The budgets of all Constitutional Agencies were yesterday approved in the National Assembly after examination of the Estimates of Expenditure and queries by Opposition Members.
A statement from the Ministry of Finance said that responses were provided to the queries by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira.
The constitutional agencies comprise the Parliament Office, Auditor General’s Office, the Public, Police, Teaching and Judicial service commissions, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), the Supreme Court of Judicature, the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Public Service Appellate Tribunal, the Ethnic Relations Commission, the Rights Commissions and the Public Procurement Commission.
The statement said that the process for approval of the Estimates of Expenditure of these Agencies continued smoothly as it had in 2022 following the December 29, 2021 Parliamentary approval of the Fiscal Management and Accountability (Amendment) Act which was successfully piloted at the time by Senior Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh during the 34th Sitting of the Twelfth Parliament.
Last week, both sides of the House took part in five days of debate on the 2023 Budget which was presented to the National Assembly on January 16.
In relation to GECOM, this year’s Budget provides for an additional sum to cater for Local Government Elections and this was explained by Teixeira following queries yesterday about the additional allocation for the Constitutional body, the statement said.
