The Central Equatoria State Transitional Legislative Assembly Wednesday passed a 7.2 billion South Sudanese Pounds budget for the fiscal year 2021/2022.
On 14th March 2022, the state finance minister Wani Tom Sebit presented the FY 2021/2022 budget to the Standing Specialized Committee of Economy, Finance, and investment and that of Service and Members Affairs for scrutiny.
The budget was presented to the august house a little over one month after the reconstitution of the assembly on February 8th, 2022 which the MPs lauded as a quick tabling of the budget.
Hon. Jacob Lado Paul, the Chairperson of the Budget Scrutiny Committee and Chairperson of the Specialized Committee of Economy, Finance, and Investment said the passing of the budget was a good gesture to demonstrate good governance although the state government operated without an approved budget since 2020/2021 fiscal year.
James Modi Lomindi, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Information Committee, also the assembly spokesperson in his press briefing after the passing of the budget said: “The budget estimate which we have passed today (Wednesday) is about 7,240,238,587 South Sudan Pounds.”
“We are very grateful that we have passed this budget. This budget is a very old one but indeed we expect the budget for the fiscal year 2022/2023 to henceforth be able to come at the beginning of July coming month that would also be meant for the people of Central Equatoria State and those residing here,” he hinted.
Wani Tom Sebit, the state finance minister said although the budget is late due to the lack of an operational assembly, it is key in tracking public income and expenditure.
“This budget came timely though according to our calendar or the annual calendar for South Sudan the fiscal year starts on the 1st of July every year, we are almost three months to exhaust this budget,” Sebit said. “However, it is very important to have the budget itself because the purpose of a budget is that without a budget you cannot trace the income and expenditure.”
Sebit added, “For the past year we had no budget, so this budget was very important though it is about three months to the expiry it is important for us to use as a yardstick, as a litmus paper.”
Minister Sebit promised that the 2022/2023 budget will be presented before the house in time.
The initial budget was estimated at the tune of SSP 5,180,947,420; which is outsourced by two major sources: the national government grants to the tune of SSP 4,833,776,060 and the state revenues of SSP 347,171,360.