By Calvin Qauys|LPR News, Monrovia
The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning on behalf of President George M. Weah and the Executive Branch of Government, has submitted the special draft national budget for fiscal year July 1 to December 31, 2021, to the National Legislature.
The total resource envelope, consisting of only domestic revenue, is estimated at US$301.5 million.
Acting Finance Minister Samora P.Z. Wolokolie presented the draft fiscal instrument to House Speaker Dr. Bhofal Chambers on Tuesday May 25, 2021.
The submission is in-line with section 65 of the amendment and restatement of the PFM act of 2009, which provides for the change in the fiscal year and for the formulation of a special national budget of six months to pave the way for transition to the new fiscal year, which begins in 2022.
Mr. Wolokolie at the submission projected economic growth at 3.2% up from a slump of 3.0% in 2020, with recovery momentum continuing in 2022 at 4.0%
Priority areas of the special budget include Agriculture, Education, Energy and Environment, Health, Industry and Commerce, Infrastructure and Basic Services, Security and Rule of Law, Public Administration and Transparency and Accountability.
House Speaker Dr. Bhofal Chambers receiving the budget expressed hope that the special budget will serve the best interest of the people.
“We are thankful for the submission, and we hope it will serve in the best interest of our people.
In consultation with you, we hope to do the best we can, and hope that this agenda center around radical thinking of the pro-poor agenda for prosperity and Development could be enhance with the collective support of everybody .
We also hope that the press should also be able to propagate the message in a possible way so that citizens know what the special budget is about” Speaker Chambers stressed.
According to Speaker Chambers, the Legislature based on constitutional provision of article 34d, will do what is required of that body.
“Having said that, based on our constitution, article 34 d, we will do what is required of us. We will do and shall commit ourselves to doing it. We expect that the senate in the same way will cooperate or coordinate other activities of the draft budget,” he added.
The Public Finacical Management Act of 2009 gives the president of Liberia through the Finance Ministry to submit draft budget to the legislature not later than April 30 each year.
However, the government of President George Manneh Weah has been struggling to increase the national budget from a little over 500million United States dollars since taking office almost 4 years now.
Ironically, Samuel Tweah, the country Minister of Finance and Development Planning has since boasted that the Weah leadership has surplus budget in the last fiscal year.
The Weah administration is yet to attract any ‘substantial’ investment into the country’s economy in order to increase the national envelope size.
