Budget Strengthening - bridge funding

During the project period, significant progress was made toward the expected outputs/outcomes of the BSI intervention in all of the separate workstreams. Achieving key milestones in the budget preparation and execution processes was a key focus. One of these milestones was: Objective 1: Strengthening the National Budget process: Indicator 1: “DBDP plan and track progress in achieving key milestones in the budget preparation and execution processes.” The Draft Budget was issued by the Executive on April 30th 2018 in accordance with the PFM Act. The National Budget was approved by the Legislature on July 1 2018 in accordance with the PFM Act. Indicator 2: “Early engagement from Finance Minister (FM)/President/Cabinet in the budget formulation process.” Clear and frequent engagement between the FM, Executive, and Legislature was essential to the observed output of delivering the Draft and Final Budgets on time in accordance with the PFM Act, something which was a challenge for the previous administration. Indicator 3: “There is better communication and closer coordination between Budget and Planning divisions.” The new sector working group (SWG) template, prepared by the Planning Division, was much easier for the Budget Division to draw information directly into the budget than previous versions. The FY18/19 Draft and Final Budgets contain a high proportion of programs proposed by the SWGs. This is a change from previous years where a small number, if any, of the public sector investment projects that ended up in the final budget came from SWG outputs.