Our thanks to Koto Sidi and Pa Modou Gassama for their efforts.
I must admit I am yet to read the entire document but I am totally confused.
Is this speech a state of the nation address or 2002 budget? It may be
tradition but the finance minister presenting the years budget in this
format but I think it is seriously flawed.
If the speech is about the state of the nation then I suggest that the Head
of State to take up the challenge to clearly the Gambian people in another
forum, what his Government has achieved in the past year and plane to do
for the next year.
Likewise the budget report as the name suggests should be a clear and
concise statement on the governments revenue and expenditure for the ending
year and the planned expenditure and revenue for the next year. This will
help avoid the need to plough through all these un-necessary material. For
instance the section on the Government's plan for the postal Service for
tells us little about how the sector faired, in terms of expenditure and
revenue in 2002 or how much we are budgeting for the 2003 year.
Overall It looks like a poorly organized unprofessional waffle and number
gymnastics! You wonder what year the SOS is talking about? How can we talk
about estimates for the year ending 2001 in a 2002/2003 budget? What year is
the SOS referring to when he said "Output from Livestock, Forestry and
Fishing are also estimated to grow by 3, 4 and 18 percentage points
respectively. Agriculture is therefore forecasted to grow by 8.6%." Isn't it
only a few weeks ago that the government issued a crop failure and famine
warning? If so what does this thing on agricultural forecast really mean?
About number gymnastics, the following sums it all:
<beginning of quote>
" Fiscal Developments
Mr Speaker,
The performance of revenues and expenditure for the current fiscal year has
been mixed. While there has been revenue shortfalls, especially in the first
quarter, as a consequence of lower customs collections and low payments from
the public enterprises, expenditure overruns associated with the additional
payments to Alimenta exerted pressure on the outcome of 2001 fiscal
aggregates. The fiscal authorities stepped in with some measures to improve
revenue collections and tightened spending to contain the deficit to the
targeted level.
Revenue for the year 2001, according to programmed figures, have been
revised downwards to D1.31 billion which represents a 17% growth from the
actual outturn of D1.1 billion in 2000. However, the total revenue collected
between January to October 2001 totals D874.7 million, and this represents
77% of expected revenues for the current year. This revenue outcome recorded
up to end-October comprised of D714.9 million of tax revenue, D109.8 million
non-tax revenue and a grant element of D50.1 million.
The total projected expenditure amounted to D1.5 billion of which about D1.1
billion (70%) has already been spent from January to October of this year.
Out of this amount, about 26% was used to pay wages and salaries, 23% went
to interest payments and the rest is accounted for by capital expenditure.
The overall fiscal deficit excluding grants is expected to be contained at
around 5.9% of GDP. However, this relatively high level of deficit has taken
into cognisance of the on-lent amount of D77 million to NAWEC for the
acquisition of a 6.5MW generator. If this is excluded, the deficit will
narrow down to about 4.6% of GDP. " <end of quote>
I am not an economist or an expert in finances but I think something is
seriously not right here.
Malanding Jaiteh
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
