By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
The Ministry of Finance’s actual budget expenditure for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 was forty-four million six hundred and twenty-two thousand, five hundred New Leone (NLE 44,622.500) from one hundred and twenty-eight million, two hundred and eighty-one thousand and nine New Leone (NLE 128, 281.9) that was budgeted for their activities.
The budget was presented at their annual budget hearing on Thursday 29th September 2022.
In her presentation, at the annual budget hearing, the Director of Research and Delivery MoF, Dr. Yakama Manty Jones noted that the budget expenditure covered maintenance of the Treasury Building and its annex, the Methodist Structure, the Internal Audit Directorate, and procurement of the land they just purchased adjacent their main building that all costs one million, seven hundred and forty-two thousand New Leone (NLE1, 742, 000).
She said the estimated expenditure also covered deliverables such as procurement and computer running costs, electricity, local training of staff, and professional consultancy fees.
She said for FY 2021, the ministry spent one hundred and nine million, two hundred and forty-six thousand, one hundred and twenty-six New Leone (NLE 109,246,126) for deliverables including international subscriptions, macroeconomic and multi-lateral surveillance missions.
In highlighting some of the key achievements they have made for FY 2022, Dr. Jones mentioned that they have increased domestic revenue from 12.3 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2017 to 20 percent by 2024. She said they have monitored the implementation of Finance Act 2023 and have commenced the implementation of Excise Stamps and other markings.
She said they have improved expenditure management and control and conducted follow-up actions to track the implementation of audit recommendations and escalate issues of non-compliance.
She said they have also conducted training on Risk-Based Internal Auditing and produced effective internal audit reports for internal audit staff.
She further said the ministry has strengthened the Fiscal Risk Management and oversight of State-owned enterprises and produced reports on the financial performance of State-owned enterprises for 2019-2021. The Directorate has developed a draft diagnostic study for Disaster Risk financing for Sierra Leone with support from the World Bank.
Dr. Jones spoke about their strengthening of research capacity to support policy formulation and have also improved public debt management. She further said that the ministry has also improved budget preparation and execution where they have facilitated the implementation of the 2022 approved budget and its supplementary.
She said they have also improved the implementation and coordination of donor-funded projects, noting that they have facilitated donor missions through virtual discussions on projects and programmes.
For FY 2023, Dr. Jones promised the ministry will continue to monitor and roll out key 2022 deliverables.
Regardless of the achievements they have made as a ministry, Director Jones highlighted challenges over funding, extra-budgetary requests from Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), and also external dependencies.
The District Budget Oversight Committee representative from Kono District, Jespa S. Kombat, expressed concern about the Ministry's expenditure overweight on both the 2021/2022 budgets. He was also concerned about the ministry’s other means of raising money.
It was then confirmed that overweight expenditure was due to late requests for some projects and those not part of the budget.
The Ministry of Finance's main mandate is to formulate and implement sound economic policies and public financial management and to also ensure efficient allocation of public resources to promote stable economic growth and development in the context of a stable macroeconomic environment.
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