BY BEN BILUA
Gizo
WESTERN Provincial Executive passed a budget worth $26,536,622 million after going through debate yesterday.
The budget is distributed as twenty million, seven hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven dollars for Recurrent Budget ($20,718, 857.00) and five million, eight hundred and seventeen thousand, seven hundred and sixty five dollars ($5,817,765.00) for Capital Development Expenditures.
This budget is to be applied for purpose specified in Section 32(2) of the Provincial Government Act 1997 for the Services of the financial year ending March 31, 2022.
Speaking during the Motion of Sine Die, Premier David Gina acknowledged and appreciated his fellow assembly members for their wisdom and understanding in the passing of both the 2020 -2021 Supplementary Appropriation Ordinance and the Estimate Budget of 2021-2022 Fiscal year.
He also extended his acknowledgement to the Speaker, Acting Clerk, Head of Divisions and Provincial Public Accounts Committee (PPAC) for the hard work.
“I thank you all for recognizing and appreciating the difficult circumstances and the restrictive caveats within which we have to prepare and pass this budget. It is not easy I must admit and your continues support has enabled us to satisfy the regulatory requirements as provided for in the Provincial Government Act 1997, Section 43 and the Financial Ordinance 2018,” Gina said.
He said his government is optimistic that the budget will have an impact on the development and service delivery of the province.
Gina said his government has made vigorous approaches two of which are the establishment of the Revenue Task Force when came into power in 2019-2020 and the Review of Business license rate.
He said these establishments among other demonstrates his government’s commitment in making sure the budget is meaningful to the development and service deliveries of the province.
Gina urges provincial members to continue to perform their legislative mandates in deliberating on the important requirements for the continuous operations and progress of Western Province.
Meeting will end today.
