By Sulaiman Jalloh

The Ministry of Finance through the Fiscal Risk Management Division has, on Thursday, July 25, 2024, at the ministry’s conference hall on George Street in Freetown, trained and capacitated about 35 State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) staff on preparation and presentation for the fiscal year 2025.

In his welcome remarks, Director of the Fiscal Risk Division, Dr. Alhassan Mansaray, said the training was to introduce new areas in the budget of SOEs that will feed into the National Budget in line with the National Plan and consistent with the ‘Big Five Game Changers’ of the government’s agenda, noting that SOEs should be able to contribute positively to economic growth of the country and not the other way round. He furthered that the ministry has developed a monitoring framework to monitor the progress of these SOEs.

The Director of Budget Bureau, Mr Tasiima Jah, said that the Ministry of Finance has identified a critical area that requires immediate attention to the budget preparation processes of State-Owned Enterprises as, according to him, they play a crucial role in the country’s economy by providing essential services in critical sectors. He however noted that their budgeting practices have often fallen short of standards and stressed that the deficiency of SOEs will not only impacts their operations but poses risks to the broader economic stability.  He said the training “outlines a comprehensive program designed to address these challenges,”

Delivering the keynote address, the Deputy Financial Secretary, Mamie Miatta Kallon, noted that the training session was on the preparation and presentation of the annual budget of State-Owned Enterprises that signifies the strengthening of financial governance and operational transparency across all sectors, adding that they were there to guide institutions through fiscal challenges and opportunities that will help them meet their obligations effectively and efficiently. Madam Kallon emphasized the impact on the failure to prepare, present, and submit the annual budget to the Ministry of Finance, something she said, will jeopardize the ability to allocate resources judiciously and will also hamper operational planning, and undermine public trust.

Representing the National Commission for Privatization, Gbassay Alpha Esq. said his Commission plays its supervisory role to these SOEs and therefore understands the many challenges they are facing, hence the importance of the training while underscoring the significant of the meeting which he believed would enable them to curtail some of those challenges in some of the institutions.

In an online PowerPoint presentation, World Bank representative, ITufan, explains some key areas that should be cascaded into the budget relying on the standard framework that has been set while giving a breakdown of the income statement, items for ongoing service/activities, and newly planned services/activities.

On his part, Senior Financial Analyst FRMD, Aaron Tommy Brown, explained the relevance of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), something, he said, was adopted in 2021 as an effective and efficient system of budgeting that ensures optimum allocation of resources. Brown highlighted the goal of the MTEF which is to establish a clear and coherent forward-looking Financial Roadmap, for SOEs that aligns with government’s objectives, national priorities, and long-term economic and social objectives of the country.