Seven years after the deadline set for switching from the means budget to the
programme, only Niger and Burkina Faso have taken the leap and are trying, with varying degrees of difficulty, to
put in place the tools necessary for its effectiveness.
Faced with this state of affairs, the methodology of research on the levers to be activated is set in motion to
remove bottlenecks and aspire to more transparency and efficiency in financial management
public.
The Methodological Research Workshop on the levers of the implementation of the Reform of the
Budget-Programme in the UEMOA space, which was held from October 29 to 31, 2019 in Dakar, indicated the
way forward.
The actors who took part in this three-day conclave sketched out the ways and means to enable
circumvent the obstacles that obstruct the proper implementation of the reform of the program budget, such as
stipulate at Community level.
This is how these three days of exchanges allowed the stakeholders to revisit the state of the literature,
research questions and general parameters of the research, as well as the validation of the method
collection and analysis of data from the elements set out in the initial research proposal.
This was followed by the definition of a research sharing network, the preparation of a
communication of results and the design of a fundraising strategy
complementary.
Indications are emerging to change a status quo that informs of the difficulties observed in the
changeover after eight years that the reform in question is launched.
Indeed, since 2009, WAEMU member countries have undertaken to modernize and reform their
public finances by adopting a series of directives to be put in place and setting the deadline of January
2012 to switch from the means budget to the program budget.
However, this changeover has been postponed several times, first to 2017, then to 2020. These postponements
successions testify to the difficulties that the States and the institutional and individual actors experience in
operationalize these changes defined and endorsed at the regional level.
According to Mr. Boubacar Aw, coordinator of the Clear project (Center For Learning On Evaluation And Results)
from French-speaking Africa, this workshop was, in fact, an opportunity to develop, in a
participatory and interactive, the methodology conducive to the effective conduct of research.
An approach that puts the research tool as a trigger that should facilitate a changeover
program budget in all eight member states.
According to him, "two countries, Niger and Burkina Faso, have made the switch to the program budget and
try with more or less difficulty to put in place the tools necessary for its effectiveness. Some
countries, such as Senegal, have set up a pilot project and are working on the adoption of measures before
enable the changeover”. A blockage that some practitioners justify by the reluctance within certain administrations which do not
have not yet mastered the reform, the purpose of which is to introduce more transparency in the management of
public finances.
This makes the Director General of Cesag, Mr. Serge Auguste Bayala, say the importance of research
in our States and at the heart of good governance. “We must situate this research agenda in our
development strategy ".
Professor Bachir Wade of Faseg who is the scientific director of the Clear project, for his part, specifies that it is
an action research whose objective is to make a success of a major reform in WAEMU.
In his opinion, the complex nature of the reform makes it not easy to get started. "It takes a lot of
precautions and business schools need to get involved,” he said.
On this momentum, Mr. Boubacar Yatassaye, senior expert in planning at the Ministry of Planning and
development of Côte d'Ivoire believes that the road is long and that there are exchanges to be made to raise
obstacles encountered.
Mr. Yatassaye, who considers this reform beneficial for the populations, calls on them to show
tax compliance to support these kinds of initiatives.
A call that is all the more relevant since, according to him, the reform militates for the strengthening of
transparency and rigor in the management of public finances.