Josephine Napwon, minister of Environment and Forestry speaks at the parliament during presentation of 2024/2025 budget, Tuesday, November, 5, 2024 | Credit| TRC/Malual

The Minister of Environment and Forestry has criticized the Finance Ministry for discriminatory budget practices, accusing it of withholding allocated funds during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, further straining an already underfunded ministry.

Speaking during the second reading of the budget in Parliament, Josephine Napwon said her ministry’s budget was continually overlooked despite the importance of environmental sustainability.

Napwon challenged claims that her ministry had overspent in the 2023-2024 budget, highlighting that the institution requested 200 million but was allocated only 780 million pounds, which she argued was inadequate for their needs.

She added that recommendations from the Specialized Environment and Forestry Committee were hardly acknowledged in the budget, citing only pending arrears.

“Right Honourable Speaker, I don’t think the Minister of Environment has overspent. If you see in our 2023-2024 budget, we budgeted for 200 million, but when it goes to the Ministry of Finance, we were only allocated 780 million,” Napwon said.

“780 million is just the budget of some ministries for only water for a day, and here is the whole budget for the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, and I have kept talking about this issue in Parliament, and claimed there is overspending when we did not even get the full 780 million,” she said.

“Right Honourable Speaker, I think the Ministry of Finance or whoever is doing wrong in the Ministry of Finance should always be kin in allocating the budget to other ministries,” the Minister said.

“When the Minister of Environment speaks, they say there isn’t enough budget, yet other ministries are given trillions. They receive billions in their budgets, yet the Ministry of Environment is not given adequate funding,” she said.

Napwon called on the Ministry of Finance to prioritize environmental sustainability in budget allocations, stressing that adequate funding is essential for the development and livelihoods of citizens.

According to her, the Ministry depends heavily on development partners, like the Global Environment Facility for project funding, which she argued should not be the case.

In response, the Minister of Finance and Planning, Dr Marial Dongrin, defended the budget process, stating that all ministries, including Environment and Forestry, were consulted in the budget formulation phase.

He emphasized that workshops were held where agencies were provided with budget templates reflecting the ceilings approved by the Council of Ministers.

“The first group that passed these budgets are the members of the cabinet I do not want to deny that maybe they were not convinced but as a matter of procedure and law, it was done at that level,” said Dongrin.

“It would be unfortunate and as part of what you are correctly demanding of us to do things right the ministers can argue their ministries’ issues at the cabinet, and when a decision is taken there that is final,” he said.

“When we come to this house, it is not the minister of finance who is supposed to defend the budget it is the cabinet that is supposed to defend the budget,” said Dongrin.

“I understand and the line of the word I know it is emotive everyone wants a better portion of the National cake just for the good of our people,” he stated.

“It’s not personal and I want to be on record that I am not criticizing my colleague that whatever they are arguing about is personal it’s for the good of our country and they want to do that through their ministries,” he said.

The Finance Committee’s report indicated that the Ministry of Environment and Forestry was among the agencies that overspent in the previous fiscal year, exceeding its allocated budget by 138%.

This exchange underscores the tension around budget prioritization as Parliament continues deliberations on the 2024-2025 fiscal year allocations.