Finance places revival of budget transformation as its ‘top priority’

Work of drafting new law finalised

KUWAIT CITY, July 30: Minister of Finance Nayef Al-Hajraf disclosed that the ministry has placed on top of its priorities the revival of budget transformation from bonds and clauses to programs and performance, especially as the current method of preparing budget constitutes an impediment that slows down the wheel of financial and economic reform activities, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily quoting a source said this step is coming in the framework of moving toward restructuring the role of the Ministry of Finance, which is important considering the ministry had been implementing Decree Number 31/1978 concerning regulations governing the preparation of public budget, and monitoring its implementation and final accounts.

With the consistent economic changes experienced in Kuwait at the moment, it is pertinent to restructure the responsibility of the ministry in a way suitable for the anticipated financial and economic reform plans. He indicated restructuring of the role began with the concerned committee in charge of amending the abovestated decree governing budget preparation, which Minister Al-Hajraf chairs. Other members of the committee were drawn from the Public Loan Unit, Kuwait Investment Authority, and the Central Bank of Kuwait.

He noted the committee has finished the initial work of drafting the new law meant to transform the budget into programs and performance, adding it’s ready to be transferred to the Fatwa and Legislation Department, the monitoring authorities, Parliamentary Committee on Budgets and Final Accounts, and Secretariat General of the Supreme Planning Council. The aforementioned authorities will peruse and express opinions before the bill is put in the final shape to be forwarded to the Council of Ministers.