Dear Mr. Jeng,

Thanks for your comments.  Obviously, Accountants are more at home with
spread sheets. The closest thing to this format would be the Recurrent and
Development Estimates.  I must confess that I have not closely studied the
document to see if the format has undergone significant transformation. I
suspect it hasn't. The format in place a decade ago would have had at
least the estimates of say 2003 and the actuals of 2002.  And these budget
performance figures, as you yourself have said, are critical in assessing
actual perfomance in achieving programmed objectives.

Your recommendation for a complete overhaul of the budget process is, in
my view, not absolutely necessary because most the elements to promote
transparency are in place.  Applying the process, calling for proposals of
individual departments, budget presentations to Finance by Departments,
providing justifications for the new proposals based on past performance,
parliamentary scrutiny and the like are all designed to improve
transparency and accountability. In my view, periodic fine-tuning of the
process and the reporting format is more in order, and most importantly,
strict adherance to the rules and procedures in place and tighter
parliamentary scrutiny.

Sidi Sanneh

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