Finance Minister Presents Half Year Expenditure Report To The State Assembly
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning in Eastern Equatoria has released a mid Year Financial Report for 2012-2013 to the state Parliament in Torit giving a comprehensive performance of the spending during the austerity period. 30 January 2013 State Finance Minister, Sam Felix Makuja informed the house that his ministry has published the report as parts of its activities to enhance the transparency of budget execution. [Gurtong | File] By Peter Lokale Nakimangole TORIT, 30 January 2013 [Gurtong] – Finance Minister, Sam Felix Makuja informed the house that his Ministry has published the report as parts of its activities to enhance the transparency of budget execution and aims at reflecting Public Financial Management Reforms undertaken across all levels of government. The report analyses budget performance during the July 2012 to December 2012 taking into consideration both macroeconomic factors such as performance of domestic resources and donor budget support and sectoral issues. In his summarized fiscal performance which provides an overview during the first half of the year, the minister detailed fiscal operations, comparisons of annual budget estimates and the fiscal program. He disclosed that while general transfers from the national government is 46,771,048 South Sudanese Pounds, the conditional transfers stands at 83,046,306 SSP with County Development Grants of 7,685,548 SSP. Makuja disclosed that the State Parliament in December last year approved 164,197,983 SSP as the State overall budget with a prorated budget of general transfers from national government being at 23,385,524 South Sudanese Pounds. The resource performance report analyses performance of resources available for all state expenditure during the half of the year. He added that the resource performance report examines in turn sources of revenue and budget support performance. He detailed that shared taxes however, have still not come through with the state having only received 1,172,170 SSP representing seven percent of the total allocation expected as transfers leaving the state with a gap of 93 percent which is equivalent to 7,381,394 SSP. He said that the State Revenue Authority collections for the first half year were lower than the projected as a result of the integrated centralized revenue procedures. He said whereas the general expenditure is within the expected levels, there are a few institutions which have had a minimal expenditure against their approved budget while others have gone beyond the expected levels for the reporting period. Makuja disclosed that the overall expenditure was at 36.7 percent which he described as below the expected level of 50 percent for the period. He said this is was due to a reduction in operational expenditure across the Institutions, reduction in transfers resulting from withholding of shared revenue which accounts for 10 percent of the state budget and the non-transfer of the County Development Grant. “As a direct result, you notice that expenditure in the State Secretariat general is above the expected 50 percent limit within the first half year of the Fiscal Year. At the present, the commissioners and executives are paid directly under the State Secretariat although they were planned for under their respective agencies. To rectify and re-adjust this, detailed expenditure reports will be reviewed against the State Secretariat general for all Institutions,” he said. The Minister revealed that with the government’s commitment towards peace and security, the bigger share of the budget is spent on public administration and rule of law. Posted in: Home, Governance, Parliaments -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
