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FPAC cuts over D77M from 2022 budget estimate

Oct 25, 2021, 1:20 PM | Article By: Adama Tine

The Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly on Saturday 23 October 2021, revealed that it has deducted a sum of D77,950,000 from the Estimates Revenue and Expenditure for the fiscal year tabled by the minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Mambury Njie on Monday 18 October 2021.

Tabling the committee’s report the before deputies, Alhajie Mbowe, vice chair of FPAC, disclosed that a total reduction of D5 million was made from the budget of the Office of the President as the sum was reallocated to office of the Vice President under Social Safety Net Project as the government’s contribution.

He added that under the National Assembly, a sum of D19 million was reduced from vehicles and distributed by adding D10 million to the revolving loan scheme and D9 million to allowances.

According to Hon. Mbowe, a total reduction of D36 million was effected on the judiciary’s submission while the IEC budget was adopted as submitted.

The FPAC’s vice chair added that as for the National Audit Office, a total deduction of D20 million was effected from the overall submission made.

“Under the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, a total deduction of D20 million was made from the D40 million estimated for construction of office building while the remaining balance of D20 million was reallocated to enquiry contribution to international organisations,”

He further said: “As for the Ministry of Defence, there was no reduction on the budget as the committee recommends the augmentation of the operations budget of Gambia Armed Forces.

The committee under the Ministry of Interior he said, recommends for deduction of the maintenance and furniture budget lines to support training, consultancy and miscellaneous office expenses and also recommends the improvement of certain budget lines for agencies under the ministry.

He said the select committee requests for extra allocations for purchase of vehicles and maintenance of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture’s website.

However, Hon. Mbowe said under the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the committee made a total reallocation of D7,000,000 to other budget lines within the same ministry, while an allocation of D25 million for the Agriculture Ministry was recommended by the committee for the five sub-vented institutions under the ministry.

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