Budget consultations: Are we headed anywhere?

It is perhaps not often that issues of public leadership are brought to the fore in Zimbabwe, as during the build-up to the presentation of the national budget by the Finance minister.

It is during this (August-September) period that state authorities, civil society and traditional leaders are caught up in a frenzy of activities in the form of budget preparations as well as budget consultations.

Public budgeting is really about building trust. But what exactly is going to be the function of ‘budget consultations’ in our specific circumstances as a poor country, where there are no ambulances and medicines at major hospitals?

A country where, unexpectedly one morning, a political elite can dish out US$1m birthday gifts, just like confetti?

Over the decades, our fixation as a country with ‘budget consultations’ (rather than ‘budget outcomes or impacts) has to be queried.

When, every budget year, citizens gather in costly ‘budget consultation’ venues, which include hotels, the universal quest is about livelihood concerns; (more jobs, lower taxes, lower prices, incomes and working conditions for education, and health staff and public officials, food security and poverty reduction), and better services (electricity, water, roads, clinics, school blocks in the neighborhoods and communities).

Budget consultations come graced with free lunch and some ‘transport cash reimbursement’ incentive, and this despite the persistent economic deterioration so evident in the life of communities; the rampant unemployment, the deprivation and poverty.

Are ‘budget consultations’ really forums for eliciting ‘people participation’, or securing mandates?

Or have they not become a cheap excuse to seek legitimacy for the same programs that eat into our social fabric, undermining the hope, the future and the life of especially the younger generations?

Why is it, inspite of these budget consultations, this cherished ‘miracle turnaround’ in the economic life of communities remains a mirage, unattainable, in the order of the mystique? Are budgets not about ‘the achievable’?

Therefore, do the 2025 national budget consultations really help break the vicious cycles of regressive programing, budgeting, and the consequent strangleholds of poverty?

Zimbabwe’s budget cycle formally starts with the announcement of the budget strategy paper (BSP) by the Finance minister.

The BSP assesses the performance of key economic variables including the national output, trade, revenues and expenditures, inflation and interest rates, against set targets, before painting a picture of what is feasible.

The overarching framework of the annual BSP is a medium-term development plan, itself underpinned by a long-term national development vision.

Thus envisaged, budget strategies become the ‘engines’ that drive economic activities towards set targets during one budget year.

Source: The Standard Zimbabwe