Public Participatory Budgeting In Botswana

Public participation in the budgetary process has become a prominent feature in driving the economic system of any country, as it allows for collective decision making and collaborative measures over addressing resource allocation issues. The latter depicts a good governance system as it is rooted upon efficient and sufficient distribution of public resources at the best interest of the public. Thus a budget is not just a mere representation of government interest on demonstrating priority areas however it has to also be valuable to citizens at large. Provision of goods and services along those priority areas is financed out of state funds through taxes and this tax is collected from the citizens. As a result citizens are at liberty to be conversant

This paper thus presupposes that resources are scanty therefore budgeting is a prerequisite for distribution of public wealth. This paper further assume that only when people join hands with government planning which reflect aspirations of citizens with women included then development are likely to be achieved. As a result public participation is necessary for a good budgetary process in Botswana. Hence this paper will be laid out in three sections. The first phase of the discussion will attempt to define public participatory budgeting and discuss reasons for participation in the budget process. The second phase will reflect on public participatory budget in the context of Botswana. And problematize lack of participation. The third phase will explore ways to enhance budgetary participation in Botswana, noting some of the mechanisms adopted by South Africa as an example to redress the limitations. Finally a brief summary will be given to summarize the whole discussion and recommendations will be

(Peixoto, 2012) Asserts that public budgeting is viewed as an object of process that is, it is formulated under procedural stages from the drafting stage to the execution stage. Continuous engagement throughout the whole process of the budget is detrimental in the sense that case citizens contribute their opinions throughout the budget process. Furthermore participatory budgeting has a direct impact on the budget. This means that engaging citizens can allow changes and promote changes for the betterment of the budgetary process. Again in this case citizens should decide on the rules of governing the process. Along lines to promote good governance a critical aspect of participatory budgeting is depicted by permitting citizens to decide on the rules for overriding the budget process. Furthermore (Peixoto, 2012) maintains that the process must be repeated periodically. For a successful record concerning budget, the budget must be analysed on periodic basis; at least on yearly basis. Besides, a participatory budget has its redistributive logic embedded in the design of the process. This means that structural adjustments need to be adhered to in order to ensure that public resources are allocated efficiently to the best interest of the public. In particular to ensure that poorest districts or areas are getting more development adjust Aral