Team Herald
PANJIM: With less than a fortnight for Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant to table the State Budget 2020-21, the Budget Committee of the Legislative Assembly was taken aback when it learnt that the Finance Department is still unprepared with information concerning the State’s financial position.
The Budget Committee headed by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai met on Thursday at the Assembly complex to take stock of the financial situation vis-à-vis the last budget. The seven-member committee basically reviews the implementation of the last Budget.
The committee sought details about budgetary allocation and utilisation of the last financial statement to various departments by February 5, a day before the new Budget would be tabled.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Sardesai said they have learnt that never has a budget committee meeting been held. “So we have started the trend. The Finance Department representative, who attended the meeting, was completely clueless about State’s financial position,” he said.
The former Deputy Chief Minister said the department gave an excuse that they are tied up with the 15th Finance Commission, currently in Goa and therefore don’t have the information.
Sardesai said the committee has asked the Finance Department officials to provide details like allocation, sanction and utilisation of the budgetary provisions made for various departments.
The committee has also sought to know whether there was any re-appropriation of the Budget by the government and how many such cases were there. “They don’t have the information at all,” he said.
Sardesai said that Finance Department officials who attended the meeting were ill-prepared for it, due to which they have been given time to revert with the proper information.
The Budget Session of Goa Legislative Assembly would be held from February 3 to 7. Sardesai said the Chief Minister, who holds the Finance portfolio, would be presenting the budget on February 6.
“We have come to know that government has no money. We want the government to be accountable. Legislative Assembly sessions and its committees should not be just for name sake, they should be actually tools to ensure good governance and ensure accountability of the government,” he said.
