Approved budget will assist fix past mistakes, says Agak
The Minister of Finance and Planning, Agak Achuil, has said the approval of the national budget will allow him to address some mistakes committed in past years when the country operated without an official budget.
Mr Achuil said the move will enable his ministry to investigate and remedy situations, adding that “those who have overspent or those who have not spent much but have their money’’ will be scrutinised and brought to account.
The committees raised concern about the annual budget presentation, which should take place in May each year, being postponed year after year. The establishment of a budget control office was advocated in the appropriation acts 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 to address the problem of budget indiscipline.
The minister claimed that the delay in the formation of the parliament’s specialised committees made it difficult for the finance ministry to present the budget to the house on time.
Agak said the accumulated arrears, such as salaries, regional membership fees, South Sudan’s foreign missions and others, do hinder the ministry’s system. He wants to clear them so that the ministry’s system can work according to budget schedules.
“The budget has been spent on the basis of a presidential order. Every time, time goes by, and the budget is not passed; it is passed through that presidential order to continue with the budget. Currently, we have included this budget in our system. In the previous year, the budget was not passed. So we have all these difficulties,’’ he said.
“So we wanted to work very hard to make sure that the arrears of the salaries are eliminated and that we will make sure that the budget is spent according to what has been agreed on and passed,” he stated.
Certain spending agencies were underfunded, while others had overspent their budgets, according to some of the legislators’ observations during the budget review. The ministry of finance was found to have violated financial discipline by failing to release budgeted funds to spending agencies.
The deputy chairperson of the committee on national security and public order, Samuel Buhori Lotti, revealed during the deliberation on the budget analysis after it was presented for its second reading on Monday that the ministry of national security—one of the busiest ministries—spends only 8 per cent of its budget, while the ministry of the interior overspends by 195 per cent.
In their study, the legislators also found that the ministry had broken Section 6 of the Act, intended to minimise issues of overspending and malpractices, debt management, and financial records. The assembly recommended that the ministry of finance and planning follow the public financial management and accountability act, as well as the public procurement and disposal of assets act.
They also encouraged the ministry to provide quarterly financial payment reports to parliament and to include expenditure agencies in the budget planning process.
In addition, the House suggested that all government spending agencies have their budgetary allocations transferred into their accounts to avoid payment delays and low fiscal year outturns.
