The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called on Parliament to use its oversight role to ensure that the Executive works with a national budget that will reflect the aspirations of the people.

“The national budget must transform the lives of the people through legislation, budget and fiscal oversight”, the Vice President said.

Dr Bawumia’s statement was read by the Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei at the opening of the fourth African Network of Parliamentary Budget Officers (AN-PBO) Conference in Accra on Monday.

Conference

The four-day conference slated for September 9 to 12, 2019 is on the theme: “The role of African Parliaments in fiscal oversight: Contributing to the African Union 2063 Development Agenda”.

The conference, which is being attended by participants from Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Canada and Cambodia, is expected to enhance the capacity of Parliamentary Budget Officers.

Dr Bawumia said Parliament could use the public financial management systems to reduce the fiscal risk that threatened the economic growth of the nation.

According to him, the effective exercise of the mandate, however, requires high-quality research and analysis to focus on both short and long-term budget outcomes necessary to establish stronger policy, legal and institutional framework.

Resource allocation

He said the resource allocations were in a contested domain and required that the relevant technocrat or institution provide the requisite support.

Dr Bawumia also stated that the establishment of the Parliamentary Budget Offices (PBOs) across the continent arguably represented the most significant institutional initiative to enhance the African Continent Fiscal Responsivity Framework to add to the democratic process in their various countries.

He said it was important for parliamentarians, whether in opposition or in government, to be well-informed about government policy choices they were to make all the time.

He said the PBO was one of the growing numbers of independent fiscal institutions being established around the world.