Contact Address:
Ministry
of Finance
& Economic Affairs
Banjul capital office
(MOFEA) The Quadrangle
The Gambia, West Africa
Tel no: 4227529 / 4227221
Fax: 4227954
Email: info@mof.gov.gm
Director of National Treasury, T./Fx: 4227286
IFMIS Project Manager, T. 4228912 / 4228984
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Background Information:
In The Gambia, MOFEA is the finance ministry responsible
for the national budget. The budget process begins
each June with the ‘Call Circular’ in which the MOF
outlines the economic forecast against which budget
ceilings are allocated to sectors/departments for both
recurrent and development expenditures.
Following the distribution of the call circular, departments
prepare their budget proposals for submission and discussion
at meetings with the MOFEA, where they try to justify
and argue for their budget proposals. These bilateral
meetings are attended by budget and planning and officials.
Sectors also defend their manpower budget proposals
at the Personnel Management Office (PMO) for the approval
of newly created staff positions.
At the conclusion of the bilateral meetings, the MOFEA
compiles the ‘Revenue and Expenditure Estimates’ and
submits a draft to Cabinet for its scrutiny and approval.
A second draft incorporating Cabinet comments is then
submitted to the National
Assembly for scrutiny and approval. The Secretary
of State for Finance and Economic Affairs presents the
Appropriation Bill before parliament. As in the UK,
Parliament’s role has largely been to rubberstamp executive
draft budgets without any alterations.
Once the budget has been approved by parliament, its
implementation takes effect at the start of the fiscal
year in January and the MOFEA appropriates revenue to
sectors for that year's spending. The Permanent Secretaries
are the responsible Accounting Officers charged with
the control and execution of departmental expenditure.
The department has overall supervisory role of the Central
Bank. |