Budget ‘finalised’, says Abel

By HELEN TARAWA
THE 2019 Supplementary Budget will be tabled in Parliament today after it undergoes final adjustments, according to the Government.
It was supposed to be tabled yesterday but postponed to today because it was being finalised, according to Finance and Rural Development Minister Charles Abel, pictured.
Parliament was full yesterday in anticipation for the tabling of the supplementary budget by Treasurer Ian Ling-Stuckey.
He could not be reached for a comment after Deputy Prime Minister Davis Steven abruptly moved that the sitting be adjourned to this morning.
A Parliament spokesperson said the budget tabling had to be delayed because they had to make some adjustments to the figures.
Former prime minister and Ialibu-Pangia MP Peter O’Neill who attended Parliament yesterday in anticipation of the supplementary budget debate said the government was “disorganised and a bit lost”.
“There is no government parliamentary business or legislation programme so Parliament is just a question time event,” O’Neill said.
Prime Minister James Marape said the supplementary budget would be about correcting “some of the fallacies and deficiencies of the previous government and to ensure (we) get the fundamental macro-economic numbers corrected”. Marape said the Government was taking a prudent and responsible approach to correct “what is possibly an under performance in the economy” this year.
He said they planned to anchor the budget preparations with more concrete numbers in 2020.
Parliament is expected to rise after the supplementary budget is passed today.
It will return next month for the 2020 budget session.