US State Department: Sudan has made great progress in financial transparency

The US State Department has announced today that the Sudan’s  transitional government made great progress in financial transparency, as it has made public for the first time the spending budget of all ministries, including the office of Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdouk.

the US State Department report issued today on financial transparency for the year 2021, indicated that 74 of the 141 governments around the world reviewed by the US State Department met the minimum requirements for financial transparency, while 17 governments out of 67 governments did not meet the minimum limit requirements for a significant progress during the review period.

the aforementioned governments and countries are the ones that receive support from the United States of America and international funds, which require financial transparency in their dealings.

The report identified the status of each country separately, indicating that the review period for Sudan covered the first full year in power for the civilian-led Sudanese transitional government.

The report noted: “The (Sudanese) government made significant progress by publishing the budget within three months of its approval. It also made significant progress by defining expenditures according to each ministry, and expenditures included the Prime Minister’s Office.”

The US report on financial transparency indicated that Sudan has made great progress because it prepared budget documents in accordance with international standards, and the documents that included information on Sudan’s debt obligations were then published for the first time.

The report pointed that despite the lack of matching budget estimates and budget implementation, the government has made: “significant progress by publicly publishing the revised budget estimates.”

The report has criticized the incomplete budget documents because they did not include extra-budgetary revenues from the institutions run by the Armed Forces, and that the declared military expenditures were low and lacked transparency.

The report noted that the Sudan’s monitoring body, which meets international standards of independence, conducted audits that covered the entire annual implementation budget, but did not publish them in a reasonable time.

The report added that the Sudanese government set standards and procedures by which the government legally granted contracts or licenses to extract natural resources, noting: “but it appears that these procedures and standards were not followed in practice. Basic information on incentives to extract natural resources was not publicly available.”

The report emphasized that the financial transparency in Sudan could be improved by eliminating any off-budget accounts or subjecting them to appropriate auditing and supervision, by imposing greater civilian oversight over the country’s military and intelligence budgets, and by ensuring that the oversight body reviews the government’s executed budget within a reasonable time, and publishes its reports, in addition to adhering to the process of awarding contracts extracting natural resources and licenses provided by law and making information on incentives to extract natural resources available to the public.