Despite remaining challenges, there are clear opportunities to build on recent developments in the relationship between budget offices and line ministries. Continued reform and innovation can help ensure that budgeting systems support both fiscal sustainability and meaningful policy impact. But this requires deliberate investment - not just in tools, but in people, institutions, and relationships.
Key areas for further development include:
Strengthen the finance functions in each line ministry: every line ministry should have a clearly defined internal finance unit that acts as the single institutional point of contact with the budget office. These units should co-ordinate all budget-related activity, support internal reallocations – including with relevant sub-entities - and ensure alignment between policy planning and financial management. Building this function also helps reduce fragmentation, improve internal accountability, and foster more consistent engagement with fiscal rules and performance objectives.
Invest in skills and systems across government: budgeting requires more than compliance, it demands the ability to cost proposals, assess trade-offs, manage risks, and use performance data to inform decisions. This capacity must be developed from within line ministries by strengthening internal finance teams that can work across policy areas and support ministers in managing resources effectively. Targeted training, mentoring, and tools tailored to ministry needs can help ensure that finance teams are well-positioned to lead internal budget processes with confidence and competence. At the same time, budget offices must continue to build their own capacity to engage with ministries as partners, providing constructive challenge, technical advice, and guidance.
Enhance digital infrastructure and data use: modern budget systems depend on timely, accurate, and shared data. Governments should invest in integrated IT systems that connect line ministries and the budget office, allow real-time monitoring of spending, and support performance reporting. But systems alone are not enough, people need to be able to interpret and apply the information. Strengthening data literacy and linking analytics to decision-making will be essential.
Foster a culture of trust and shared accountability: trust between budget offices and line ministries is critical to making budgeting systems work well in practice: that line ministries will manage their envelopes responsibly, and that the budget office will provide clear guidance, fair processes, and meaningful support. In practice, ministries and budget offices often pursue different priorities. But even with divergent perspectives, building a constructive relationship is essential. Trust is not created by formal rules alone, it requires early engagement, consistent follow-up, and openness to adjust based on experience. Structured mechanisms such as joint review meetings, collaborative workshops, or budget sounding boards can help reinforce this partnership and support more open, solution-focused dialogue.
Ensure co-ordination between the Centre of Government (CoG) and the budget office. While the budget office manages fiscal discipline and resource allocation, the CoG provides strategic direction and ensures coherence across the government’s priorities. Effective co-ordination between the CoG and the budget office helps align political goals with available resources, ensures clear and consistent signalling to ministries, and supports whole-of-government decision-making. When this co-ordination works well, it strengthens prioritisation, reduces conflicting demands, and improves the implementation of strategic reforms.
Strengthen top-down budgeting and medium-term planning: top-down budgeting provides a predictable fiscal framework, giving ministries clarity on limits and the space to plan accordingly. Setting ceilings early in the process helps reduce time spent on negotiation and encourages internal prioritisation. When paired with multi-year frameworks, this approach supports better alignment between policy ambitions and fiscal realities and allows for better use of resources.
This requires long-term commitment; political, institutional, and professional. Capability building is not a one-off exercise. It requires continuous investment in training, peer learning, and the strengthening of networks across ministries. Staff mobility and structured rotation can also help deepen mutual understanding and build a shared community of practice in public financial management.
Above all, reform efforts must focus not only on introducing new frameworks or tools, but on supporting the people who use them. As policy challenges become more complex and fiscal space tighter, strong collaboration between the budget office and line ministries is no longer optional, it is an essential condition for effective, credible, and accountable government.