Kevin Page changes budgetary approval process in the name of accountability, transparency
Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page is radically changing Parliament’s “archaic” budgetary approval process, the Hill Times reports. The plan is to provide MPs with the tools and information necessary to make more informed decisions on government spending. Page has set up a database that tracks departments and spending programs every three months, in order to help Parliamentarians make informed decisions on more than $250 billion of annual spending and $11 billion in cuts over the next three years. “We don’t want people to have to wait from budget 2011 all the way to the fall of 2012 to say how did it turn out?” said Page. “[A database] raises the level of engagement, which actually raises the level of transparency and accountability.” Under the existing process, MPs have to wait 20 months from the start of the budgetary period to get data on spending.