photo credits: Garry Pierre-Pierre
In the Council of Ministers on Friday June 5, 2020, the Moïse / Jouthe administration adopted the new budget for the 2019-2020 fiscal year. The budgetary envelope amounts to 198.7 billion gourdes, an increase of 36.4% compared to the 2017-2018 amending budget of 145.6 billion gourdes which was renewed in 2018-2019. An amount of 139.36 billion gourdes, or 70% of the total, is allocated to operating expenses while the rest of the 59.34 billion (30%) is devoted to investment expenses. With the dysfunction of the Parliament, there was previously no public debate on the allocations and the new budgetary provisions.
The distribution is made between the three powers of the State and the independent bodies in the following way: the executive power holds 94.8% of the total (188.34 billion gourdes), the legislative 3.1% (6.12 billion gourdes) and the judiciary 0.8% (1.58 billion gourdes).
All independent organizations total 1.3% of the budget, for a total of 2.67 billion gourdes. In the latter category, we find the State University of Haiti (UEH) with an envelope of 1.28 billion gourdes, or 0.64% of the budget, including a small amount of 14.13 million gourdes allocated to investments. This is a decrease from the amount of 1.38 billion allocated in the 2017-2018 budget which represented 0.95% of the total at the time.
This means that the UEH will not even be able to index the salary of its staff to inflation in order to allow it to maintain its purchasing power from 2017-2018.
According to the explanatory memorandum, the 2019-2020 budget has the following main objectives: i) the implementation of the Covid-19 crisis response plan; ii) strengthening internal security; iii) the implementation of sectoral actions with quick and tangible results for the rapid return to political and social stability, and to economic recovery; iv) the recovery of public finances marked by underperformance in the mobilization of internal and external resources, and of the significant weight of operating expenditure, debt service and extra-budgetary expenditure such as the subsidization of the price of petroleum products and of the sector electricity. Continue reading.