Madam Speaker,

  I beg to move that “the Bill entitled the Act to provide for the services of the Republic of The Gambia for the period 1st January, 2007 to 31st December, 2007 (both dates inclusive)” be read a second time.


 Madam Speaker,

  INTRODUCTION

1. The 2007 Budget has been shaped by The Government's Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, PRSP II (2007 - 2011), and the recently negotiated Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) Programme with the International Monetary Fund, primarily to sustain growth, and reduce poverty by building-on the current macroeconomic gains through deepening the reforms undertaken by Government in recent years.

Madam Speaker,

2. The overarching policy objective of the Gambia Government is to substantially reduce poverty, and achieve all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) by 2015, as well as the goals of Vision 2020. All these objectives are fully reflected in the Second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper PRSP II, which is the main development blueprint with a clearly set-out policy framework for Growth and Poverty Reduction. The PRSP II is the main framework that defines the principles for Government development planning, and budget execution for achieving meaningful poverty reduction. The priorities articulated are to be implemented through sector plans, and financed through allocations from the annual budgets and donor contributions.

3. The PRSP II, prepared through a widely consultative process, is built around the following five pillars: (1) improving the policy environment; (2) enhancing the capacity and output of the productive sectors – agriculture, fisheries, industry, trade and tourism; (3) improving the delivery of basic social services; (4) building the capacities of local communities, and civil society organizations; and (5) mainstreaming issues related to gender, youth, population, HIV/AIDS, nutrition and the environment into the development process.

4. The five areas enumerated in the pillars are developed along the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Pillar 1 focuses on actions that will stabilize the economy, including good economic and public sector management. Pillar 2 focuses on the productive sectors, especially agriculture and tourism with a view to creating employment and reducing poverty (MDG 1). Government will pay special attention to infrastructure that is supportive of poverty reduction. Energy will be a critical area for intervention in this regard. Pillar 3 focuses on delivery of social services, particularly health (MDG 4, 5, and 6) and education (MDG2). Pillar 4 looks at local governance and decentralization. This is based on the premise that strengthening local governance systems and processes will improve delivery of social services, especially to the poor. The PRSP II identifies cross-cutting issues and processes to mainstream them in all development programmes. The key ones include gender (MDG 3), environment (MDG 7) and HIV/AIDS (MDG 6).

5. PRSP II emphasizes prudent fiscal and monetary policies to achieve macroeconomic stability. The objectives of fiscal policy include, improving revenue collections by strengthening institutional capacity, making the budget process more transparent and reflective of Government priorities, and containing and reduce Government borrowing requirements and the domestic debt by maintaining a primary surplus.

6. Prudent fiscal policy needs to be complemented with strong monetary policies. The Central Bank will continue its reforms to guarantee price stability, maintain a viable external position, and, at the same time, promote a sound and flexible financial system.

7. PRSP II will also learn from the experiences of the first PRSP, especially as they relate to constraints in capacity, absence of donor support, slow progress in both decentralization and divestiture, and, the low levels of expenditure that went to poverty reducing programmes as indicated in the various Annual Progress Reports (APRs).

8. Our development partners are expected to focus their assistance on these areas of the PRSP II. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has just concluded a mission some time in November this year, and a new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility Programme (PRGF) for The Gambia has been negotiated with Government, and is to be implemented during 2007 to 2009.The new PRGF represents The Gambia Government's economic and financial program as agreed with the IMF for the next three years. The new PRGF is premised on the basis that The Gambia will consolidate the recent gains in macroeconomic stability, and foster the conditions of sustaining high growth and reducing poverty. After a successful review of the first six months' progress of the PRGF, The Gambia will reach HIPC Completion Point, and will qualify for Paris Club Debt relief, and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), which will un-leashed substantial resources for the budget, and, thereby, enlarge the fiscal space for more growth and development.
   
   

Madam Speaker,

9. One of the major ongoing financial reforms involves the implementation of an Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) to handle all Government financial transactions. Tremendous progress has been made in the IFMIS implementation, and the IFMIS will go- live on 2 nd January, 2007. IFMIS will co-ordinate and harmonize Budget Preparation, Budget Execution, Accounting, Financial Management, and the Reporting activities for the Government. It is integrated in nature, and it ensures that data entered at one point is electronically availed to the next stage, without duplication of data entry activities. IFMIS will enhance transparency and accountability in the management of public finances. IFMIS will also enable Government to produce financial information for financial decision-making. The following major benefits will accrue immediately after IFMIS go-live:

• Local Purchase Orders, payments vouchers and cheques for all Government Departments will be captured, and printed from the IFMIS. This will enable real time transaction processing and drastically reduce transaction processing cycles.
• Commitment control on IFMIS will ensure that before a local purchase order or other commitment is entered into, there are available funds which are backed up by cash in the Treasury Main Account via approved cash allocations by the Budget Directorate. An inbuilt check also matches cash allocations against the appropriated budget. In simple terms, if there is no money, then there will be no expenditure.
• All suppliers will be required to have Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) in order to transact with Government. Supplier transactions will be shared with the Gambia Revenue Authority, thereby enabling effective tax compliance.
• Similarly, all Government employees will be required to have Tax Identification Numbers, and this will help in eliminating “Ghost Workers”, and rectifying errors in our employee database.
• Financial statements will be available on the system on a real time basis. Therefore, the Directorate of National Treasury will be able to present accounts for audit within the timelines stipulated in the Financial Instructions. Financial statement backlogs that have plagued Government for years will, therefore, be history.

The associated benefits are numerous, and Government and our development partners are interested in this initiative, and we are all anxious for successful IFMIS implementation.

 

-end.