Towards Achieving a Transparent and Accountable National Budget

February 01, 2014 | 167 Pages | Arabic | Sami Atallah, Karim Daher, Ghida Franjiyeh, Christelle El-Hajj, Nahawand El-Kaderi Issa, Lama Karameh, Elie Maalouf, Mounir Rach
Towards Achieving a Transparent and Accountable National Budget

The fact that Lebanon has not had a national budget since 2005 is only the tip of the iceberg of our public finance problems. The deeper challenge is that the country lacks the two major pillars of strong institutions – accountability and transparency – that ensure that the budget can be spent effectively and efficiently.
This book examines the two types of accountability mechanisms that must be in place to contain the power of the executive authority: the first is horizontal accountability which is the ability of the parliament and the court of account to exercise answerability and enforceability vis-à-vis the government; and the second is vertical accountability where non-state actors such as the media and civil society ought to monitor government’s decisions and policies and compel it to provide information.
For accountability to be effective, it must be complemented with transparency. The book goes beyond the issue of data accuracy and examines the comprehensiveness of the budget, its accounting rules as well as the budgetary appropriations and specifications.