Western Equatoria Minister of Finance, William Andriano Baiki, presenting a budget at the State August House on 21st Nov 2023. Photo Credit: Victor Mangu

Some lawmakers in Western Equatoria on Tuesday rejected a presentation of what they termed as a postmortem for the fiscal year 2022/2023.

According to Mary Sungu who is the Chairperson of the Information Committee at the reconstituted state, they expected the tabling of the budget for 2023/2024 before the end of the previous budget.

But the Minister of Finance Minister William Andriano Baiki on Tuesday tabled what she called a postmodern for the 2022/2023 fiscal budget.

“The Minister for Finance presented what he called postmortem for 2022/2023. We have been here almost for a year waiting for the budget, and according to our constitution, the budget is supposed to be presented before the fiscal year 2022/2023 that is, before June because the fiscal year starts from July onward.

‘He came with the budget for 2022/2023 which we rejected as assembly because it is already dead, she said

Prior to the rejection decision, Finance Minister Andriano cited a delay in the submission of the 2022/2023 budget ceiling to all the ten states including three administrative areas.

“The total ceiling for the fiscal year 2022/2023-year budget of SSP 8,602,286,554 was given to the state three months prior to the end of the fiscal year. This delay in the submission of the budget ceiling to all the ten states including three administrative areas resulted in less transfer compared to the actual figure reflected on the ceiling.

“That means out of the SSP 8,602,286,554 total ceiling, only 2,304,000, 000 was transferred. The outstanding balance is 6, 298, 286, 554,” he said.

According to him, the states and the administrative areas submitted fiscal budgets three months before the end of the 2022/2023 budget, and as such this resulted in less transfer from the national budget compared to the total ceiling.

He revealed that out of the SSP 8 billion, 600 million, and 286 thousand South Sudanese pounds of the total ceiling, only two billion, three hundred and four million pounds was transferred to the state.

Andriano said the state has an outstanding balance of over 6, billion South Sudan Pounds of the 2023/2023 budget from the national government.

“In sum, the state ended up with a limited transfer from the national Ministry of Finance and Planning to meet its obligation however the sustainability of the state government during the fiscal year 2022/2023 was wholly dependent on the local revenue collections following my presentation I am only limited things which exclude the achievement.

“I here want to confirm to this August house that we are demanding SSP 6, 298, 286, 554 from the national Ministry of Finance and Planning as our areas for the fiscal year 2022/2023.”

But lawmaker Sungu says if the parliament accepted to pass the budget then the August House is part of the corruption.

“How can we discuss something which is dead and even the operating cost for all the spending agencies from the Ministries, the counties have not been paid?

“So we decided that we cannot pass this budget if we pass it that means we are part of the corruption.”