VI’s Budget Day is November 15, 2012!
Premier Smith will be reading his second budget as the Minister of Finance and that of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Government since the 2011 elections.
This will also be the first budget since the Premier was forced by the United Kingdom (UK) Government to sign the Protocols for Effective Financial Management, a document heavily criticized by the Opposition Virgin Islands Party as a sellout of our financial control. The document was signed on April 23, 2012.
At Thursday’s sitting, the Premier and Minister of Finance will move a motion for the Introduction of the First reading of the bill entitled ‘Appropriation (2013) Act 2012’.
The next step after the delivery of the budget address is for at a later time for the Bill to go into committee where Departments and some statutory bodies will have to appear before the Standing Finance Committee to answer questions from all 13 Members and defend their budget request.
Another demand made by the UK Government on the NDP Administration was that the Financial Protocol is placed in the Territory’s laws. It resulted in the Minister of Finance adding it to the Public Finance Management (Amendment) Act, 2012. This bill was debated and passed in October 2012.
Many will now be looking to see in Premier Smith’s Budget document if there is a Medium Term Fiscal Plan (MTFP); a Budget Policy Statement; and a Multi-year Budget Document, all requirements of the law. It is unclear if the amended Public Management Act was signed by the Governor, or if there are regulations to give effect to many of the requiments of the amendments. There is also a six months requirement of some of the provisions to take effect.
In January 2012, during Dr. Smith’s very first budget address under the theme ‘Austerity Today Secures Economic Recovery Tomorrow’, He had said his Government hopes to build the Territory’s reserve fund to $100M by the year 2015.
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20 Responses to “VI’s Budget Day is November 15, 2012!”
Dem continue to give them supporters all kind of free bees through the assistant grants, something is wrong here Dr. Smith! can you please answer to your people?
I pray I do not feel a tenseness in my brain every time I go for that purse or wallet
I pray I will not find myself making difficult choices between my favorite foods
and with the clothes I wear among other things .
If that happens then I will start counting down the time to the next election and I will know I have had enough!!!!
Morever, these are challenging economic times and every effort must made to make the best use of available. resources. The government must create an urgency for ministries and departments to employ less resources to deliver higher customer value. There must be an urgency to reduce/root out waste, to enhance value and to improve performance.
Further, the BVI has a myriad of critical needs but not enough money to fund them all. Additionally, it also has a growing list of wants. But needs must take priority over wants; wants must be put on backlog until needs are met and additional funding becomes available. As such needs need to be prioritized. Furthermore, the Premier needs to educate the territory about the territory ' s bank book and be sober about what it can afford.