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| Opinion |
| Editorial |
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by
Editor, 17 June 2006
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05:24:03
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Every Malawian must participate in success of budgetary process
The long-awaited 2006/07 national budget presented yesterday may not have pleased everybody and will certainly not move the country from poverty to instant affluence, but there seems to be consensus that it is not very far from the best government could have come up with considering everything else.
A developing country like Malawi will always have a tough balancing act. It has to ensure that the private sector thrives to enhance economic growth while at the same time seeing to it that it mitigates the suffering of the vulnerable part of the population which is significantly huge.
Such a balancing act will be difficult even in the best of years but will be particularly tricky when the country is struck by disasters like the critical food shortage that the country faced last year. The demands on the budget are so compelling as to derail a whole budget.
From what was presented yesterday, government managed the crisis in the last financial year without losing focus on the medium to long-term development objectives. This consistency, which was a rare phenomenon in preceding financial years, deserves commendation.
It is also important to note that Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe emphasised the obvious during his budget presentation. While it is part of the executive’s brief to come up with national budget, its success depends on various other players, including the Legislature.
Parliament therefore needs to feel that it is part of the budgetary process not only by objectively scrutinising the documents in their present state before finally passing it, but also ensuring its successful implementation thereafter with the electorate fully in mind.
It is the dream of every Malawian to see the country take tangible steps towards being the middle-income country that our Vision 2020 document envisaged. The budgetary process should spur all of us to do our bit in ensuring that this is done.
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