Government-by-Government Assessments: Central African Republic
During the review period, the government made its enacted budget and quarterly reports publicly available online. It did not publish an executive budget proposal or an end-of-year report within a reasonable period of time. Limited information on debt obligations was publicly available, including for state-owned enterprises. Publicly available budget documents provided a fairly complete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams, with the exception of allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises. The Central African Republic’s supreme audit institution did not audit the government’s executed budget and was not authorized to publish reports. The criteria and procedures by which the national government awards contracts or licenses for natural resource extraction were specified in law, but the government exercised limited control over natural resource extraction and laws were not consistently followed in practice. The Central African Republic’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
- publishing an executive budget proposal and an end-of-year report within a reasonable period of time;
- providing more detail on allocations to, earnings from, and debt holdings of state-owned enterprises in budget documents;
- having the supreme audit institution audit the government’s executed budget and publish its audit reports within a reasonable period of time;
- consistently following in practice laws for awarding natural resource extraction contracts; and
- ensuring information on natural resource awards is accurate, complete, and publicly available.