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.

Fiscal rules are long-term restrictions on fiscal policy operating through numerical limits on the budgetary aggregates, usually based in legislation. As such, they can act as concrete indicators of the government’s commitment to prudent budgetary management. They can counter the tendency of government to accommodate internal and external demands by spending more than it has, given the open-ended nature of the budget process.

Medium-term expenditure frameworks (MTEFs) are an important tool for overcoming the limitations of the annual budget cycle by adopting a medium-term perspective for achieving government fiscal objectives. They generally span a period of at least three years beyond the current budget. MTEFs are typically defined by combining expenditure ceilings and a baseline estimation of government policies’ costs that are continually updated.

The budget is one of the most strategic policy documents enshrining government priorities and objectives. The budget is also the means for parliament, citizens and non-government organisations to hold the government to account for its use of resources. Increasing transparency in the use of public funds is crucial to fostering responsibility and integrity as well promoting an open and inclusive budget process. Transparent and inclusive budgeting can also support better fiscal outcomes and promote better public sector performance through more responsive, impactful and equitable public policies. As highlighted in the OECD Toolkit on Budget Transparency (2017), “there are various definitions of budget transparency and fiscal transparency, but they can all be summarised in one core concept: budget transparency means being fully open with people about how public money is raised and used.”

Legislative scrutiny and oversight underpin budget transparency. Legislative debate on the budget and related documentation in the plenary and in committee provides an opportunity to build public awareness of the government’s spending priorities and policy objectives. In turn, legislative scrutiny of budget execution helps ensure that public funds are being used as intended and that policies are achieving planned results.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are long-term contractual agreements between the government and a private sector partner. The latter typically finances and delivers public services using a capital asset (e.g. transport infrastructure, hospital), sharing the associated risks. PPPs may deliver public services both with regard to infrastructure assets (such as bridges, roads) and social assets (such as hospitals, utilities, prisons).