By Bida Elly David
The Transitional National Parliament has unveiled dubious spending of fifteen ministries and public institutions above the budgetary allocations to their dockets.
The Assembly’s specialized committee for finance and economic planning, uncovered the 2022–2023 fiscal year budget over spending, during a scrutiny.
Chairperson of the special committee, Hon. Changkouth Bichiock told the Assembly on Wednesday that the overspending of funds by the institutions indirectly affected the previous year’s budget.
According to the appropriation matrix report, the South Sudan Reconstruction and Development Fund tops the overspending with 1099%, followed by the Ministry of Presidential Affairs with 541% expenditures.
The committee noted that overspending by the top two institutions contributed to uncertainties in the 2022-2023 financial year budget.
The national Ministry of Transport spent 374% of its finances outside the resource envelope while Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC) with 315% excess expenditure.
Ministry of Environment takes the fifth position in the matrix with a 245 percent overdraft in the third quarter of appropriation.
Other institutions exposed in the report are; the National Election Commission with 210%, the Ministry of Interior with 202%, the Ministry of Finance with 177%, the Fire Brigade with 171% and the Commission for Refugees Affairs with 151 percent.
“National Security Service spends 131%, National Examination Council with 126% overspending, Judiciary 110%, National Police Service with 107%, and Ministry of Youth and Sports 101%,” the report detailed.
However, the committee failed to present the exact extra amounts of cash that each of the institutions spent above their 2022–23 fiscal year budgetary ceilings.
Mr. Changkouth also stated in his presentation that the 2022–2023 budget suffered setbacks from collections of revenues to the Country’s treasury.
He said most income-generating institutions of the government, according to the committee’s findings, had never been remitting finances generated from customs duties and oil.
“In the FY2022/2023 budget process, it was discovered that many revenue-generating agencies of the government did not comply and remit money to the Treasury,” he said.
The committee also established that there were many illegal charges and collections outside the financial act.
Hon. Changkouth, however, noted that there was a need to critically analyze the implementation of 2023–2024 resource envelopes to ensure that institutions do not overspend their allocations.
Legislators during the debate on the report warned the executives against unforeseen spending that is only seen in the report but hidden in individual pockets.