Question 113

During the last approval process, did legislative committees, responsible for particular sectors (e.g., health, education, defense, etc.), examine spending in the Executive’s Budget Proposal related to the sector for which they are responsible?
 * a. Yes, sector committees had at least one month to examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal, and they published reports with findings and recommendations prior to the budget being adopted.
 * b. Yes, sector committees had less than one month to examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal, and they published reports with findings and recommendations prior to the budget being adopted.
 * c. Yes, sector committees examined the Executive’s Budget Proposal, but they did not publish reports with findings and recommendations prior to the budget being adopted.
 * d. No, sector committees did not examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal.
 * e. Not applicable/other (please comment).

OBS Guidelines
Question 113 assesses the role of committees of the legislature that are responsible for particular sectors (e.g., health, education, defense, etc.) during the budget approval stage. The role of sectoral committees differs across legislatures. Some legislatures do not involve them in the budget approval process, while others do. In addition, the time available for committee analysis differs.

A report with the committee’s findings and recommendations is intended to inform the debate in the full legislature, so therefore must be published before the legislature has adopted the budget. Response “a” requires that sector committees had one month or more to examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal, and published a report with findings and recommendations prior the budget being adopted. Response “b” applies where such committees examined the draft budget and published a report, but within a shorter timeframe of less than one month. Response “c” applies if sectoral committees 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 sectoral committees did not examine the Executive’s Budget Proposal.

Please note that the examination of sectoral budgets by a specialized budget or finance committee is assessed in Question 112 and should not be considered for this question.

Please provide in the comments a brief overview of the committee structure and specify the number of days that sectoral committees had available to examine the budget and to publish their reports. 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 sample copy of at least one of the reports. Please note if a report is published, but only after the budget has been adopted.

For purposes of responding to this question, use those sectoral committees that are best performing – that is, the ones that examine the budget the longest and that publish reports.

1) Minimum criteria for “c” answer
What if sector committees review the budget in plenary, but not in a committee-specific session? What if sub-committees examine the budget, but not the full sector committee
 * Not sufficient, they have to have a separate committee meeting, separate from the plenary. Answer “d” applies
 * Not sufficient, and so “d” applies, see Democratic Republic of Congo in OBS 2017.

2) What if the budget committee discusses sectoral spending?
In Iraq in OBS 2019, the budget committee discussed sectoral spending. This, however, would not count towards Question 113 unless there is evidence that there are sub-committees within the budget committee that are sector-focused.

3) What should the sector committee look like?
In Chile in OBS 2019, the EBP is examined by “special mixed budget subcommissions”, which are composed of five active parliamentarians. The commission distributes the work between different sub-commissions that address specific thematic areas such as education, housing, public safety, and culture. These sub-commissions do not correspond to that of the permanent sectoral commissions. However, since they look at the budget proposal from a sectoral perspective, it is okay to count these subcommissions for an "a" response to this question.

4) 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).

5) Case of Jordan in OBS 2021
In Jordan, the finance committee examined the 2020 budget proposal. Deputies from sector committees were present during the finance committee’s examination of the budget. Could this count as a “c” response, and if so, under what circumstances?

Resolution. Score of “d”. For cross-country comparability across countries, we cannot count the attendance of deputies from sector committees at the finance committee discussion for this question.