Factors influencing the effectiveness of parliamentary oversight of ex-ante public budgeting processes in the Kingdom of Swaziland
Date
2015
Authors
Khumalo, Lindiwe Nesile
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Abstract
The fundamental purpose of public budgeting is to allocate national revenues, as well as borrowed income of a country, towards government expenditure, with the goal of achieving the best economic outcomes for the citizens. Every financial year, the Parliament, supported by a public finance committee, is tasked to conduct reviews of the draft public budget bill presented by the executive in order to achieve sound national fiscal outcomes.
However, studies carried out in Latin America show that an asymmetry exists between the formal de jure powers of the Parliament to oversee the public budgeting process, and the actual de facto execution of this oversight role. These studies also indicate that relative to developed economies and democracies, developing economies and nascent democracies are more likely to display such a disjuncture. The main factors that the studies suggest account for this variance are: a) weaknesses in the institutional capacity of parliaments; and b) weak political governance arrangements in the external environment. The result of these studies shows that in Latin America, a positive correlation can be observed between the quality of institutional capacity of parliament, and of political governance of the country, on one hand; and quality of national fiscal outcomes on the other.
The Kingdom of Swaziland is a developing country and a nascent democracy. It is situated in the global south, and shares similar socio-economic challenges with some countries in Latin America. Focusing on the Parliament of Swaziland as an object of inquiry, this research explores the applicability of the research conclusions in the Latin American studies to this sub-Saharan African country. The research considers the effectiveness of the Parliament, and its public finance committee, in overseeing the public budgetary process during the 2005/6-2010/11 fiscal period.
The choice of Swaziland is motivated by a recorded trend of declining national fiscal indicators from 2005/6 to 2010/11, culminating in a full-scale fiscal crisis during the period 2011/2. This fiscal crisis occurred notwithstanding successive years of review and approval of the draft national budget by the Parliament. This research is concerned with identifying both internal and external factors that may have served to either enhance or constrain the effectiveness of the Parliament of Swaziland in intervening in public budgeting processes during the period under review 2005/6-2010/11.
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The research uses theories of institutional policy and political economy as frameworks for analysis. At one level, the research examines the adequacy of the Parliament’s internal capacity, procedural and structural arrangements and intra-institutional power dynamics; and, at another level, seeks to investigate the extent to which the political economy of the country may have impacted the effective functioning of the Parliament.
The findings of this research indicate that although the Parliament of Swaziland possesses adequate formal powers to oversee public budgeting, the actual execution of this oversight role is weak. This is consistent with the research conclusions arrived at in the Latin American studies. The findings are that capacity deficits of the public finance committee, diminished political will amongst parliamentarians to interrogate the budget, coupled with weak parliamentary-electorate relations, collectively served to diminish the ability of the Parliament to exercise effective budget oversight during the period under review. Accepting the limitation of attribution, the paper concludes that these factors contributed significantly to the negative fiscal outcomes reported for the Kingdom during the period under review. Ultimately, the paper argues for reform of the Parliament of Swaziland as an institution of economic governance, as well as for further advancements in political governance reform in the country
Description
Thesis (M.M. (Public and Development Management))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2015.