Government-by-Government Assessments: Guinea
During the review period, a military coup d’état led by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya and Guinean military special forces ousted the democratically elected government and suspended the Constitution and National Assembly. This assessment refers to the fiscal transparency of former President Alpha Conde’s government (which was in power until September 2021) and the transition government under Colonel Doumbouya. There is insufficient information to determine whether the transition government will follow the same procedures as the previous government. During the review period, the former government made significant progress by ensuring procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts were generally followed in practice. The former government published its enacted budget and end-of-year report online within a reasonable period. However, the former government did not publish an executive budget proposal within a reasonable period. Information on debt obligations was publicly available under both the former and transition governments, although it excluded some major state-owned enterprises. The enacted budget did not present a complete picture of the former government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams and did not include allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises. Major state-owned enterprises lacked publicly available audited financial statements under the former and transition governments. Budget documents were considered generally reliable under the former and transition governments. The supreme audit institution met international standards of independence but did not publish reports on the former government’s executed budget within a reasonable period. At the end of 2021, the transition government announced the creation of an economic and financial crimes court for cases involving embezzlement of public funds, corruption, money laundering, and violations of business law. The criteria and procedures by which the former and transition governments award contracts or licenses for natural resource extraction were specified in law. Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was publicly available under both the former and transition governments.
Guinea’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
- Publishing an executive budget proposal within a reasonable period;
- Incorporating allocations to, earnings from, and debt obligations of state-owned enterprises in budget documents;
- Ensuring major state-owned enterprises have publicly available audited financial statements; and
- Publishing audit reports of the government’s executed budget within a reasonable period.