Gov’t nudged on COVID welfare accountability
Published:Wednesday | February 16, 2022 | 12:10 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, a leading Jamaican think tank has proposed steps the Government can take promptly, and in preparation to respond to future crises, to further increase accountability.
The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) has recommended that the Government integrate innovative best practices that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic into regular Budget processes and procedures going forward.
This is among three recommendations made by CAPRI in its Following the Money (COVID Edition): Transparency and Oversight in the Disbursement of COVID Funds report, which was released on Tuesday evening.
CAPRI was one of the civil-society partners, across 120 countries, that worked with the International Budget Partnership to take a closer look at how governments managed their initial COVID-19 fiscal policy responses.
Jamaica scored among the top quarter of countries assessed in terms of overall levels of accountability.
In March 2020, the Government launched a $25-billion stimulus package to soften the economic blow of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals and businesses.
The Government utilised an innovative auditing practice that was implemented jointly by the finance ministry and Auditor General’s Department.
Jamaica’s Auditor General’s Department undertook real-time audits of key spending measures and worked with the finance ministry on audit recommendations, such as the removal of duplicate applications.
“Upon the specific request by the minister of finance, the Auditor General’s Department published three concurrent audit reviews of the Government’s cash-transfer programme – the COVID-19 Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) Programme, which was a key component of the Government’s overall stimulus package by the end of 2020,” the report said.
CAPRI suggested that a practice like this should be extended for use in normal times.
The think tank also recommended that the Government enable the public to provide input into the formulation, approval, and execution of additional emergency fiscal policy packages, through a model similar to the Economic Programme Oversight CommitteeC).
“The Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Parliament, or the Auditor General’s Department should put in place mechanisms for civic actors to provide information to better target and implement programmes, protect spending allocations for critical sectors, or advocate for expanded relief for vulnerable groups whose lives and livelihoods were devastated by the pandemic,” a section of the report read.
The report cited Chile as an example, which set up a consultative body that included several civil-society organisations in January 2020, to help improve the transparency, quality, and impact of public spending.
The Chilean body produced reports and recommendations on the transparency and effectiveness of the Government’s COVID-19 response policies and systems.
“The Government of Jamaica could set up such a body to help improve the transparency, quality, and impact of public spending, both during crisis periods and normal times,” CAPRI said in its report.
The think tank also recommended that the Government provide up-to-date implementation information on web portals, including data and analysis on budget execution and performance.
The data, it believes, should be disaggregated by impact on disadvantaged groups, such as women and girls.
CAPRI explained that by using existing data and resources, the Government could work towards ensuring that gender-disaggregated information is made available for monitoring.
“Jamaica publishes monthly Central Government Operations Tables. These could be a good place in which to include data and analysis on budget execution and performance of pandemic-related initiatives,” the report said.