Egypt's Senate – the consultative upper house of parliament – will meet on Sunday following a 34-day holiday to discuss a bill meant to upgrade the system for drafting the public budget. 

The bill targets enhancing the government's socio-economic development plans and strategic goals.

A report prepared by the Senate's Financial, Economic, and Investment Affairs Committee said the government-drafted General Unified Finance Law aims to improve Egypt's financial performance. 

"However, the government believes that this will never be possible without merging two laws which regulate Egypt's financial performance -- the State's Public Budget Law 53/1973 and the Government Accountancy Law 127/1981," said the report, adding that "the step to unify the two laws comes upon the recommendation of international financial institutions and in light of the worldwide shift to digital and mechanised budgetary and accounting systems." 

Besides, the report said, "if certain budgetary allocations were not used in a given year, the law will help in using them the following years in line with strict rules to decrease the budget deficit," said the report. 

"The law also seeks to forge an outlook for the financial performance of the country's administrative system and discipline the state's financial performance in terms of adopting the most up-to-date scientific methods and technologies aimed at raising the financial efficiency of the economy's different sectors," the report continued. 

One of the key objectives of the new General Unified Finance Law is to achieve transparency during the preparation of the country's annual budget in terms of using the e-signature system and modern mechanised methods which help rationalise public spending and boost accountability, the report added. 

The draft of the General Unified Finance Law also seeks to improve the skills of employees in the state's financial departments and administrative units. "The draft law stipulates that employees in financial sectors receive intensive training courses on modern digital financing, being the only window for raising the qualifications of human skills and guaranteeing a high level of financial performance," said the report.