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| Hon. Abdou Kolley |
Hon. Abdou Kolley, Minister of Finance and
Economic Affairs, has apologised to the country’s lawmakers for understating
the national budget while recently tabling the 2013 Annual Estimates of Revenue and
Expenditure of the Government of The Gambia for the Fiscal year January to
December 2013 at the National Assembly in Banjul.
“The Gambia government's 2013 expenditure
and net-lending is projected at D8,301.5 billion and not D6,719.3 billion as
stated while presenting the draft budget estimates before the House on Monday
[3 December 2012],” Minister Kolley said on Wednesday at the National Assembly.
He
added that the total revenue and grants for 2013 is D7,608.8 billion and not
D6,528 billion.
Meanwhile,
the National Assembly Members approved
the 2013 Draft Budget Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure of The Gambia for
the Fiscal Year January to December 2013, with amendments.
Speaking
during the debate preceding the approval of the draft budget estimates, Hon.
Fatou Mbye, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, noted that the draft
estimates are “very reasonable and realistic”, considering the economic
situation of The Gambia and the anticipated expenditure and revenue.
She
said the key social sectors, among them the education sector, continue to
receive the attention they deserve, which she said is a tool to the attainment
of the development objective.
“It is an open secret that parents still
pay for their children’s school fees and we look forward to a day when free and
compulsory education will be a reality, particularly at the basic level,” she
said.
