Economic Governance and Management 541. In addition, the control of budget implementation is partial and inefficient. It relies entirely on the report of the director of audit. Parliament is not well equipped to control the operations of public services and agencies, because it does not receive the relevant information. Parliament can take up to two years to analyse the annual audit. This makes the analysis inefficient. The Finance Committee makes very few recommendations on this report. The period taken may even exceed two years in the case of extrabudgetary expenditures, as emphasised in the PEFA Report, given that parastatal institutions are not controlled. 542. Sound public financial management also depends on transparency and efficiency in public procurement, which should reflect international norms and standards. 543. The Financial Management Manual, the 1973 Finance and Audit Act and the Bid Committee Act (BCA), adopted in 2000, controlled government contracts until 2007. 544. The method the BCA followed was to publish bid announcements in local newspapers, on government websites, through individual invitations, at embassies and in international newspapers. The BCA controls the opening of bids and the awarding of contracts. 545. However, there are low levels of transparency in the system. This means that internal rules and procedures do not control public procurement for projects and programmes funded by international partners. They are subject to international rules that are very costly. Chapter 4 Economic Governance and Management international rules and practices. Today, this system even implements projects and programmes. 549. With regard to decentralisation, the administration of Mauritius is based on five municipalities and four district councils. Decentralisation is limited to certain areas because of the size of the island. The island of Rodrigues, however, is largely autonomous and certain financial and administrative responsibilities have been effectively transferred to it. Indeed, Rodrigues has an autonomous executive power and a Regional Assembly. 550. The CRM learned in discussions and from other information that the former system is the basis of the budgets allocated to the municipalities. This determines in advance a fixed envelope for each municipality. Reforms are necessary in order to adapt the new planning and budgeting tools to the decentralised entities. The participation of civil society in these exercises should also be encouraged. 551. Budgets for the island of Rodrigues are prepared using the same methodology as used for the central government. The ministry responsible for the island implements and controls it. iii. Recommendations 552. The APR Panel recommends that the government: • • • • Develops coordinated and coherent macroeconomic and sector policies and strategies and ensures that they are clearly expressed by developing MTEFs and preparing the PB so that the budget is managed credibly. [Government] Reviews the methodologies, and accounting and internal control manuals, to adapt them to the requirements of the results-based PBA. [Government] Develops an appropriate training programme for civil servants regarding new programming and budgeting instruments. [Government] Introduces reforms for parastatal enterprises quickly by promoting the principles of equity and efficiency and the limited regulatory role of a democratic state. [Government] 546. The director of audit also emphasised the inefficiency of the public procurement system in the 2005/2006 Annual Report. This means that public funds are badly managed. 547. The CRM learned that, within the framework of the reforms initiated in 2006 to improve public financial management, the government adopted a new public procurement law in July 2007 to strengthen the existing system and correct the shortcomings. This law established the CPB, defined the procurement policy, established the PPO to manage it and created the Independent Review Committee. These measures helped to improve the regulatory procedures and transparency of the public procurement system to bring it in line with The APR Panel recommends that Parliament: 548. 210 Chapter 4 • Improves its capacity to analyse the budget, the operations of public services and the management of parastatals. [Parliament] 211