Municipal Budget

 A sound management of municipal finance
dictates that governments must have a budget.
 A municipal budget and budgeting as a practice
has progressively evolved into one of the critical
and complex processes used to regulate its
fiscal matters.
 A municipal budget has a status of a legal
mechanism through which municipalities collect
and utilise public resources.
Budget Process

 A municipal budget results out of a process.
 This is commonly referred to as the budget process.
In general, the budget process consists of key
generic stages which are repeated annually, namely:




Drafting
Approval
Execution
Audit
The Role of the Municipal Council in
the Budget Process

 The municipal council’s role in the budget process is
intrinsically linked to its representative, policymaking
and oversight roles and functions.
 Specifically, legislatures such as the municipal
council are measured by their effectiveness in
performing the representative, legislative and
oversight functions.
 Therefore, these key functions define the
involvement of the municipal council in all legislative
processes relevant to the budgets process.
Budget Oversight

 The budget process is arguably one of the key
processes of governance that requires active
involvement of the municipal council.
 While the executive and administrative structures
are primarily responsible for the preparation and
execution of the budget, the municipal council is
equally obliged to ensure that the entire budget
process promotes transparency, accountability,
responsiveness.
Budget Oversight

 The municipal council ensures that the budget
process is a political and democratic exercise
rather than purely a technocratic exercise.
 The municipal council must also ensure that the
budget process is not reduced to balancing
income and expenditure but more about the best
way of addressing the needs of the public with
available financial resources.
Budget Oversight

 Responsible stewardship for the use of public
money
 Ensuring that public money is used in a
responsible and productive way.
 Ensuring that value for money has been
achieved in the use of municipal financial
resources.
Purpose of Budget Oversight

 To ensure executive compliance with the council’s
intent.
 To improve the efficiency, effectiveness of
administrative budgetary operatives.
 Review and determine financial priorities.
 To evaluate budget performance.
 To prevent abuse of public resources.
 To inform the public on the how the municipality is
performing.
Approaches for Effective Budget
Oversight

 Fire fighting
 Police Patrol
Requirements for Effective Budget
Oversight

 Ex ante Oversight
 Concurrent Oversight
 Ex post Oversight
Requirements

 Effective Committees
 Access to information
 Council-executive relationship ( to address the
dominance of the executive)
 Independent technical capacity
 Governance environment
 Non-partisan engagement on issues
 Attitude and willingness to oversee the executive
Exercise

What in your opinion are the major factors
that inhibit budget oversight