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For the fiscal year 2020-2021 in which the government of Dominica presented to the nation a $942,179,940.00 budget, parliament last week\u00a0 approved over $275 million in supplementary appropriation expenditure but the parliamentary Opposition is not impressed and says the reasons given for the overspend are \u201cnot credible.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Second Meeting of the Second Session of the Tenth Parliament on November 29, 2021, \u00a0the motion was presented to the House by the Minister for Governance, Public Service Reform, Citizen Empowerment,\u00a0 Social Justice and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Hon. Gretta Roberts.<\/p>\n
In her presentation, the Minister appealed to her fellow parliamentarians to approve the bill which she said benefited all Dominicans.<\/p>\n
Regarding advances made from the contingency fund for the period July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, Roberts disclosed that\u00a0 major expenditure included $79 million allocated to the Ministry of Housing and Urban\u00a0 Development for land settlement and development and house renovation and sanitation while $76\u00a0 million went to the Ministry of Health, Wellness & New Health Investment for COVID-19 response and\u00a0 the construction of health infrastructure.<\/p>\n
However, in responding to the bill, Opposition Leader, Hon. Lennox Linton argued that as far back as the government’s 2020-2021 budget they were aware that there were overruns, and unbudgeted spending evidence of which he said can be found in the projections that were presented in the estimates for that year financial year.<\/p>\n
The government explained that the expenditure of $275 million was financed through grants amounting\u00a0 to $18.5million (7%), local sources equivalent to $248.5million (90%) which includes the Citizenship By Investment (CBI)\u00a0 Programme, and 3% of the funds was received through loans in the amount of $8.2 million dollars.<\/p>\n
According to the United Workers Party (UWP) leader, there is reason to question the credibility of figures presented for the CBI programme.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe year 2019-2020, $182.4million was collected as revenue in exchange for\u00a0 8,525 citizenships. In the following year 2020-2021, we handed citizenship to 768 people. The numbers are down 91%…but the\u00a0 citizenship dollars are up by 63%, that is why we ask questions,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
With the Ministry of Housing and Urban\u00a0 Development receiving the largest chunk of the supplementary expenditure, Linton claimed that this unbudgeted spending has much to do with the government’s arrangements with Montreal Management Consultants Est. (MMCE), as according to him, four projects were overpriced.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe modern resilient housing, the modern resilient health centers, the modern resilient community centers and the Marigot hospital [were] budgeted in 2020-2021 at $77.3 million and then the projections came back at $190.5 million. So you had a budget of $20.4 million, $15million for the Marigot hospital and $5.4 million for the resilient health centers,\u201d Linton said.<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cThe year finishes Mr. Speaker, and a new amount emerges for the Marigot hospital, $37.9 million is needed for the hospital that was budgeted at $15million, so the new price of the hospital is $52.9 million and the new price of the resilient health centers no longer $5.4million, it is now $32.4 million – a difference of $27million on the budget. The modern resilient housing budgeted at $56.9million, revised figure $88 million – a difference of $31.2 million and the modern resilient community centers $17 million. So this difference between what was budgeted and what it came out as\u00a0 projected is $113.2 million for four projects. Are we getting value for money,\u201d Linton questioned.<\/p>\n
The Marigot MP further posited that had the government conducted open competitive bidding, the cost of the four projects would have been significantly lower.<\/p>\n
According to him, Dominica paid $81.8million over the market price because through tender, the modern resilient housing would have cost $50 million, the modern resident health centers $14.4 million, the modern resilient community center, $10million and the Marigot hospital, $34 million.<\/p>\n
Meantime, Opposition Senator Ernie Jno Finn told the House, while the government said $6.9million was directed to the Ministry of Health to meet Covid-19 related payments, she lamented the fact that there was no overspend in support given to Dominicans to cushion the financial blow of the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Speaker Dominicans are still begging for meaningful assistance to compensate for losses of employment, small businesses etc as a result of Covid-19. 2021 was Dominica’s first full financial year under Covid and the government overspent its budget by $275 million but only a very small percentage of that amount, less than 5% was spent on Covid-19 emergency related matters,\u201d Jno Finn complained.<\/p>\n
In the 2020-2021 budget, $9million was allocated to the National Employment Program (NEP) , however the government reported that the program was supplemented by an additional $26million which Jno Finn said was exorbitant and needed to be justified.<\/p>\n
To meet mapping exercises of the 2021 population and housing census, a total of $62.7million was reported. However, the Senator pointed out that the report from the last census done in Dominica in 2011 was never released which she said could have serious implications for the country\u2019s economic development.<\/p>\n
\u201cPopulation census is important because it helps the country in its planning efforts. It helps to increase the rate of economic development within the country. This cannot happen if authorities do not know the structure and distribution of the country’s population,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
Jno Finn further criticized the government\u2019s failure to uphold its commitment to renovate the Dominica State College\u00a0 (DSC) as well as the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development for their non-commitment in land settlement for the Castle Bruce residents for acquisition of properties for road works in the east of the island despite $3.7million allocated for such purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the fiscal year 2020-2021 in which the government of Dominica presented to the nation a $942,179,940.00 budget, parliament last week\u00a0 approved over $275 million in supplementary appropriation expenditure but the parliamentary Opposition is not impressed and says the reasons…","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":253446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[235,9,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage-carousel","category-news","category-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n