Mid-year budget review announced

He said, “The committee also took into account a formal communication from the Finance Ministry that the mid-year budget review will be presented on Thursday, July 27, 2023, instead of Tuesday, July 25, 2023, as announced by the business committee.”

However, the First Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim expressed concerns about the new date’s conflict with the directive from Alban Bagbin for the Minister of Finance to present the mid-year budget review on July 25.

He noted that the date was not favourable.

“The parliament and the Church of Pentecost (CoP) are holding a development conference. The date 27th was chosen by the right honourable speaker and upon that the former president and the current president and Members of the parliament are all invited and are all going together with the speaker. So, when the speaker gave the date, that date had been used in making all the adverts,” Ahmed Ibrahim stated.

He explained that “And beyond that when the house was mentioning the 27th, the tentative idea was that the house was to go on recess on the 9th of August and the speaker said the 9th of August may be too late for the house to go on adjournment because the house is supposed to adjourn on the 3rd August and due to that if the mid-year budget review is presented on the 27th, it will be too close to the 3rd August.

“So, combining these two issues, thus the joint conference by parliament and the CoP and the closeness of the date of adjournment, the speaker entreated the house to present the mid-year review on 25th.”