Parliament to summon ministers as budget review commences

Some ministers could be summoned by specialised standing committees amid the budget review process which commenced this week.

Changkouth Bichiock Reth, the chairperson of the standing specialised committee on finance and planning, told The City Review that the ministers would be expected to brief relevant committees on budgetary anticipations of their portfolios.

“Most of the committees will start their work tomorrow, where some of them will summon some of the ministers so that they will know what is happening and what is going on; what are the observations and recommendations, and how we can go about the budget for the fiscal year 2021/2022,” Changkouth explained.

The various specialised standing committees of Parliament have been cleared to start consultations with the line ministries they oversee in order to discuss and share views on how the budget allocated to them should be finalised so that they may get their details and views.

The speaker of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly gave the committee on finance and planning only 21 days to review the national budget for the fiscal year 2021/2022 and present it for its second reading.

Changkouth, on the other hand, seemed upbeat about reaching the budget’s 21-day deadline to bring it to the assembly for a second reading. He said his cluster is working hard to complete the review within the time allocated to them.

Speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba has also asked the committee of finance and planning to engage and organise all the other committees in reviewing the budget so that they can have it passed.

Mr Changkouth told The City Review that his cluster has already given all the standing specialised committee guidelines and approaches for the budget so that they can discuss it with their line ministries.

“On Friday we started the first meeting with my cluster itself, the committee for finance and planning. We shut up and came up with guidelines and approaches on how we could go about the budget. So we passed the message to all the standing committees of the national assembly and the Council of States,” he told the City Review in an interview.

He revealed that every committee has been granted approval by his cluster to meet with their line ministries to discuss and exchange views on how the budget can be finalised and where they would receive their details and comments.

He also stated that the majority of the committees will begin work on Wednesday, despite the fact that some will begin on Tuesday.