Has the Finance Minister Failed to Table the 2025 Budget Estimate According to the Amended 1997 Constitution?
Members of the Sixth Legislature © Askanwi Media
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
It was only last year September 2023, that Hon Alhagie Mbowe of Upper Saloum tabled a Bill in Parliament to increase the time National Assembly Members have “to scrutinise the estimates by making more consultations with stakeholders”.
However, it seems time has run out and Parliament has not complied with the amended 1997 Constitution which requires the Minister of Finance to table the estimates of revenue and expenditure for the following financial year sixty days before the end of the year.
Previously, provision 152 (1) of the 1997 Constitution mandated the President to cause the Finance Minister to table the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditures thirty days before the end of the year. However, after the private members Bill passed by Parliament, the President “shall cause the Minister responsible to prepare and lay before the National Assembly at least sixty days before the end of the financial year, estimates of the revenue and expenditure of The Gambia for the following financial year”.
This means that the Finance Minister must have tabled the 2025 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure by the end of October 2024, however, that is still yet to be done.
Instead of Parliament, under the authority of the Speaker of the House and the Assembly Business Committee, calling for the Fourth Ordinary Session of the 2024 Legislative Year earlier to comply with the Amended 1997 Constitution, information we received indicates otherwise.
According to information received by Askanwi, the Fourth Ordinary Session of the 2024 Legislative Year will be held from 15th November 2024 to 23rd December 2024. A letter issued to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs and Parliamentarians from the Clerk of the National Assembly instructs that “please be informed that in consultation with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, the Hon Speaker is scheduling the Fourth Ordinary Session (Budget Session) of the National Assembly in the 2024 Legislative for the period Friday 15th November – Monday 23rd December 2024”.
According to previous years, the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure were usually tabled in November. But now that the change is requesting at least 60 days instead of 30 days, the Finance Minister’s apparent late tabling of the 2025 Budget Estimates could be considered unconstitutional.
It’s also important to note that the National Assembly has been failing in its duty to perform oversight over the Government’s implementation of the 2024 Budget. Traditionally the finance minister provides a quarterly update to Parliament at least once every Ordinary Session. In this update, the finance minister would highlight how much the various government institutions have spent in the previous quarter. This has not taken place in the Second and Third Ordinary Session of the 2024 Legislative Year meaning that Parliamentarians are clueless as to how the government is implementing the 2024 Budget since the First Ordinary Session of the 2024 Legislative Year.
