Rwanda is hosting a high powered international conference dubbed: “Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CAFRI)” mainly attended by senior Africa budget technocrats at Serena Hotel.
According Seebundhun Kresh, the Chair Person of CABRI from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development Mauritius, the participants will explore the reasons and identify possible solutions for the national implementation challenges in particular.
Seebundhun said that delegates will exchange the ideals to create organizational structures that are most conductive to improve on public financial management.
“The main challenge to most countries is practical enforcement of budgets within legal framework.
“It’s also challenging to implement fiscal decentralization to improve local budgeting and service delivery in many African countries and this forum will participants to exchange practical experience to resolve the obstacles,” Seebundhun added.
The permanent Secretary ministry of East African Affairs Robert Ssali reasserted Seebundhun’s observations saying Rwandan budget technocrats will share knowledge on common challenges of budget implementation with their counterparts on the continent.
“Rwanda Achieved remarkable progress in public finance management in a relative short period and that is why we selected to host the 7th annual seminar. We should not cry for what we do not have and think that the happiest ones are those who have much, but rather we should appreciate the
little we have,” said Ssali.
He further said, challenges still remain but Rwanda will have an opportunity to share experiences with peers on how such challenges can be addressed, “The biggest challenge is that, donors influence our budget decisions which could be as a democratic process to our development,” Ssali told participants.
Germany International Corporation (GIZ) Representative help partner countries in technical and budget matters told Igihe.com, “it is essential for the African countries to meet and learn from each other how to manage the economy, as tax payers need to know how their money is well used,” he says.
Different countries face capacity building problem according to the requirements of donors, and priority setting in the implementation process of where to put the budget in the right position, he added.
Rwanda is a member CABRI, a professional network of senior budget officials from ministries of finance and planning in Africa with the mission to promote efficient management of public finances in Africa. Up to 27 member countries send delegations to attend the conference.
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