the ministry of finance (Public
Finance Modernization Project)
WB

12. News
•
The parliament issued a law for
free access to information
•
But!!!!!!!!!
The ministry of finance is
preparing the first copy of
citizen budget
But….!!!!!!
It partnered for the first time with
the government and civil
society organization coalition in
the planning process

13. Auditing process
•
Transpercy report: unpublished
• See http://www.coca.gov.ye/byan.pdf
2011

14. Audit
Report
•
Not well published
•
The absence of auditing
on spending and
revenues
•
The absence of an
effective role in the
parliament
•
No follow up in its
recommendation
•
Its independence

15. The
parliament
Legistlative
power
the power of
the supreme
institution for
accounts
auditing
Weak
Strong

16. Parliament
•
The parliament weak capacity
to analyze or depend on
qualified leaders - positions
•
The effective power of the
executive
•
The inability of the parliament
to alter the budget!!!!!!!
•
The system doesn’t send
reports periodically. (absence
of a legal framwork)
•
Enforcement

17. News Wise
governance
transparency
Independence
of accountability
institutions
Public
participation
Accountability

18. • Citizen’s budget

19. Why budgets are not user friendly
Difficult
Technical Long Complex

20. Importance of People’s budget and
what is it
OBP
The Power Of Making It Simple:
A Government Guide To Developing Citizens Budgets

21. •
A simple summary of the budget
designed to facilitate the discussion
around it. Although IBP distinguishes
between summary, which can be part of
the budget and the budget document
itself, where citizens budget is what is
needed because the document is non-
technical and can be accessed by a large
segment of the public.
Citizens Budget is

22. •
The open survey refers to two kinds of citizens
budgets and they are: a simplified copy of the
suggested executive budget and a simplified
copy from the accredited budget after the
legislative power review and vote.
When

23. •
The document must be objective and technical and not a political document
•
The document must be written with simplicity taking into account the public
capability to understand
•
Simplified effective tables and graphical forms such as "a glimpse of the
budget,” table which shows the income and spending and balance of the
budget and public debt for the annual budget and for the past two years and
the proportion of each of these items compared to GDP and distribution
expenditure (and the change in distribution) by function and the ministry,
kind of economic and revenue according to sources, the distribution of
spending on the various levels of government spending per capita with
respect to the main social programs.
Content

24. •
This document should be complete so that the reader doesn’t have to check
the contents of other documents to understand the main one.
•
It should focus on the goals and contents of the budget and not the
processes.
•
It must be up to the high quality standards including objectivity, relativity,
credibility and simplicity of understanding and timing.
•
This document must be published at the same time the government presents
its annual budget to the parliament members to insure the public effective
engagement.
•
It must be published widely through different media outlets.
Content

25. Strategy
.1
Preparing strategies
.2
Consultations
.3
Preparation
.4
Evaluation

26. • South Africa's National Treasury issued a
guide for citizens to the national budget and
that guide summarizes briefly the modern
economic performance and the expected
financial figures and describes the medium-
term priority areas for additional spending. A
box contains an overview of the budget and
sets the tax initiatives and major spending.
The People's Guide consists of the 2007
budget with useful graphs that shows the
source of tax revenue and how to allocate
government spending.

27. Consultations: Main Process
Message
Content
Who wants
information
How to
approach
them
What kind of
consultations
Publishing

28. Consultation Mechanisms
•
Internal
•
External:
Individuals, consultants, research centers
Civil society organizations
Blogs in websites
Talk Shows
Social Networks

29. Dissemination
• Printed
• On the website
Example
(SMS)

30. Best practices recommended
• Brazil
• Ghana
• South Africa
• New Zealand

31. How can organizations and media
hold the government accountable
•
Spreading awareness
•
Active participation
•
Report
•
Investigations
•
Performance evaluations
•
Discussion groups
•
Civil Society organizations
•
Social Network

32. ?s