Govt Overshoots $1 Billion 2020 Budget by $134 Million; Here’s the Breakdown

Barbara 30th April, 2021

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The Dominican government has overshot the 2019/2020 budget of $1,022,164,555 by as much as $134,840,142. Minister of Trade and Commerce, Ian Douglas, said the new supplementary appropriation budget should be approved to enable the government to meet its financial obligations to the nation.

Douglas said the government made an advance of $8,940,782 through grants from the contingency fund from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 while local resources provided $123,899,360 and loans yielded $2,000.

The trade minister explained that the Ministry of Public Works has been assigned $57,239,909 from the supplementary budget to take care of road constructions and rehabilitations in Cochrane, Melville, Checkhall Valley, Tatan and other major areas. The National Employment Programme (NEP) also got $5,550,567 of the money to take care of community empowerment activities.

The sum of $16,046,855 was allocated to the Ministry of Finance.

The Office of the Prime Minister got $2,928,666 and another $2,048,844 for housekeeping and maintenance services at the Ross University which is now being used by the prime minister. Meanwhile, $273,323 was alloted to refurbish the office of the prime minister and another $531,904 set aside to purchase two operational vehicles for the prime minister’s security fleet.

The committee in charge of thanksgiving concert and celebrations for the second anniversary of Hurricane Maria got $74,595. The Ministry of Justice got an additional $4,097,208 and the sum of $791,051 assigned for legal matters and lawyer fees. The government disclosed that $547,200 was expended to consolidate Dominican laws for 2017, while an extra $2,758,953 is alloted to sustain the passport management system in the country.

In respect of the 2019 general election, Douglas said $1,811,886 was appropriated to offset election expenses. He added that $22,086,381 is made available to the Ministry of Trade and Commerce for youth empowerment while $1,800,000 is alloted to the Rapid Response Social Recovery Agency for social citizen needs.

He also announced that US$100,000 was given to Bahamas to assist with recovery efforts following Hurricane Dorian. For the remuneration of the National Authoritizing Officer, the sum of $90,000 was assigned and $12,685 allocated for budgetary shortfall for retirement benefits. While the government deposited $3 million into AID Bank in May 2020 for lending to small businesses to offset the harsh effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government went on to add $2 million to the deposit from the supplementary budget.

The Ministry of Agriculture has $8,879,471 allocated the Ministry of Education got $7,585,323 appropriated. For families who suffered homelessness at the Lake Silver community in 2016, the government assigned $19,200 for assistance and the sum of $1,123,583 was allocated to help victims of Tropical Storm Erika.

Douglas also revealed other budgetary allocations that were assigned to other aspects of community and national life in Dominica.