Week left for budget motion

(CNS): Government has just over one week left before its legal power to spend money is lost but no date has yet been confirmed for the new PPM administration to bring the necessary government motion to the Legislative Assembly. Having been given the all clear in London last week for an extension to the government’s overdraft facility, it is understood that UK officials have not yet approved a final figure. Although civil service finance bosses have reviewed their expenditure needs for the next four months and attempted to make some reductions, with no time for new policy measures there will be no new revenue generating measures or major cuts.

Facing the lowest revenue collection period of the year, the new government will be earning less than it spends between now and October,and while Mark Simmonds, the OT minister, agreed in principle to an overdraft extension, the new administration will be keen to ensure that the figure covers the anticipated deficit for the forthcoming first quarter of the financial year 2013/14 before it brings the emergency budget to the LA.

At present, sources have speculated that the government is hoping to deliver this first and critical motion on Wednesday, when Marco Archer, the new finance minister, will set out the details of expected spending and earnings and ask for parliament’s support for the motion, which will include a schedule of anticipated spending across core government and, where necessary, government companies and statutory authorities.    

The difficulty faced by the government stems from the discord between the election calendar and the financial year. When the 2004 November election was postponed to May 2005, the subsequent PPM administration could not get the support to extend their time in office to November 2009 and were reluctant to cut their four years short. When the UDP was returned to office in May 2009, despite gaining from the original deferment, McKeeva Bush, the former premier, refused to cut his administration short and would have caused immense controversy had he attempted to extend the time in office instead, as a result of the constitutional limitations.

The political reluctance to cut short any time in power has led to another emergency situation following an election, with a new government faced with no time to prepare a strategic policy statement and then deliver a full new budget. As a result, the PPM will need to bring the emergency motion sometime next week to gain the vote of the LA to keep government open for business until it can deliver its own full 2013/14 budget sometime in October.

During next week’s presentation of the appropriations there will be an opportunity for debate in the LA, including a response to the government’s motion from the opposition benches, and it will be the first time many of the newly elected novice politicians will speak in the parliament. However, there will  be no Finance Committee scrutinizing the appropriations.