Cabinet has taken radical steps to save the economy from hitting a recession and one of these is to stop capital projects including road construction works funded solely by government. The government is also suspending the procurement on new vehicle and slashing fuel allocations, monthly office imprests and vehicle maintenance cost by 50 percent, according to a release from State House.
Below are the decisions endorsed by cabinet and approved by President Koroma yesterday:
· 30% cut in recurrent expenditure across the board (estimated cost savings Le309 billion from March to September 2016;
· Suspend all domestic finance capital projects and suppliers’ contracts until further notice;
· No new procurement of Government vehicles until further notice;
· No purchase of new office furniture and fittings;
· 50% cut in fuel allocations to all MDAs;
· 50% cut in monthly office imprests;
· 70% of all payments to suppliers/contractors that have foreign components to be effected in Leones;
· 50% cut in DSA for local travels;
· Elimination of overtime payments;
· No purchase of office equipment (computers, printers and photocopiers);
· Restrict all overseas travels and rationalize delegation sizes;
· No top-up allowance for sponsored international travels;
· 50% cut across the board in vehicle maintenance;
· All seminars, retreats and workshops should be held in office facilities;
· Eliminate double payments of pensions and salaries across the board.
The above measures have been extended to March, 2017.
Furthermore, government has approved the following measures aimed at domestic revenue mobilization:
· Start effective implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA);
· Transfer 60% of existing resources including projected revenues of all financially autonomous agencies into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF);
· All business outfits to pay outstanding arrears of taxes within 30 days;
· All commercial banks should transfer monies in transit accounts within 24 hours (strict penalties would apply in the event of failure to comply);
· Minimize discretionary duty waivers and rationalize statutory duty waivers.
Tuesday October 04, 2016
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