KABUL (Pajhwok): President Ashraf Ghani has said a transparent spending of budget needed a detailed discussion, asking lawmakers to press Cabinet members and share their assessments with him and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
In a series of consultative meetings with lower house members, the president held a meeting with Wolesi Jirga’s administrative board and other members at the Presidential Palace on Friday evening.
Pointing to importance of national dialogues, Ghani told the lawmakers that discussions about budget spending were a great move by the parliament as the nation needed more such dialogues related to national issues.
“In the past, we had no national dialogues but now we clearly listen to your views and advises through these meetings, at least a hundred countries have problems in budget spending but 10 to 20 of them have resolved the problem,” he said.
Development budget’s dependency on non-discretionary powers was another problem behind under-spending, he said, adding transparent spending of budget needed a national dialogue.
“The money could not be used without reforms, your voices for brining reforms is a serious need,” he told the lawmakers.
Obstacles in the development process had not been analyzed properly in the past 14 years and there had been no proper control over projects and contracts were signed arbitrary, Ghani said.
The president also stressed distinguishing problems and said fundamental problems should be identified through assessing the capacity of government offices and then finding solutions to them.
He said ministers could not work properly when their ministries lacked clear structures and plans. Authorities and responsibilities should be clearly distinguished.
Ghani said the employment process in ministries was complex, a problem that has been resolved to some extend through Capacity Building For Results Program (CBR) process.
He also talked about problems in projects’ implementation and said contractors in the past did not act in accordance with the contracts which changed hands resulting in poor implementation.
The president said the problem was now resolved with the national procurement management.
The national procurement had significantly advanced but problems in a number of budgetary units remained and needed to be resolved, he said.
About revenue, Ghani said the 22 percent increase in current year’s national revenue was far from expectation and the country’s economy would be developed by four percent next year.
The president also stressed transparent accountability and said the people and the international community demanded clear accountability, an issue the government was responsible for.
He asked lawmakers to press all Cabinet members and share their assessments with him and the CEO. “We need your advises and the nation also expects positive movements from us,” he said.
The nation wanted a balanced development, social justice and economic mobility, he said.
CEO Abdullah Abdullah, who was present at the meeting, thanked lawmakers for their close cooperation with the government. He said budget could have been completely spent if the security situation was stable in the country.
He said non-spending of non-discretionary budget and long procurement process were reasons that prevented development budget spending.
Erfanullah Erfan, deputy secretary of Wolesi Jirga, welcomed joint meetings of government leaders with people’s representatives and said such meetings had no example in the past.
About the budget, he said, “Reasonable spending of budget is very important for parliament and we want more transparency in this regard, because all people expect so.”
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