The plenary of the House of Representatives on Thursday, June 10, 2021, turned dramatic over which committee handles the draft special budget submitted to the National Legislature recently through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. The special draft budget is expected to run from July 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021.
During the Thursday session, serious argument ensued among members of the House, which lasted for over an hour as to which committee handles the draft special budget. The rules of the House call for any financial instrument, including the national budget, to be submitted to the Ways, Means and Finance Committee.
Some lawmakers argued that the current Ways, Means and Finance Committee is not active and, therefore, the special draft budget should be turned over to a specialized committee to properly view it and report to plenary for legislative action. According to them, since the draft budget is a special budget and the timeframe for its passage is short, a specialized committee should be constituted with representation from the fifteen counties to quickly act on the instrument.
Representatives Moses Acarous Gray, Isaac B. Roland, Clayton Duncan, Matthew Joe, Jimmy Smith, Montserrado, Maryland, Sinoe and Grand Bassa counties, respectively, debated to have the specialized committee constituted to deal with the draft special budget. Some of them where seen throwing direct talk to the committee’s Chair, Thomas Fallah, Montserrado County’s district #5 Representative, that he is ineffective and, therefore, his committee should not handle the budget.
At the same time, some lawmakers, including Samuel G. Kogar, Dixon Seboe, Hanson Kiazolu, Francis Dopoe, Nimba, Montserrado and River Gee counties, respectively, opposed the argument of the setting up of a specialized committee to review the draft budget. According to them, the Ways, Means and Finance Committee is a Constitutional committee backed by the House’s rules to review the national budget, and not any specialized committee as called for by some Representatives.
Following a heated debate, a motion was made by Montserrado County’s district #9 Representative, Saah Foko, to have the draft budget turned over to the Ways, Means and Finance Committee to review and report back to plenary. The motion, which brought a bit of distraction of normal legislative activities, was later seized by the Presiding Officer, Speaker Bhofal Chambers.
The draft special budget was submitted to the National Legislature recently in the tone of US$301.5 million. The budget, when enacted into law, will run from July 1 to December 31, 2021.