Question 112

During the last budget approval process, did a specialized budget or finance committee in the legislature examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal?
 * a. Yes, a specialized budget or finance committee had at least one month to examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal, and it published a report with findings and recommendations prior to the budget being adopted.
 * b. Yes, a specialized budget or finance committee had less than one month to examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal, and it published a report with findings and recommendations prior to the budget being adopted.
 * c. Yes, a specialized budget or finance committee examined the Executive’s Budget Proposal, but it did not publish a report with findings and recommendations prior to the budget being adopted.
 * d. No, a specialized budget or finance committee did not examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal.
 * e. Not applicable/other (please comment).

OBS Guidelines
Question 112 assesses the role of a specialized budget or finance committee during the budget approval stage. Effective committee involvement is an essential condition for legislative influence in the budget process. Specialized committees provide opportunities for individual legislators to gain relevant expertise, and to examine budgets and policy in depth. Yet, the involvement of committees differs across legislatures. Some legislatures have separate committees to examine spending and tax proposals, while others have a single finance committee. Not all legislatures have a specialized budget or finance committee to examine the budget. In addition, there can be differences in the time available for the committee’s analysis of the budget.

A report with the committee’s findings and recommendations is intended to inform the debate in the full legislature, therefore it must be published before the legislature has adopted the budget.

Response “a” requires that, in the last budget approval process, a specialized budget or finance committee had one month or more to examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal, and it published a report with findings and recommendations prior to the budget being adopted. Response “b” applies where such a committee examined the draft budget and published a report, but within a shorter timeframe of less than one month. Response “c” applies if a committee examined the budget (without regard to the time period), but did not publish a report prior to the adoption of the budget. Response “d” applies where a specialized budget or finance committee did not examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal.

Please specify in your comment the name of the committee and the number of days it had available to examine the budget and to publish a report. For bicameral legislatures where one house or chamber has greater constitutional authority in budgetary matters, the question applies to the house or chamber (usually the upper or second one) that is decisive. For bicameral legislatures with co-equal houses or chambers, the question should be answered with reference to the one that achieves the higher score for this question. In the case of bicameral legislatures, please note the relevant arrangements in each house or chamber. If applicable, provide a copy of the report. Please note also if a report is published, but only after the budget has been adopted.

1) Not publicly available report
If the committee produces a report, but only gives it to other MPs (thus the report is not made available to the public), then answer “c” applies. See: Nigeria in OBS 2017.

2) Expertise of MPs
The Budget/Finance committee members do NOT have to be budget experts to examine the EBP. See: Peru in OBS 2017.

3) How do we assess timing on this question?
In OBS 2019, the Italian budget commission of the House of Representatives started to examine the EBP on November 13, 2018 and ended December 8, 2018.

The budget committee of the Senate started to examine the EBP on December 10, 2018 and ended December 20, 2018.

The full legislature approved the EBP on December 30, 2018.

In this case, we chose "a" to answer this question, since the overall length of time that committees in both chambers took to analyze the budget proposal was more than a month, though it is important to note that the Italian case may be peculiar because it has a bicameral legislature that "takes turns" looking at the budget proposal.

In general to answer this question, we should look at the amount of time the committee(s) took to examine the EBP, rather than the amount of time they had in principle.

4) What if a committee report is released on the same day the EBP is approved?
We consider this a "c" response. The spirit of the "b" response is to credit countries where the report is published in time so that it can be considered before the budget is approved. If the report is published on the same day the budget is approved, the spirit of the "'b" response is not met.

5) For "a" and "b" scores, what counts as a report?
As long as it includes finding and recommendations, a report can include meeting minutes, transcripts, or even a video recording, as long as the video recording is publicly available (on the website at all times).