A Parliamentary Budget Office is to be established to provide “independent and non-partisan analysis of budget cycles, fiscal policies and financial proposals,” to Parliament and its members.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who submitted a Cabinet paper on the above proposal this week, asked that a draft legislation for such an office be prepared and submitted to the Cabinet and thereafter to Parliament.
The Office would function under a Budget Officer who among his tasks, would consider the: “Preparation of policy costing on a request by Members of Parliament, Leader of political parties in Parliament or the Chairman of any Sectoral Oversight Committee relating to public finance; prepare responses to requests relating to the budget by Members of Parliament or the Chairman of a Sectoral Oversight Committee; prepare submissions in response to inquiries of Parliamentary committees on request by such committees, during the period following the dissolution of Parliament prior to a General elections being held, prepare policy costings on request by the leader of a recognized political party and conduct on his or her own initiative research on and analysis of the budget and fiscal policy settings.”