The National Legislative Assembly

The Transitional National Parliament finally passed the budget for the year 2017/2018 in its third reading today.

The members of parliament endorsed the 46 billion-pound budget after weeks of deliberations.

The endorsement was announced this afternoon by the speaker of the transitional parliament, Anthony Makana.

Over the month, the MPs expressed disappointment over the allocation of funds towards various government agencies.

Some of the MPs had said the Ministry of Finance allocated huge sums of money to some selective agencies at the expense of other institutions.

The budget was first subjected to the Committee for Legislation and Legal Affairs to study it and present their observation to the assembly.

Today, the Committee of Finance and Economic Planning presented its recommendations to the assembly, marking its final reading.

Among other allocations, the parliament has approved the allocation of over 114 million pounds for the maintenance of Juba-Nimule highway and the rehabilitation of Jur River and Luri bridges.

The parliament also allocated 60 million pounds for the maintenance of Juba International Airport.

The National Communication Authority received 36 million pounds for the billing system and fiber optic cable.

President Salva Kiir is expected to append his signature soon.