COPF approves Bill on Parliamentary Budget Office

The Committee on Public Finance has approved the Bill for the establishment of the Parliamentary Budget Office.

Chairman of the Committee on Public Finance Dr. Harsha De Silva began proceedings as the newly installed chairperson for the committee by approving the Bill for the Parliamentary Budget Office with one amendment to be made.

Special mention was made that this legislation was long overdue and would inject some much-needed independence in the analysis process.

The Committee scrutinized key areas of the Bill and paid special attention to:

● The scope of the budget office with regards to evaluations done on economic cost and revenue generation only. There is no mandate to evaluate social impact.

● The selection process through an advisory committee consisting of the Chairs of the Public Finance and Ways & Means Committees and the Deputy Speaker of Parliament. This advisory committee will help the Secretary General of Parliament shortlist candidates for selection by the Constitutional Council for the Parliamentary Budget Office.

● The ability of the Budget Office to stay consistent with the National Physical plan and disseminate information in strict compliance with the Act that ensures that no sensitive data of compromising nature would be shared.

Meanwhile, a new provision grants the ability for leaders of recognized political parties to forward their own party economic manifestos to the office for independent analysis. This enables greater transparency and accountability by aspiring candidates who will have to have scientific methodology to their manifesto provisions.

The Chairman stressed that the Parliamentary Budget Office is an independent entity enshrined by legislature to analyze what has been proposed using alternative methodologies to see what the financial impact on the forecasts are.

The Bill was approved pending an amendment to present the budget of the PBO within 60 days. (Colombo Gazette)