The Policy Forum (PF) Budget Working Group welcomes yet another opportunity to share views regarding the performance of previous budgets and propose some recommendations that we believe are worth consideration during current parliamentary deliberations for the 2018/19 budget to be concluded late in June.

Findings of the 2017 survey conducted by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) reveals that Tanzania has scored a lowly 10 out of 100, implying it is a country that provides scant or no information on public budgets. IBP considers countries that score above 60 on the Open Budget Index as providing sufficient budget information to enable the public to engage in budget discussions in an informed manner.

On 26 May 2017, Policy Forum dedicated its monthly Breakfast Debate to discussing the National Budget for the financial year 2017/18. Titled “The National Budget 2017/18: What is changing in the education and agriculture sectors,” the debate included two presentations by Makumba Mwemezi, a programme officer from HakiElimu, an education rights organisation, and Fazal Issa a programme officer from ForumCC, a climate change group.

The current financial year is soon ending and discussions on the 2017/18 budget to be concluded in June 2017 are already underway. As usual, we, the members of the Policy Forum (PF) Budget Working Group would like to take this opportunity to share our views regarding the performance of the 2016/17 fiscal year to inform the ongoing deliberations on the national budget, the second under the administration of President John Magufuli.

Towards the end of the year 2014, the Government of Tanzania prepared several Bills to be discussed by the National Assembly. Among these was the Budget Bill. Understanding the role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), the Parliamentary Budget Committee sought inputs from Policy Forum so as to improve on the proposed Bill.

The Budget Bill was shared among members of the Budget Working Group and several other organizations made their contribution. This was compiled together and sent to the Bunge Office in Dar es Salaam in February, 2015.

As part of Policy Forum’s desire to learn from others and share its experiences through collaborative links with like-minded international institutions, the organisation participated in a workshop organized by Justice Africa in Juba, South Sudan to provide technical assistance to its local CSOs.

Policy Forum’s Budget Working Group (BWG) has commended the government’s reaffirmed plans to raise revenue and cut down expenditures, especially those that are unnecessary like luxurious vehicles which cost the government heavily in terms of both purchases and maintenance costs.

As the Minister for Finance tables the National Budget for Financial Year 2014/15 in Parliament tomorrow, we, members of the Policy Forum Budget Working Group, representing over 70 different Civil Society Organisations working together to increase informed civil society participation in policy making, would like to make our contribution to this key process.

September 5th, 2013 –The Global Movement for Budget Transparency, Accountability and Participation (BTAP) urges the world´s 20 economic powers to set a good example and to commit to advancing budget transparency, accountability and participation in their countries. The G20 countries should not only focus on discussing how to advance transparency and fight tax-avoidance, they should also launch strong and decisive strategies to promote budget transparency and accountability in their own countries, setting a good example to the rest of the world.