Nothing has been cut as yet from the budget

Apr 16, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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No line items have been cut from the 2014 Budget. What has happened is that the opposition parties have signaled their non-approval for certain line items.
The opposition parties have no powers to cut the Budget. What is taking place in the Committee of Supply is scrutiny of the Budget Estimates. By indicating their non-approval, the opposition is signaling to the Minister of Finance that when the time comes for the Appropriations Bill to be presented to the House, it will not give its consent to any such Bill which contains provisions in respect of those line items for which they have expressed non-approval.
The Court has ruled that the opposition has no powers to amend the Budget. They can approve or not approve of the Budget in its entirety when the time comes for the Appropriations Bill to be laid before a reconvened House.
What is taking place in the National Assembly at the moment is that the full house has convened into a committee, known as the Committee of Supply, so as to scrutinize the estimates and to express an opinion on them. The scrutiny takes the form of rigorous grilling of the respective subject Ministers.
These Ministers are afforded the opportunity to justify their proposed estimates. Based on this scrutiny the Committee of Supply as a collective, with the Opposition holding a one-member advantage, expresses an opinion as to whether it approves or does not approve of the estimates.
In the past when the ruling party had a majority, this opinion was a perfunctory exercise. Since the government’s side of the House always had the majority, regardless of what the opposition felt, the provisions would mostly be carried in their original form. This time around the government does not have a majority in the Committee of Supply and therefore votes have to be taken to determine whether the Committee agrees or disagrees with the respective line items.
There is no cutting here. The Court has ruled that the Opposition cannot cut the estimates in the Committee of Supply because this would amount to them preparing their own Estimates and then later approving them.
It is, however, for the Minister of Finance to take into consideration the opinions expressed within the Committee of Supply, and when the House reconvenes, to lay before the House the Appropriations Bill for the fiscal year, having given due consideration to the views of the Committee of Supply.
The government is most likely going to, at the first go, present an Appropriations Bill which will contain the Estimates as originally provided for in the Budget. There will in this original submission be some amendments in terms of structure, since the  government has already consented to a demand from the Opposition to have the judiciary receive a lump sum subvention, rather than be treated as Budget agency.
This is a noteworthy compromise. It shows that the government is willing to stand on principle, in so far as constitutional organs are concerned. The Opposition had long been pressing for these constitutional agencies to be given subventions rather than be treated, for budgetary proposes, as Budget agencies.
When the first Appropriations Bill is submitted, it is therefore likely to be somewhat different, structurally, from the Estimates laid in the House, because there has been a promise to make the adjustments to ensure that the judiciary receives a subvention instead of being treated as Budget agency.
The government is, however, not likely in the first instance to change anything else, because to do so would be to give recognition to the powers to cut the Budget, powers which the Court has indicated are not reposed in the Opposition.
Since the Appropriations Bill is then likely to be not approved, this will then lead to negotiations by the parties and it is from these negotiations that the Minister will have to come up with an Appropriations Bill that will receive the approval of the House.
What is taking place these past two weeks in the Committee of Supply is the mere build-up to negotiations. It is emerging out of those negotiations that the Minister will have to decide how best he can tweak his numbers so that it will enjoy support from the House.
We have not reached that stage as yet. And most definitely nothing has been cut as yet.  It is not for the opposition to cut. It has no such powers. It is for the Minister of Finance to cut so that he can have an Appropriations Bill that enjoys the support of the majority of members of the House.
You may ask what happens if the Minister of Finance cannot come up with an Appropriations Bill that will enjoy the approval of the majority of the House. If this happens, we will have what is known as a fiscal cliff.

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