By Saio Marrah
The leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) party in parliament, Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, has raised concern over the capacity of the Sierra Leone parliament to critically analyze the government’s annual budget when presented before them.
He made this submission during the debate of the Appropriation Act, 2021, in the Well of Parliament, the bill that authorizes the government to spend from the consolidated fund for the service of Sierra Leone for the year 2021 and for other related matters.
Dr. Yumkella noted that unlike the Finance Ministry, which is being sponsored by World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development partners, which ensure the ministry of well equipped with technical team that can thoroughly analyzed budgets, parliament does not have the same capacity, citing the lack of a budget office and a research entity that can go toe to toe for the parliamentarians to go deeper into the analysis of documents.
“Let me first of all state that in a way I envy the ministry of Finance because they can come here with a document and their technical team, yet parliament does not have the same capacity to have a solid budget office, solid research so [that]we can really go deeper in a document.”
He noted that they only debate what they study in the document and not based on the analysis that had been provided by the committee on finance, which should be the experts in financial issues in parliament.
However, the Chairman of Finance Committee, Francis Amara Kaisamba of Constituency 020 in Kenema District, pointed out that there is a budget office in parliament that is improving on the questionnaire from MPs to MDAS.
The Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Abass Bundu, echoed the concerns of Dr. Yumkella, noting that the budget office is supposed to have the capacity that operates at the highest level, so that committees can analyze budget and make the analysis available to members of parliaments.
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