Are budgetary allocations for government ministries bloated? Patrick Faber thinks so

Published by BBNTEAM at March 26, 2023

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Posted: Sunday, March 26, 2023. 6:30 pm CST.

By Breaking Belize News Staff: On Friday, the national budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year passed in the National Assembly, despite major concerns raised by the opposition that budgetary allocations for ministries far exceeded the actual expenditure of those ministries.

During his presentation, Member of the Collet Division and Former Leader of the Opposition Patrick Faber said the Government of Belize (GOB) has budgeted sums of money in the previous year and despite not spending all of the money allotted to various ministries, it has increased the budgetary allocation for those ministries in the new budget.

Faber drew an example from travel and subsistence in the Ministry of Education where $764,791, was budgeted for travel and subsistence, but only spent $269,000. The budgetary allocation for the 2023-2024 budget for this line item, despite the actual expenditure last year being $703,000. Again he noted that a line item for materials in the Ministry’s operational costs had a budgetary allocation of $9 million with only $7 million spent last year.

“There are no special circumstances, but you want to give the impression that you are spending so much on these initiatives, and it is disingenuous and bogus,” Faber said.

He further alleged that the entire budget is filled with such instances and that GOB needs to do an honest budget exercise.

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