Monrovia – FrontPageAfrica has established that the 45-day delay requested by the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MOFDP) for the submission of the national budget for the fiscal year 2019/2020 has elapsed and there is still no sign of the budget being submitted to the Legislature.
In a telephone conversation with Representative Thomas Fallah, who chairs the Joint Legislative Committee on Ways, Means and Finance, confirmed that the Finance Ministry is yet to submit the budget. Rep. Fallah surmised that they might have some unresolved issues.
For his part, the Deputy Minister for Fiscal Affairs at the Ministry of Finance & Development Planning, Mr. Samora P. Z. Wolokolie, opted not to speak on the issue of the delay of the budget. Wolokolie instead referred FrontPageAfrica to the Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Mr. Samuel Tweah, to response to media inquiry. After many attempts via phone, the Finance Minister couldn’t be reached until press time.
“Talk to the Minister of Finance, there is a policy on speaking to the media either you talk to the Minister of Finance of the Minister of Information,” Wolokolie stated.
The much-expected 2019-2020 Fiscal Year National Budget, which was to be submitted on Monday, June 17, 2019, was deferred, thus raising doubts about its timely submission to the Legislature.
The prolonged delay in the budget submission would ultimately delay its passage since deliberations and final scrutiny may likely extend beyond 30 days.
In keeping with Section 11 of the Public Financial Management Law, the President shall submit the Proposed Budget and accompanying documents to the Legislature no later than two months before the start of the fiscal year and that the preparation of the National Budget shall conform to the process and time table set forth in Section 11.
According to the communication from President George M. Weah, dated April 23, 2019, he requested a 45-day extension of the deadline for the submission of the 2019-2020 budget from Tuesday, April 30, to Saturday, June 15, 2019.
It may be recalled that in the President’s communication, which was read on Thursday, May 2, the 27th day sitting of the House, he made reference to the Public Financial Management (PFM) Reform Law, which mandates the Executive, through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, to present the National Budget to the House of Representatives on the 30th of April of each year for the purpose of strengthening greater transparency and accountability around public resources. The President extended his regrets for not meeting this deadline.
The President argued that the delay in the presentation of 2019/2020 Fiscal Budget by six weeks (45 days) would enable him to present an all-inclusive national budget against a backdrop of negative economic forecasts.
The House of Representatives also voted for the Committees on Ways, Means, Finance & Development Planning and the Public Accounts & Expenditure to coordinate with the Executive relative to emergent issues in the 2019-2020 National Budget.
Given the 45-day delay, the submission of the 2019-2020 FY Budget was expected on Monday, June 17, 2019, but this delay was not honored by the Executive.
A member of the House’s Ways, Means, Finance and Development Planning, who asked to remain anonymous, told a local newspaper that the 2019-2020 Budget would not have been submitted on Monday and it might be sometimes this week. However, this lawmaker isn’t very sure about its submission.
Budget overhaul
Prior to the request for delay, Finance and Economic Planning Minister Samuel Tweah disclosed that they were requesting the delay of the submission because the Executive was considering some significant shakeups in the budget.
“Our budget process has been such a way that the revenue that we collect and the expenditure we do every budget year are misaligned. In other words, our spending is a little bit higher than what our true revenue potential is and that could lead to deficit financing, borrowing. So, we are working to bring down that expenditure in line with what the true revenue potential is.”
But it seems the government is heeding to recommendations of the International Monetary Fund team that carried out an assessment and released their report in March this year.