Changed Budget not published [1]
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - 11:04. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
After the Tongan Parliament passed the government's Budget for 2011/12 on Wednesday, 29 June a final copy of the official Budget has not been published and therefore neither the government ministries nor the public know exactly what is the government's economic policy for the current financial year.
The budget is a vital document that shows where the Tongan economy is heading.
The head of the Budget Division of the Ministry of Finance, 'Aholotu Palu said this week that the over-all figure for the budget remains the same as the figure passed by parliament on 29 June, but there are a few changes in the figures of the votes of a few line ministries. An example is that there is a readjustment to the budget of the Legislative Assembly because of a need for extra allocation of funds for the Auditor General.
'Aholotu, however, was hopeful that the revised budget should be out soon.
Deficit
The total expenditure of Tonga's budget for 2011-12 amounted to $344.6 million pa'anga, and there is an estimated deficit of $24.7 million.
If the long delay in publishing the 2011-12 Budget is because of a reshuffling of figures between line ministries, the question is does the revised Budget have to be reintroduced to parliament for its approval?
The response from a spokesperson at the Ministry of Finance was that a lawyer is needed to answer that question, but in his view since there is no change to the overall figures, there is no need for the revised budget to be reintroduced to Parliament.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and Public Accounts, and the former Secretary for Finance, 'Aisake Eke said that he needed to look at the changes that had been made to the Budget first before he could decide whether or not the revised budget should be reintroduced into the House.