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Fed up with the number of budget reallocations made
by the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) within its
different projects, the Ministry of Finance and
Economic Development (MoFED) warned the former to
stop such recurrent transfers of budgets. MoWR
reallocated budgets from one of its projects to the
other 280 times last year.
According to a source from MoFED, each transfer of
budget requires seven signatures of Asfaw Dingamo,
minister of Water Resources, meaning that in the
just ended budget year, he was forced to sign 1,800
times making the Ministry a runaway winner in
reallocations.
A budget expert told Fortune that it is
natural to reallocate budgets.
“But cases such as this are signs of lack of solid
prior planning,” claimed the expert.
In the 2006/07 budget year, a 1.1 billion Br budget
was allocated to MoWR, 700 million Br being covered
from the government’s coffer, while the remaining
came from loans and grants. However, it only used
41.1 million Br of the government allotted budget
and 22.7 million Br and 65.4 million Br of the money
it obtained from grants and loans respectively in
the first six months of the budget year.
In the stated budget year, MoWR undertook 12
irrigation development study and construction
projects, potable water and sanitation projects,
medium hydroelectric power study and capacity
building projects in the country. However, as there
are delays in these projects, the Ministry is said
to have set out on internal redistribution of
budgets to utilise it all before the end of the
budget year.
Teshome Adugna, Plan and Programme Department head
at MoWR, confirmed that indeed budget reallocation
is a common practice but said he could not comment
further as reports have yet to be finalised.
However, another official at the Ministry stressed
his belief that it does not harm to relocate the
budget rather than seeing it expire.
“Our job is to construct and when the ground is dug,
and it turns out to be unsuitable land, a change in
design and moving to other construction plots
becomes mandatory,” said the official. “But when
hiring consultants, who do the study, there must be
assurance on their capacity to be relied upon,” he
added.
A 1.3 billion Br budget has been allocated to MoWR
for the 2007/08 budget year with a strict notice
that last year’s experience should not be repeated.
Budget relocations within a Ministry is approved by
MoFED while budget relocations from one Ministry to
another is approved by the Council of Ministers.
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