Spending details sought
by mahmood on 04/06/06 at 3:40 pm · email · print
MPs are demanding a breakdown of Royal Court spending and are asking for it to be included in the government’s closing budget statement for last year.
Parliament’s financial and economic committee says it has received an unofficial figure, but does not know whether or not it went over budget.
“We still haven’t got anything in detail about the spending, which we believe is over budget,” said committee member Abdulnabi Salman yesterday.
“But we can’t decide anything about it until we officially receive it.
“The committee still doesn’t know the source of the court’s funds – the Finance Ministry says it is included in the national budget, but they never tell us under which section.”
The Royal Court includes the King’s Court, the Crown Prince’s Court, the Premier’s Court, the Supreme Council for Women and other expenses for Royal Family members.
Meanwhile, important information missing from the closing budget statement was handed over to MPs by the government yesterday.
MPs on May 2 accused the government of hiding vital details and refused to ratify the closing statement for 2004 because certain information was not included.
The government came forward with some of the missing paperwork a week later, but MPs said certain information was still not made available.
Parliament’s financial and economic committee was due to complete its probe into some of the documents, but postponed discussions because some had still not been turned over.
Committee chairman Jehad Bukamal yesterday thanked Finance Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa for presenting the committee with the missing information.
“Now we can start our work without any interruptions as all necessary papers are with us,” he said at a Press conference at the National Assembly yesterday.
Documents demanded by MPs included information on the closing statement for Bapco, Alba, additional information on the budgets of some ministries and government organisations and a detailed table on the government’s loans and their uses.
They also included national reserves, oil revenue, detailed attachments of the money collected by the government every month and information on oil production and prices of crude and refined oil and gas.
In addition, they asked for a list of completed projects and their costs, incomplete projects listed for that year and projects that saw an increase or decrease in the allotted budget.
They also wanted changes in allotted finances for projects between ministries and government organisations, a statement on who is responsible for Alba in front of parliament if the company’s dealings are discussed or probed by MPs and Bahrain University’s closing statement for 2004.
GDN :: Mohammed Al-A’ali :: 4 Jun ’06
