BUJUMBURA March 27th (ABP) – The Cabinet met on Wednesday March 20, in Bujumbura, under the chairmanship of the Head of State, Mr. Evariste Ndayishimiye.
The draft of the revised National Development Plan of Burundi 2018-2027 and its priority action plan, analysed during this meeting, was presented by the Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Audace Niyonzima, according to the press release from the Secretary General of State Jérôme Niyonzima.
In this press release, it is specified that with the aim of making Burundi a prosperous nation through a sustained increase in the production of goods and a service, the government has initiated the process of reviewing the main strategic planning tools, in this case the PND-Burundi 2018-2027 and sectoral strategic policies. After identifying the major challenges that persist, policies and programmatic interventions likely to address these challenges were identified in order to achieve the targets of the indicators of the revised PND, and therefore of the 2040-2060 vision. Thus, the revised PND is composed of 4 parts, namely the review of development policies 2018-2022; the vision, economic and social perspectives, objectives and strategic directions of the revised PND; the pillars of the revised PND, the macroeconomic implications of the revised PND and monitoring-evaluation.
The overall objective is to “structurally transform the Burundian economy for strong, sustainable, resilient, inclusive growth, creating decent jobs for all and leading to improvement in social well-being”.
69 projects were identified through the revised PND priority action plan for a total amount of 107,461.72 billion over the period 2023-2027. After analysis, the document was adopted with a few comments.
During that Cabinet, the draft decree determining the roles, responsibilities and relational framework of the actors within the framework of the deconcentration of scheduling was also adopted and presented by the Minister of Finance, Budget and planning economic. Implementing results-based budgeting requires deconcentration of scheduling. The minister in charge of Finance, now the sole authorizer of expenditure, transfers this authority to sectoral ministers and heads of constitutional institutions. The purpose of this decree is to specify the role of actors and their relational frameworks in the context of the implementation of deconcentration of scheduling.
The decentralization of scheduling aims to locate the execution of the expenditure as close as possible to its generating event in order to facilitate control operations. It makes it possible to rationalize the public expenditure chain and make those involved in budget execution more accountable. The system aims to streamline the services of the Minister in charge of Finance; make sectoral ministers responsible for programs whose performance will be evaluated based on their results, and improve controls. After analysis, the draft decree was adopted with some corrections, in particular by adding, at the level of the transitional and final provisions, a provision which specifies that ministries and constitutional institutions have until July 1, 2025 to comply with this decree.
The Council of Ministers on Wednesday March 20, 2024 also adopted the draft multi-year budgetary and economic programming document, which was also presented by the Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning. The multi-year budgetary and economic programming document is drawn up in application of the organic law relating to public finances. The development of this document is part of the innovations brought about by the reform of the program budget and places the State budget in a multi-annual framework. The multi-year budgetary and economic programming document covers a minimum period of 3 years. It is adopted by the Council of Ministers 5 months before the tabling of the finance bill. It sets the rules and timetable for the procedure for drawing up the finance bill.
After exchange and debate, the project was adopted with certain recommendations. It is necessary to take into account the budget planned for the Ministry in charge of Infrastructure to integrate the envelope intended for the construction of infrastructures of the Ministries in charge of Education, Public Health and Agriculture and thus increase the percentage of their budget. We must also digitalize the fertilizer subsidy system at the Ministry of Agriculture, starting with the payment system.