The Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Samuel D. Tweah, has submitted the draft national budget for the calendar year, January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, to the National Legislature..
The national budget submitted to the House is in the tone of US $785,587,340.
Minister Tweah presented the draft fiscal year instrument to Speaker Bhofal Chambers on Thursday, November 18, 2021, and said it is the highest budget envelope ever in the country.
The submission is in line with Section 65 of the amendment and restatement of the PFM Act of 2009, which provides for the change in the fiscal year and for the formulation of a special national budget of six months to pave the way for transition to the new fiscal year, which begins in 2022.
During the submission of the long-awaited national budget on Thursday, Minister Tweah said the agriculture sector has been increased by 60.5%; energy and development sector, 76.1%; security sector, 11.3%, and Health sector, 12.3%.
In receiving the budget, Speaker Chambers expressed hope that the national budget will serve the best interest of the Liberian people.
“We are thankful for the submission, though coming late, but better late than never. We hope it will serve the best interest of our people. In consultation with you, we hope to do the best we can, and hope that this agenda centers around radical thinking of the ‘Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity And Development’, which could be enhanced with the collective effort of everybody,” Speaker Chambers asserted.
In furtherance, Speaker Chambers stated that the Legislature, based on the Constitutional provision of Article 34d, will do what is required of it.
“Having said that, based on our Constitution, Article 34d, we will do what is required of us. We will do and shall commit ourselves to doing it. We expect that the Senate in the same way will cooperate or coordinate other activities of the draft budget,” Speaker Chambers concluded.