National Assembly releases frozen budget |22 June 2018

The sum of SR70,454.461.72 suspended in the 2018 Appropriation Act, has been released by the National Assembly.

This came after the House unanimously voted for a motion tabled by the chairman of the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) in the House, Wavel Ramkalawan and also leader of the opposition, after he presented a report from FPAC on the matter. The assembly began by passing a resolution which allowed the total sum to be released.

With regards on how it all came about, Mr Ramkalawan said previously it was through budget debates that such type of funds were asked to be released. But this time the National Assembly has done it through a motion, which is a first for the House.

“Maybe this is a model we can adopt for the future,” he said.

On the compilation of the report itself, Mr Ramkalawan said during the deliberations in 2017 on the 2018 budget allocation, there were certain headings that were not clear to the Assembly even after questioning the entities in question. And due to this lack of clarity, the assembly decided to suspend these headings which included the National Heritage Foundation, NISTI regarding a security allocation issue, SPDF regarding a contract, President’s Office with regards to security and enforcement, STB, the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation, the national intelligence agency, fishing authority a sum of SR6 million for the aquaculture project and not for fuel allocation to fishermen, Seychelles prison, judiciary and children’s special fund.

He said the ministry of finance made a commitment to come back to the National Assembly with the details being asked for by the House but the ministry did not do that. And it was in May after FPAC was contacted by that ministry, that FPAC met those various ministries, agencies and departments for a hearing on their proposed allocations.

He noted the grand total sum that was suspended was SR96,967,729. And when the ministry of finance came forward with the various entities, it did not ask for grand total but the sum SR70,454.461.72.

“This shows there is still a sum of about SR29 million which has not been released. This is because both the entities and the ministry of finance did not agree on what to be presented to the assembly,” he said.

Mr Ramkalawan added a sum of SR940,472 has not been released after certain proposals put forward by the ministry of finance itself. Another sum of SR1.883 million, he said, has also not been released and this was allocated for security for the wellness centre.

Under the Agency for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation, which had a sum of SR10.2 million earmarked for a rehabilitation centre, the agency has asked for the release of only SR5 million from the grand total for the payment of compensation of workers and the recruitment of new staff.

He said no more has been said by the agency on the project and that the ministry of finance has said it is in the planning stage.

Mr Ramkalawan said the proposed SR78 million for prison for service agreement, was not presented and that the entity is still negotiating with the Islands Development Company (IDC) in relations to Coetivy island.

Clarifying a statement made by Chief Justice Mathilda Twomey during one of the talks on our Constitution to celebrate Constitution Week that the assembly has frozen her budget, Mr Ramkalawan said the assembly is not to be blamed. He said the sum of SR3.3 million requested by the judiciary in regards to security was not asked for release  by both the judiciary and the ministry of finance.

In conclusion to his motion, Mr Ramkalawan forwarded two points to the House. First that FPAC gets more resources like a resource person to assist in the compilation of their reports as it is now being done by members themselves. He then commended the various ministries, departments, agencies, for being more transparent and more prepared on their finance transactions when compiling their budget. He says there is great improvement and this encourages more transparency and helps in the fight against corruption.

The leader of government business, Charles Decommarmond, seconded the motion and described it as history in the making because of the way it was presented to the assembly.

As for Sebastien Pillay, the compilation of the report disregarded partisan politics and is therefore a good one.