Hons Smith & Flax-Charles blast SFC meetings as ‘futile’ process lacking data
The legislators raised their concerns during the debate on the $399.33M budget for 2023 at the Continuation of the Ninth Sitting of the Fourth Session of the Fourth House of Assembly (HoA) at Save the Seed Energy Centre in Duff's Bottom, Tortola, today, December 20, 2022.
During SFC deliberations, public sector agencies and Central Government Ministries and Departments are called in to testify and justify their budget requests and most often argue for more funds.
The Ministry of Finance, including the Financial Secretary (FS) and senior staff, are there throughout the SFC meetings to answer questions and be the main resource of the committee. The FS is also questioned by legislators about the Territory’s debt, money in the bank and other fiscal matters.
SFC meetings a 'problem' - Hon Smith
According to Hon Smith, one of the biggest problems in the budget process starts with Standing Finance Committee meetings.
“We've been doing the same thing so long, and the question is, are we doing it right? We come to Standing Finance [Committee] to talk about the budget, and numbers, but we end up talking about other things in Standing Finance. So the real true picture of what should be going on in Standing Finance is not happening, and that's my opinion,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker proposed that the SFC meetings lack data and that the poor process is one of the reasons the House is still trying to pass the budget at such a late stage.
The HoA was also slated to start at 10:00 AM today, but only began around 3:30 PM.
Data needed - Hon Smith
“We cannot go in there sitting down just listen to somebody come and tell me I need a new vehicle because the truck broke down. We need to start having information explained to us, how you arrived at this?
“If we don’t have data, we don't have information, we cannot continue going down the road that we're going, making decisions. And that's been going on for 4-5 years I’m here."
Hon Smith also questioned why the data is not being shared with legislators if the Ministry of Finance has them, "because we're making decisions blindly, that's how I look at it," he said.
“We have to change the way we do things there. We cannot continue doing the same thing for years and years and years and we're not getting good results out of it. To me, that's what I'm seeing here. I'm saying that we need to change the process of Standing Finance [Committee],” Hon Smith added.
Futile exercise - Hon Flax-Charles
Meanwhile, Hon Flax-Charles said the exercise of the Standing Finance Committee is one she believes is done in futility.
“I must agree with the Honourable Member, the Deputy Speaker...we have asked for these meetings for years and they are not forthcoming Madam Speaker, and so we again ask that before Standing Finance [Committee] that members of the House of Assembly are appraised of what is going on in advance,” she said.
Both legislators said they recognise the work of the House of Assembly staff; however, Hon Flax-Charles said the poor SFC meeting process is one that puts the entire territory in a predicament, given that the House of Assembly is left to call sittings at the 11th hour to try to pass a budget.
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25 Responses to “Hons Smith & Flax-Charles blast SFC meetings as ‘futile’ process lacking data ”
Smith is sincere but not that e¥!1 woman.
No wonder we got problems. These fools need to be educated.
Same for roads. If you build a new road, you need to repave it in 20 years. And guess what? You should have known this 20 years ago when you paved the road!
All we get is foolish new ideas for stuff. We need to budget to take care of the stuff we already have. It is all now broken... Like our government