Government-by-Government Assessments: Republic of the Congo
During the review period, the government made its enacted budget widely and easily accessible to the public, including online. However, it did not make its executive budget proposal or end-of-year report publicly available within a reasonable period. Information on debt obligations was not publicly available. Budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams. The government maintained off-budget accounts not subject to audit or oversight. Publicly available budget documents did not include allocations to, earnings from, or debt information of state-owned enterprises. Because of a lack of budget execution reports, budget reliability could not be assessed. The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence and did not make audit reports available for review. The government specified in law the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licenses but did not always follow those regulations in practice. The government made basic information on natural resource extraction publicly available.
The Republic of Congo’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
- Making its executive budget proposal and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the public;
- Publishing information on government debt obligations, including for major state-owned enterprises;
- Providing a more comprehensive accounting of off-budget accounts and subjecting such accounts to audit and oversight;
- Detailing in budget documents allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises;
- Ensuring the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence and publishes audit reports of the government’s executed budget; and
- Ensuring it follows laws and regulations in awarding contracts and licenses for natural resource extraction.