Africa-Press – Liberia. The Joint Budget Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives yesterday deferred the appearances of five spending entities over the lack of budget performance report for 2022 fiscal year.
Those ‘sent back’ were the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Ministry of Health, and the Liberia Revenue Authority. The rest are John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia.
By unanimous decision, the Committee warned these spending bodies to make their fiscal budget reports for 2022 available at the next hearing on the draft budget for 2023.
The Committee’s decision came a few weeks after the Senate had instructed its members to guarantee that the Ministry of Finance and others provide budget performance reports before looking at their allocations.
Other areas of concern include conclusions on issues on government domestic debt, considering that the proposed budget also allocated US$91.6 million or 11.8 percent of the total budget for public debt servicing, which includes interest and principal payments to domestic and external creditors.
Total domestic creditors account for US$35.1 million or 38.3 percent of the total debt service projected, while external creditors account for US$56.5 million or 61.7 percent. Domestic creditors include the Central Bank of Liberia, commercial banks, and other businesses.
Meanwhile, the Committee has postponed hearing into the draft budget expenditure component after a week of a secret hearing of the revenue component of the 2023 budget, which is in the tune of US$777.9 million — down by nearly US$29 million from the US$806.5 million approved budget for the previous fiscal year, 2022.
The 2023 budget is not different from the last five years, featuring massive recurrent expenditures, and yet fails to reach the US$1 billion mark that has been envisioned by the government and less than the fiscal year 2022 budget.
Health, education, security, elections, electricity, agriculture, and finance for the National Elections Commission — would be the budget’s top priorities this year.
Rep. Thomas Fallah, in a remark yesterday, noted that the postponed hearing is a forum where lawmakers perform their constitutional mandate of budget scrutiny and approval.
“As we perform this very important task, I am obligated to remind all of us that the Liberian people are eagerly looking forward to us to deliberate on the matter,” said Fallah, who is the chairman of the Joint Budget Committee.
“I call upon all of us to remain very resolute in thoroughly scrutinizing this National Instrument to the best of our abilities so as to continuously justify the confidence which the sovereign Liberian People have reposed in us,” Fallah said. “I am looking forward to your candid and robust deliberations in the days ahead as we do the people’s business.”
For More News And Analysis About Liberia Follow Africa-Press
