Mozambique: Priority sectors lose 9.3 billion meticais in amending budget

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Mozambique: Priority sectors lose 9.3 billion meticais in amending budget

7:57 CAT | 27 Jul 2016

(File photo) / Mozambique's minister of Economy and Finance Adriano Maleiane

The government’s revised 2016 state budget cuts by 9.3 billion meticais the money allocated to fighting poverty this year.

The list of sectors chosen for budget cuts by Filipe Nyusi’s government included education, health, infrastructure, agriculture and rural development, judiciary, social welfare and labour.

Mhoje_hospitalll_photo_jpg — Maputo Central Hospital

If the proposed budget is approved by parliament, education, for example, will take a 1.4 billion meticais cut at a time when the quality of education is weak and many children continue to study sitting under trees without desks.

In the new government proposals, the budget for roads is about 23.9 billion meticais, 4.8 billion less than planned, even though one in four roads is in bad conditions. The amending budget will stop the building new administrative buildings and university campuses and arrest the purchase of vehicles – with the exception of ambulances.

After increasing the budget for the presidency in the first and second years, the government now plans to reduce it. But even so, the cost will remain above that allocated in the final year of Guebuza’s term.

Mhoje_schoolll_photo_jpg — Children attending school

The armed forces the budget is to fall slightly to around 5.2 billion meticais, still higher than the approximately 4.1 billion allocated in 2014.

The budget for Eduardo Mondlane University fell in the first year of Filipe Nyusi’s governance but rose again in 2016. Now, the government intends to cut it back to 2.4 billion meticais.

Embassies and other diplomatic missions enjoy special treatment. Their budget has increased without stopping since 2014, and will rise again from the current 1,359 to 1,377 million meticais.

Source: O País