Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) points out specific examples of abuse of Contingency Warrant (CW) by some government ministries.
Speaking on the floor of parliament on Thursday, Hou said there is a rising trend in the abuse of CW.
He explained that purpose of the CW is for expenditures that are unforeseen and that are of urgent nature.
“But that is not the case here, as some of these examples of the abuse of CW are from the Ministry of Health and Medical Services supplementary on house rental, annual leave and general stores. “Supplementary Bills from the National Parliament, for repair and maintenance to non residential buildings, telephone bills and annual leaves.
“Office of the Prime Minister supplementary for items, such as telephone, repairs and maintenance to office, entertainments, annual leave and fares. And Home Affairs supplementary for office rent, telephone, stationary and office equipments,” he revealed.
He said there are many more examples on these form of abuse of the CW.
Hou stressed that the over use of CW is not only perpetuating the practice of bad planning and poor budgeting, but also in doing so, the Minister is stretching too far the powers given to him in terms of section 51 of the PFM Act 2013, which clearly sets out the condition for supplementation that there is an unforeseen and urgent need.
The AC chairman said those examples listed above are normal expenditures that those ministries should have taken up at the time of the normal annual budgetary process, thus there is nothing unforeseen or urgent about these listed expenditures.
By AATAI JOHN
