The central budget authority (CBA) is the public body responsible for managing a country’s national/federal budget. The CBA leads the budget process in alignment with governments’ strategic goals and ensures that the procedures for formulating and implementing the budget are followed. The location of the CBA within the architecture of government has great strategic importance, given its co-ordinating function and role in resolving competing claims on budget resources.
The ministry of finance and/or economics is the most common choice of CBA location across SEA (60%) and OECD (88%) countries. In such cases, the CBA generally consists of a dedicated unit or group of co-ordinated units within the ministry. In the case of LAO PDR, the Philippines and Viet Nam the CBA functions fall under the responsibility of two separate organisations. In Lao PDR and Viet Nam, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment share the CBA tasks, while in the Philippines, the split is between the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Finance. In the case of Thailand, the CBA is part of the Prime Minister’s Office.
The head of the CBA naturally plays a critical role in budget configuration. This is especially relevant in terms of managing negotiations with other ministries and departments in developing the budget. In SEA countries, 80% of heads of the CBA are senior civil servants, compared to 64% for OECD countries. A CBA led by a government official who is expected to remain in the position after a change in government is key to preserve institutional memory and can potentially ensure continuity between political cycles.
The role and functions of the CBA varies across countries. In a similar way to OECD countries, exclusive competencies of CBAs in SEA often include drafting the budget circular (80%), producing supplementary budgets (80%) and determining ceilings for line ministries (70%). In contrast to OECD countries, authorising supplementary outlays for line ministries is also often under the sole responsibility of the CBA in SEA countries (80% in SEA and 45% in OECD countries). In turn, in SEA countries responsibility for tasks such as monitoring line ministries’ performance (80% of cases) and the methodology for macroeconomic projections (60%) are shared between CBA and other institutions or agencies. In OECD countries CBAs in 17 out of 33 countries (52%) countries share responsibility for monitoring line ministries’ performance, and 10 countries out of 33 countries (30%) share responsibility for developing the methodology for macroeconomic projections.
