By Nasratu Kargbo
Minister of Finance Dr. Dennis K Vandi has presented to parliament a Bill named 'Supplementary Appropriation Act 2022' that requests four hundred and fifteen billion, two hundred and eighty-one million Leones to support electricity generation for the period July -December this year.
Member of Parliament representing constituency 038 Sallieu Osman Sesay in reacting to the bill in parliament last Friday, recalled that in December 2021 a budget of one hundred and twenty-six billion Leones was presented to parliament for the energy sector.
Sesay explained that the money was estimated for the whole of 2022, and said he was now reading from the supplementary bill in which the ministry is requesting four hundred and fifty billion Leones, which according to Sesay is far from what was budgeted for the whole year.
Sesay questioned the amount, stating that it is way higher than the actual amount that was estimated for the entire year, emphasizing that there are only six months remaining for 2022. “Why should the supplementary budget be three times more than the actual budgeted,” the MP asked.
He explained that despite the huge money spent on energy, power outage is widespread in the country. Explaining his experience, Sesay said in his area the power is rationed day after day, noting that sometimes they do not even get electricity as expected.
The parliamentarian suggested that the government provides a subsidy for fuel at gas stations, in order to stabilize the pump price for petroleum products, instead of requesting more money in the supplementary budget for electricity generation.
Responding to Sesay, the MP from constituency 015 Mohamed Festus Lansana said the supplementary fund is to avert the suffering of the masses. He stated that based on the presentation by the finance minister, the supplementary budget is to address and avert the effects of the Ukraine-Russia war on Sierra Leone’s economy.
The Minister of Finance whilst responding to the MP’s concern about the huge sum of money countered that the supplementary budget will be largely financed by donors. He also claimed that the money will not be coming directly from the Bank of Sierra Leone to support the economy, and claimed that some domestic taxes will be used instead to support the budget.
He noted that there is no intention to add inflation and that the supplementary budget was put together due to the fact that the main budget estimates were no longer attainable. He noted that the move was not a result of poor economic management, but the effects of the global problems, that have also affected economies across the world.
The minister explained that the supplementary budget has three key objectives, which are to safeguard macroeconomic stability through prudent fiscal and proactive monetary policies, ensure the protection of vulnerable segments of the society from the higher food and fuel prices by expanding existing social safety programmes, and enhancing support to the energy sector so as to complete implementation of ongoing projects as outlined in the original 2022 budget. The entire house of parliament eventually approved the supplementary budget.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (27/06/22)
