The efficiency of public budget, sources of government revenue, and government spending are clear indicators of the quality of democracy, public governance, social progress, and the level of corruption.
Mongolia’s budgetary policy is based on given situations rather than established principles. It is the main reason why our public budget has seen huge fluctuations caused by the changes occurred in domestic market for the last 10 years. Also, the authorities have always been revising the public budget by carrying out what they call a budget amendment. Every time there is a budget amendment, the distribution of power between political forces and factions is changed. As a result, a new status quo is created to replace the old one.
Amending the public budget has become a usual practice. Furthermore, the authorities have come up with a new approach in making a budget amendment by suspending some projects requiring them to be audited first. On March 6, the Standing Committee on Budget reviewed the report of the detailed audits performed on a total of 272 projects worth 763 billion MNT.The irregular parliament session to be convened before the spring session needs to take place before we can tell whether the current authorities are willing to stop the government from continuing to produce billionaires or the things will just stay the same.
HOW THE PUBLIC BUDGET PRODUCES BILLIONAIRES
Having been given the assignment by the parliament, the National Audit Office performed audits on a total of 272 suspended projects countrywide to examine the investments that come from the public budget and their implementation. They provided the audit reports to the standing committee and published them on their website for the first time in their history, which could be seen as a big advancement in government auditing. However, in order to find the responsible owners of the reports, the website viewer has to search for them. If you read the report between the lines, you can see why the government is getting larger, investments are taking longer time, public budget is increasing, more people are trying to get into the government, and how billionaires are produced by the government. For instance,
– When a member of parliament is appointed as a minister, he adds projects with incomplete budgeting and economic calculations to the list of investments to be made from the public budget for approval.During the previously mentioned audits, it has been discovered that 13 of 47 buildings that have been constructed for 3-6 years had been approved without any engineering drawing or budget calculations.A total of 134 projects, half of the total projects that were audited, belong to the Minister of Education and Science, 39 to the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 24 to the Minister of Construction and Urban Development, 18 to the Minister of Road and Transportation, and 10 to the Minister of Health. In terms of funding, 265 billion MNT, which is one-third of the total funding of the projects, belongs to the Minister of Road and Transportation, 20 percent to the Minister of Education and Science, and 16 percent to the Minister of Construction and Urban Development.
– The members of parliament who are also ministers commence the most number of projects in the election year. A total of 131 projects, half of the total suspended projects, were started in the year of 2012 when the parliamentary election was held. The Minister of Education and Science commenced 41 projects that year; the Minister of Construction and Urban Development and the Minister of Road and Transportation started 24 and 8 projects respectively. It could be clearly seen from the media that, upon becoming minister, the members of parliament use the public budget to fund election campaigns in the irrespective electoral districts and receive large amounts of donations by promising profits.
– Lower- and middle-ranking officials in ministries receive bribes from contractors by using all kinds of means such as making intentional and unintentional errors when registering their projects, refusing to receive their performance reports, and declining to settle payment related issues. Many projects have been postponed just because of mistypes occurred when registering such as writing ‘Khankhsoum’ when a dormitory for children was supposed to be built in Tsagaannuursoum, Khuvsgulaimag, and writing ‘Umnugobiaimag’ instead of Dundgobiaimag where a prison was supposed to be constructed. Also, an arts and sports complex worth 1 billion MNT was built in Bayantumensoum, Dornodaimag, despite the fact that it is located 10 kilometers from the aimag center. Although there was not any drawing, a 1-billion-MNT fundingfor the construction work of Altai Ensemble’s building was approved by the budget lawin 2007. Afterwards, there were three partial approvals of drawing and budget, each of which required a tender. In the end, the budgeted cost reached 6.3 billion MNT.
– Many projects have been commenced without feasibility studies and land permits. The tenders for those projects included understated scope of work and failed to submit approved drawings or budgets. Those projects include Ulaanbaatar waste treatment plant, buildings of service centers in Tushig and Yuruusoums of Selengeaimag, water pipeline in Jargalantsoum of Khovdaimag, and ‘New Soum’ project in Dornogobiaimag.
HOW TO STOP THE PUBLIC BUDGET FROM PRODUCING BILLIONAIRES
A new opportunity for change emerged after the 2012 elections. We also need to follow up on those audits and take substantial measures, the results of which can be seen by the people.
The audit reports and their appendices will show you the level of responsibility the ministers, who are in charge of the public expenditure, have been practicing when doing their job and how much public property they intentionally and unintentionally stole from.
Irresponsible management of public budget has become a corruption nest that is stifling the development of Mongolia.. Now, using the report and numbers revealed in the audits, we have the opportunity to hold every single culprit accountable for their unlawful action. Let us see what course of action the government decides to take now.
A.Zantav, the Auditor General of Mongolia, stated on the standing committee meeting that the Independent Agency against Corruption took part in the audits. In this fashion, every related government organization needs to be involved in the process of holding the culprits accountable.
As most of the projects are buildings of schools, kindergartens, cultural centers and public service providers that are desperately needed in both urban and rural areas, we need to ensure that the construction work of those buildings is completed. However, if there are any costs that exceed the original budget, it should come from the pockets of those who were members of parliament or ministers at the time of the project commencement. It will benefit everyone involved.
When we lay our hands on those who stole from the public budget , our priority should be making them pay for the damages they are responsible for rather than sending them to a court or a jail. Those corrupt officials spend only a few years in jail for stealing large amounts of money from public property. It puts the government in a tough financial situation and causes huge deficits that are made up by the money collected from taxpayers. Saakashvili, who was the President of Georgia, revealed big corruption cases and estimated what financial damage they caused. We could look at his experiences where he demanded the corrupt officials to pay for the damage they did in exchange for a presidential pardon.
Only the projects with required economic calculations should be funded. Also, the investment from the public budget should adopt the principles of handover.If the government fails to provide funding on agreed time, they should be held accountable and face a penalty as well. The need for such regulation can be seen from some of the projects where the audits were done.
Mongolian citizens demand the authorities to responsibly manage the public budget and increase its efficiency.