Emmanuel Adil, the Governor of Central Equatoria State in a cabinet meeting where the 2021/2022 budget was passed.- courtesy

The governor of Central Equatoria has called for budget discipline as the state government kicks off the 2022/2023 fiscal year.

Emmanuel Adil Anthony assented to the 16-billion South Sudanese pounds state budget yesterday, paving the way for its disbursement.

According to the budget, five-point-one billion pounds will be spent on salaries for civil servants and constitutional post holders, and 6.7 billion pounds for delivery of goods and services.

While capitation and conditional transfers to the County, Payam and Boma levels constitute around four billion pounds.

Addressing the Cabinet Ministers Tuesday, Adil called on them to stick to what they have planned and budgeted for.

“My guidance on this new budget is we need to be a serious government. We need to maintain budget discipline meaning sticking to what we have planned for and budgeted for unless there is an emergency then we can spend outside of the budget…” he told his ministers.

The governor said he is going to relieve himself from any paperwork to do with the budget and directed those with concerns to the ministry of finance.

He called on his government to build a reserve to deal with unforeseen situations such as natural disasters.

“You will discover the issue of floods, these are crises – even the IDPs and so on that we have not planned. We need to have a reserve so that we will be able to respond. That’s why budget discipline is the key.”

Meanwhile, governor Adil instructed the ministers to submit quarterly accountability reports and ensure local administrators account for their expenditures.