A primer on parliamentary budget offices

Over the past few decades, some governments have seen their credibility called into question where budget forecasts and cost assessments of the underlying measures are concerned. In many cases, the figures are frequently revised, and means used to achieve the original targets are often are often poorly defined. Changes in governments often don’t help taxpayers to understand what is going on. Moreover, sometimes measures are implemented for which the costs and economic impact are difficult to estimate in the short or long term.