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Background Information:
In
The Gambia, MOFEA is the finance ministry responsible for the national
budget. The budget process begins each June with the ‘Call
Circular’ in which the MOF outlines the economic forecast against
which budget ceilings are allocated to sectors/departments for both
recurrent and development expenditures.
Following the distribution of the call circular, departments prepare their budget proposals for submission and discussion at meetings
with the MOFEA, where they try to justify and argue for their budget proposals. These
bilateral meetings are attended by budget and planning and officials.
Sectors also defend their manpower budget proposals at the Personnel
Management Office (PMO) for the
approval of newly created staff positions.
At the conclusion of the bilateral meetings, the MOFEA compiles the ‘Revenue and Expenditure Estimates’ and submits a draft to
Cabinet for its scrutiny and approval. A second draft incorporating Cabinet
comments is then submitted to the
National Assembly for scrutiny and
approval. The Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs
presents the Appropriation Bill before parliament.
As in the UK, Parliament’s role
has largely been to rubberstamp executive draft budgets without any
alterations.
Once the budget has been approved by parliament, its implementation
takes effect at the start of the fiscal year in January and the MOFEA
appropriates revenue to sectors for that year's spending. The
Permanent Secretaries are the responsible Accounting Officers charged
with the control and execution of departmental expenditure.
The department has overall supervisory role of the
Central Bank.
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