RESPONSE TO CONGRESSIONALLY-MANDATED REPORT ON FISCAL

UNCLAS ADDIS ABABA 000696 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EEB/IFD/OMA (SNOW AND FIGUEROA),AF/EPS (BREITER AND REPKO) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ECON PREL ET SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO CONGRESSIONALLY-MANDATED REPORT ON FISCAL TRANSPARENCY Ref: State 16737 ¶1. This cable presents post's response to questions on Ethiopia's fiscal transparency. ¶2. While Ethiopia does not have specific laws or regulations governing the pubic disclosure of revenues and expenditures in national budgets, the information is regularly published and disseminated at the direction of the government. The budget and its details are available in hard copy in the newspaper Negaritte Gazette and on the internet at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (www.moafed.org/budget.asp). ¶3. The data published is accurate and all official revenues and expenditures are included in the published budget. There are a number of extra-budgetary and parastatal institutions, such as the endowment companies formed when the current regime took power, whose budgets are not included in the national budget. Additionally, revenue-generating public institutions (such as state-owned Ethiopian Airlines) are not included. ¶4. Ethiopia does not report to the IMF on their compliance with standards and codes covering fiscal transparency. ¶5. The U.S Government has funded programs to improve fiscal transparency. As the major donor in a multi-donor project, the U.S. was a key part of a decade-long program to build a computerized, decentralized budgetary and financial system from federal to woreda level. The project was implemented by Harvard Institute of International Development and has been highly acclaimed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. YAMAMOTO