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Democratic Republic of the Congo: Ministry of the Budget, General Secretary.
Office of Budget Preparation and Monitoring.
We’re very thankful for the government and our international partners
to have installed the Aid Management Platform.
It helped us finish the task of developing the budget
such that today we’re able to obtain all the information
on all external financing in advance.
This is a task that was very difficult to complete in the past.
That’s a very important aspect.
But another aspect is the monitoring of foreign aid.
We make provisional calculations of foreign aid, but for preparing reports
it is difficult to know exactly what is paid out monthly, quarterly, and biannually
to the point that it is difficult to gather effective information
on the total amount of external resources we have used.
We think that, since they enabled us to reconstruct provisional information
on external resources, they could also influence
helping us report on the appropriation of these resources.
This will not only give us the ability
to effectively respond to donors and debtors,
it would also reinforce transparency in the management of public finances.
AMP
National High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in the DRC
We also talked about the updating of AMP’s data.
We still have to talk about the data collecting process for AMP.
We should also discuss the project of AMP’s first information bulletin.
We have an information bulletin
corresponding to what we recently talked about.
Following, we should also talk about the event of “The week of Kinshasa.”
We were talking about organizing a mini-forum on aid effectiveness –
but I think that we had a lot of activities,
so the idea of the mini forum is being compromised.
First we must see the situation at the forum –
people had organized themselves to be able to bring data to the platform,
but after the forum I sincerely have to admit that the regularity has diminished.
Nevertheless an effort is being made by the AMP technical team to go collect data,
especially since we have pressures on the budget.
The people at the Budget ministry need those data
for the preparation and reporting of the budget.
the people at Ministry of Finance need those data
to perform account reductions.
Regarding those pressures, the technical team is forced to go out in the field.
Some of our donors really perform their duties –
as soon as we knock at their doors they give us the data we need.
AMP
We were present at the gathering of the technical committee
for consultation on aid effectiveness,
which is very important in the state budget.
Our duty is to produce follow-up reports on the budget,
which presents the implementation of the state budget.
This should match the records of the state’s financial operations.
To fulfill this requirement, the government must publish within sixty days
its budget monitoring reports, taking into account external resources,
in order to portray the implementation of the budget on a biannual basis.
Herein lies the importance of AMP,
which is used to centralize all data on foreign aid.
AMP
AMP was very important for the forum we organized on aid effectiveness,
because it showed us, for example, that we concentrate too much
on certain provinces and certain themes, and we forget other themes.
This has had an impact on aid transparency,
and could also impact aid effectiveness.
Donors must now alter their behavior in regards to reporting data to AMP,
and we must continue to update AMP. This is where the challenge lies.
It’s not guaranteed that all donors will provide data.
You have to hunt them down.
I’ve had several difficulties in gathering updated data
because, you see, there are problems in the design of how the data is recorded.
For example, every donor submits a budget according to their fiscal year,
whereas AMP requires budget figures for the calendar year.
This is often problematic, and necessitates close collaboration
between donors and the AMP administration.
Another challenge is the appropriation of national funds.
You have to remember that [AMP] is based and lodged
in the Ministry of Planning.
The government’s current goal is to roll out this tool
from a central level to a provincial level.
On the provincial level, it’s best to start with pilots.
So, we undertook a series of missions to analyze rolling out AMP to the provinces.
Three provinces were assigned to the pilot program,
including the provinces of Kinshasa, Katanga, and Orientale.
As soon as these programs are conclusive,
we intend to roll out AMP to all national territories.