Senate Debate $69 Million Supplementary Appropriation

Eamon Courtenay

A sixty-nine million dollar Supplementary Appropriation Bill was brought from the House of Representatives and debated today inside the Senate. Eamon Courtenay, the Senator for Government Business, sought to explain why the Briceño administration found it necessary to request that further sums be allocated only three months after the 2023 budget was introduced. U.D.P. Senator Michael Peyrefitte criticized this move by the government.

Eamon Courtenay, Senator for Government Business

“The obvious question that ari9ses is why now in June a supplementary appropriation bill. The first reason for which no one can take any pride is that it came to the attention of the government, specifically the Ministry of Finance, that a number of projects that were ongoing and which should have been included in this year’s budget did not reach the budget book. It arose, according to the Financial Secretary, in his brief to Cabinet that when payments came due the Ministry of Finance realized that a number of ministries failed to submit ongoing budget requests for projects that were ongoing.”

Michael Peyrefitte

Michael Peyrefitte, U.D.P. Senator 

“You can’t just come to the Senate and say well my fault, you see the ministries that have a management team, Minister, AO, FO, CEO, they just didn’t submit things when they were suppose to submit things and weh yo want we do about that? But, it is a lack of management and planning. You need to fire your CEOS. When you come to me or this Senate, Ministry of national Defense and Border Security and you budget for the entire year two hundred and twenty-two nine hundred and eighty-tight dollars for operational cost. My bad, there were some expenses we didn’t know we made or we didn’t turn in, so you come for that line item and ask in a supplemental for three hundred and four thousand eight hundred and forty-four dollars.”