Bernard Mutambudzi

The Ministry of Finance is conducting a five day workshop for the officials in the Ministries of Finance, Defence and Mines to equip them with skills on how to implement programme based budget.

In an exclusive interview with the Harare Post this afternoon, an official who preferred not to be named said Government was moving away from line budget to programme based budget starting with the 2020 budget.

“Government is moving in line with other nations in SADC and some regional countries like Rwanda, Kenya and Mauritius who have already implemented the program," said the official.

The official said so far they had managed to hold workshops to18 ministries.

“Today after the three ministries, we will have covered twenty-one, and by the end of July, we would be through with all the 34 ministries," said the official.

Programme based budgeting entails that each ministry avails to Finance Ministry how it intends to use the money and justification.

"Ministries will now be tasked to produce evidence and results from money drawn from Finance," said the official.

He said the second phase of the workshop would be held in August.

"We want to make sure by the time this year's budget is done, all ministries will be compliant to the new internationally recognised method," he said.

He said the World Bank was in support of Government's initiative as it bankrolled the initial training phase which was held sometime in February this year.