By: Muhammed Lamin Drammeh
The Minister of Finance & Economic Affairs, Seedy KM Keita, has addressed the concerns raised by Bakary Badjie, the National Assembly Member for Foni Bintang, about the underfunding of the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, explaining that while the education ministry is important, it is subject to the same budget constraints as other ministries in the first half of the budget period.
The minister was responding to questions from the lawmakers after his oral ministerial statement on the implementation of the annual budget in the opening of the 3rd ordinary session of the National Assembly today, September 4.
“We have made sure that all their essential elements have been spent. I remember we have, even in the month of July, spent an additional amount of more than 85 million which is not included in the here [statement] of SIG and school textbooks.
“So, the numbers speak for themselves. But the ministry of education is like any other ministry, they are all subjected to the budget constraints which every ministry is witnessing,” said Finance Minister Seedy Keita, who was responding to Bakary Badjie’s claim that the ministry’s budget forecast is wrong.
The NAM for Foni Bintang, Hon. Bakary Badjie, claimed that the Finance Ministry’s forecast for the 2023 budget was incorrect based on the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education as a basis.
“We have realized that your forecast as a ministry is wrong. By looking at the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, from January up to date, they have received 23-24% of the disbursement.
“And at the end of the day, when they could not have the 100% allocations, it handicapped the ministry. Not only does it handicap the ministry, but come in the 2024 budget allocations, your ministry will come with the fact that they could not exhaust their budget, and their budget will be cut down,” Foni Bintang NAM claimed.
The finance minister responded by informing the Foni Bintang NAM that the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education is the second-highest executing ministry in terms of budget in the first half of the year. According to him, the ministry has already spent over one billion dalasis.
“For your information, the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education is the second-highest budget execution ministry. We have spent the first half of the year 1.89 billion on the sector,” he replied.
The finance minister appeared before the lawmakers to read a statement regarding the first half of the 2023 budget.
