Parliament’s role is not merely to endorse aggregate totals, but to scrutinise priorities

Dec 23, 2025 Letters

Dear Editor,

My earlier correspondence raised concerns about the concentration of high-value capital procurements at the close of the fiscal year.

A review of the Estimates of Expenditure 2025 now brings sharper focus to whether such allocations reflect deliberate planning priorities or are being driven by calendar pressure.

The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board’s Minutes of 18 December 2025 record the opening of a tender by the Ministry of Home Affairs for the “Procurement and Installation of an Automatic Airflow System (Lots 1–6),” with a bid value of approximately G$2.36 billion. Given the scale of this procurement, it would reasonably be expected to feature clearly and explicitly in the Estimates of Expenditure approved by Parliament.

However, a review of the Estimates of Expenditure 2025, Volume I, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, reveals no capital line item identifying such a project, nor any allocation approaching that magnitude. The ministry’s capital programme lists expenditures for buildings, vehicles, tools, and equipment, but none signal a project of this scope or specificity.

This raises a fundamental issue of public financial management. Capital projects of this size should flow from articulated planning priorities, reflected in the Estimates and, where applicable, the Public Sector Investment Programme. When a major procurement appears only at the tender stage, and at the very end of the fiscal year, it invites the question of whether the project emerged from strategic planning or from the pressure to commit funds before year-end.

Parliament’s role is not merely to endorse aggregate totals, but to scrutinise priorities. That scrutiny is undermined when significant projects are not plainly identifiable at the point of budget approval. Transparency after tenders are opened cannot substitute for transparency during the budget process itself.

These issues must be interrogated when the National Assembly next meets, as part of Parliament’s responsibility to ensure that public funds are committed in accordance with approved plans and clear priorities, rather than the exigencies of the calendar.

Yours faithfully,
Sherod Duncan, M.P

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Estimates of Expenditure, Letters, Parliament, Sherod Duncan

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Parliament’s role is not merely to endorse aggregate totals, but to scrutinise priorities

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