Government-by-Government Assessments: Guinea-Bissau
During the review period, the government made significant progress by making information on debt obligations, including major state-owned enterprise debt, publicly available within a reasonable period.
However, it did not make all budget documents publicly available within a reasonable period. The government maintained off-budget accounts not subject to audit or oversight. Budget documents provided a substantially full picture, including major sources of revenue and expenditure. Projected revenues and expenditures reasonably corresponded to those in the enacted budget. The government made public its military and intelligence budgets. The supreme audit institution did not meet international standards of independence and did not audit the entire annual executed budget, although the audits it did produce contained substantive findings. The government specified in law or regulation, but it was unclear whether it followed in practice the criteria and procedures for awarding natural resource extraction contracts and licenses. Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was not publicly available.
Guinea-Bissau’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:
* Making budget documents widely and easily accessible to the public;
* Subjecting off-budget accounts to adequate audit and oversight;
* Ensuring the supreme audit institution meets international standards of independence and publishes audit reports of the government’s executed budget;
* Following natural resource extraction laws and regulations in practice; and
* Making basic information on natural resource extraction contracts publicly available.