The County Budget Review and Outlook paper (CBROP) is prepared in line with the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 section 118.
The Act requires that every county prepares a CBROP by 30th September of that financial year and submit the same to the County Assembly.
After submission by the County Treasury the County Executive Committee (CEC) shall in turn:
- Within fourteen days after submission, consider the CBROP with a view to approving it, with or without amendments. Not later than seven days after the CEC has the approved the paper, the county treasury shall
- Arrange for the paper to be laid before the county Assembly
- As soon as practicable after having done so, publish and publicize the Paper.
WHY IS THE COUNTY BUDGET REVIEW AND OUTLOOK PAPER IMPORTANT?
CBROP has three important functions (source: International Budget Partnership – follow this external link for a pdf-file with even more details on the analysis of a CBROP):
- Function as year-end report, providing an assessment of budget performance from the previous financial year.
As they are produced almost three months after the end of the financial year, the government should have a good sense of the successes and challenges in implementing the previous year’s budget.
- They also provide an update on the government’s fiscal position for the first quarter of the current financial year.
CBROP indicates whether the government’s projections have turned out to be correct or not.
- Finally, they play a key role in setting the share of the budget that will be distributed to different sectors
(Health versus education versus other areas) for the next financial year
BROPs propose “provisional ceilings” (maximum shares) for each sector, and the government organizes sector hearings between November and January to revise this proposal.
The revised ceilings are published in February in the County Fiscal Strategy Paper.
Example: Kisumu CBROP September 2015
