The minister of finance and development planning, Kenneth Matambo, presented the budget for fiscal year 2011/12 (April-March) on February 7th. Opposition parties were quick to criticise the speech as "more of the same", but there were significant differences in both style and substance from previous years. Notably, the 2011 budget speech was much shorter, focusing on key themes and accompanied by a wider range of documents, as well as an invitation for feedback through the ministry's website. This is the result of ongoing efforts to improve transparency and accountability in the budgeting process, which, in turn, is part of a programme of reforms to financial management in the public sector that is being supported by the World Bank, among other partners. Related to this, Mr Matambo indicated that a new Public Finance Management Bill, intended to replace the existing Finance and Audit Act, would be tabled before parliament shortly.

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