Solomon Islands Government to tighten control on 2016 Budget spending

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As part of its strategy for the formulation of the 2017 budget the Government will implement a number of revenue and expenditure control measures in spending the 2016 budget to ensure the current budget is balanced by the beginning of 2017 fiscal year. The implementation of these measures will commence immediately.

The Minister of Finance and Treasury Snyder Rini announced the measures during the launching of the 2017 budget preparation process today.

These measures will include the improvement of expenditure quality through better scrutiny of payment submissions against the intended purpose of appropriation, through enhanced compliance processes and procurement.

As part of this measure, the Ministry of Finance can make reservations on any budgetary allocation for which the purpose of the project or program can be deferred to start in 2017 or is not ready to be implemented in 2016.

Reservations can also be made when a program or project bears significant risk of unproductive, wasteful or improper spending and in the event when the responsible ministry does not have the capacity to implement the program.

The Minister also highlighted that reservations can also be made when there is potential for wasteful, extravagant and improper spending for operational and development purposes like Stationary and printing, Consultations, workshops and overseas travel that have no bearing on core functions and responsibilities of ministries.

Reservations can also be applied for unnecessary purposes as well as land and property acquisitions for government purposes that are redundant or lacks clear and strong commitment from relevant Ministries and Cabinet.

The control measures also include the reduction to avoid risks emanating from wasteful, extravagant and improper spending transactions by tightening compliance requirements.

The Ministry of Finance will strive to maintain SIG-funded spending within domestic revenue levels by ensuring that Contingency Warrants are approved only if Ministries identify allocations that can be saved and reserved within the existing budget, and to ensure adequate working capital for essential services and functions of Government are continued.

ENDS///

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