Top offices, security sector major gainers in new budget

Offices of the President, Prime Minister and parliament gained most in the quarterly budget released this week which saw the finance minister raise income and sales tax to finance the nearly $270 million budget.

In the last financial year, Villa Somalia was allocated $4,573,520 but the Finance Minister Abdirahman Beyle has increased the budget vote to the president’s office to $5,038,918. The Prime Minister’s office also got a budget raise settling at $5,593,199 up from last year’s $4,954,608 while salaries and allowances for the Lower House rose from $11,853,712 in 2016 to $16,595,512.

A budget vote for the Senate which came into being following last year’s elections was not captured in the new budget.

The Finance Minister also let loose the purse strings allocating the military a further $12 million from last year’s $35,469, 640 echoing President Mohamed Farmaajo’s pre-election manifesto which emphasized need to build a strong and professional army as the African Union force prepares a draw-down from next year.

A similar boost went to the police which got $24,302,140 up from last year’s $13,947,560.

Federal member states will still remain funded through grants, the Finance minister said setting an expected $18,278,638 donor support to cover the budget for Puntland, HirShabelle, South West, Jubbaland and Banadir region. Unspecified subnational governments have also been factored in the vote.

Banaadir region has been allocated the lion share taking $6,548,638 followed by Puntland with $4,675,000 while newly created HirShabelle state takes the least, $750,000.

The government is expecting an $18,500,000 grant from Turkey and Saudi Arabia to cover part of its budget. Turkey which injected a $30 million grant in the previous financial period cut its donation by about $12 million this year while Saudi Arabia is expected to inject $5 million.

Multilateral donor project support will amount to $84 million, the Finance Ministry said.