Budgeting transparency: A case study of regional administrative secretariats in Tanzania

Abstract

Transparency of government activities and plans can be understood to be a public good and a necessary governance tool if a country is  to achieve success in the fight against corruption, poverty and mismanagement of public funds, especially in developing countries.  Starting from the early 1990’s, good governance with emphasis on government transparency and accountability has been emphasized in  many developing countries including Tanzania. This paper is a result of an empirical case study which was conducted to study  government budgeting transparency, in the office of the Regional Administrative Secretariats (RAS) in five regions in Tanzania. These  includes; Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Morogoro, Pwani and Rukwa. This is because regional Administrative Secretariats (RAS) form  important administrative divisions in the country, whose task is administering social and economic activities in envisioned regions. In the  course of transparency and accountability, the RAS offices are required among others to have a transparent budgeting system through  which local citizens can have a chance to participate in the budgetary processes and be able to access the approved regional budget  documents. Todate, it is ten years since Public Financial Management Reform program was initiated in the Tanzanian government  machinery. However, little formal research has been conducted to evaluate the level of government budget transparency in RAS offices.  This fact has made this study and therefore this paper important and beneficial. The most important benefit of having a transparent  budget process in the RAS offices is that it will enable citizens to be affected by the budget to make informed political decisions. This may  lead to effective and efficient financial management and accountability of government owards the use of public funds for the social- economic development agenda.