2021 Fiscal Transparency Report: Mali

Government-by-Government Assessments: Mali

During the review period, the government made its executive budget proposal, enacted budget, and end-of-year report available online within a reasonable period of time.  Information on debt obligations was publicly available, with the exception of state-owned enterprise debt.  Publicly available budget documents provided a substantially complete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams, including natural resource revenues.  However, the government maintained some off-budget accounts not subject to adequate audit or oversight.  Information regarding allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises was lacking.  Significant, large state-owned enterprises did not have publicly available audited financial statements.  The information in the budget was considered broadly reliable, and significant deviations from projections were described in publicly available revised estimates. Mali has multiple audit institutions and has yet to create a single supreme audit institution as required by the West African Economic and Monetary Union.  Its audit institutions did review the government’s accounts, but audits did not cover the entire annual executed budget and were not published within a reasonable period of time.  The criteria awarding natural resource extraction awards and licenses were specified in law and appeared to be followed in practice.  Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was publicly available. Mali’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:

• subjecting off-budget accounts to regular audit and oversight;
• detailing allocations to, earnings from, and debts of state-owned enterprises;
• ensuring significant, large state-owned enterprises have publicly available audited financial statements;
• establishing a single supreme audit institution that meets international standards of independence and publishes audits that cover the entire annual executed budget; and
• publishing audits that cover the entire annual executed budget within a reasonable period of time.