BUJUMBURA May 26th (ABP) – The National Assembly closed, on Wednesday May 24, 2023, the session organized for the offices of all the communal councils of Burundi; a training session and synchronization of the Communal Community Development Plans (PCDC), which align with the general budget of the State for 2023-2024 edition, which meet the requirements of the budget-program model.
For two days, the Commission to the National Assembly in charge of public accounts and finance, economic affairs and planning, provided capacity building, at the Kigobe hemicycle, on the filling of the new PCDC, following the PCDC type model of Muyinga commune. Thus, all PCDCs throughout the country are aligned in the same way: axes, programs, actions and activities are identical for all communes. The operational part of the PDCD of communes, according to the PDCD model, targets objectively verifiable indicators for the next 5 years. It also targets activities, indicators and their budget by axis, program and action.
According to Mr. Nestor Ntahontuye, chair of that commission, who led the work, the harmonized plan will make it possible to have, for all the communes of the country, the same format of the Annual Work Plan and Budget (PTBA) and the Annual Investment Report (PAI), harmonized with the budget-program model. The latter will take more account of the expectations of the population, said the chairman of the commission. It will be easy to assess the degree of achievement of the actions, as long as the budget-program targets concrete results. For the commission in charge of finance at the National Assembly, the previous PCDC and PTBA of the communes were not well designed and did not fully benefit the beneficiary population, said Mr. Ntahontuye.
After the capacity building session, the members of the offices of all the communal councils of the country proceeded to fill their PCDCs according to the PCDC model, while establishing an annual budget of the communes for the financial year 2023-2024. Those plans meet the standards required by the budget-program model and take into account the achievement of results, for the benefit of the community.
In his closing remarks, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Daniel Gélase Ndabirabe, praised the work done during that campaign. Such work, he explained, demonstrates the degree of sovereignty of our country, as it is a hard work accomplished by nationals themselves in record time, which shows that we will no longer resort to foreign consultants, he said. Mr. Ndabirabe considered that the communes are now autonomous and will carry out that task.
The Speaker of the National Assembly argued that with such a progress, Burundi will have made a big leap towards development in 2030. He concluded that with this new deal, Burundi will surely move forward towards visions 2040 (emerging country) and 2060 (developed country). The PCDCs completed by the communes will be submitted to the government. The parliament has made a commitment to make trips to the interior of the country for evaluation.