All things being equal, the 2014 State budget will be officially launched across the country on January 9 - 10, 2014. As usual, this will be in Regional capitals under the chairmanship of respective Governors alongside representatives from the Ministry of Finance to explain orientations to vote holders for an efficient execution.

These orientations are contained in a traditional Ministerial Circular which may be published after a fine-tuning meeting this Friday January 3 at the Prime Minister's Office. At the Ministry of Finance yesterday January 2, a source who opted for anonymity, said there are innovations this year aimed at ensuring a more coordinated execution of the budget.

Unlike in previous years when officials from the Ministries of Finance (MINFI) and of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development (MINEPAT) launched the budget in separate ranks; our source said the launching this time around will be done jointly. The second innovation is that unlike last year when the budget was launched in the absence of computer software to ensure its celerity, the computer-based programme "Programme Budget Management Information System (PROBMIS)," through which data is gathered from the grassroots to the central administration to attain the goals sought for by the results-based budget, is functioning optimally.

"The 2014 budget is already online thanks to PROBMIS," our source said. The software has a central database installed in the Ministry of Finance that networks with other ministries and the regions for rapid information flow on the execution of the State budget. Our source at MINFI disclosed that while waiting for contracts to be awarded (which usually takes time given the long procedures) for the public investment budget, all is being done to render operational the functional budget.

Mobilising the resources is already on course given that stamp duties are already on sale. We were also made to understand that stakeholders are already drawing up the contract award documents (DAO) for a speedy process this time around. The third innovation, which is not the least anyway, is that unlike in previous years when the Project's Logbook was available in February ending or even March, a source in MINEPAT told CT yesterday that the document will be available in the days ahead.