Kinshasa, November 19th, 2021 (CPA).– The lower house of Parliament declared 2022 financial bill admissible, following the vote in the plenary assembly, which took place on Thursday, after the response of the Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde to the concerns raised by the national elected last Monday, during the presentation of this bill.
Said project is sent to ECOFIN commission for an in-depth study. A period of 15 days was also granted to the said commission to present the conclusion of its work to the plenary assembly.
2022 budget bill is estimated at more than 10.3 billion US dollars, an increase of 41.8% compared to 2021 budget.
Sama Lukonde reassures the government’s determination to improve the living conditions of state officials
In addition, responding to questions from elected officials, the Prime Minister reassured the government’s determination to work for the improvement of the living conditions of state officials.
« Your government reaffirms its determination to do everything in its power to improve the living conditions of all social categories of our people, including our valiant police and military », he said.
For the head of government, the most important thing for the country is to consolidate economic growth and the improvement of public revenues in order to create more wealth, which must subsequently be better distributed.
To close this chapter, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde underlined that by virtue of the budgetary authority recognized in Parliament by article 126 of the constitution, the government fully trusts the foresight of the worthy representatives of the people to make choices judicious for this purpose.
Sama Lukonde reiterates the irrevocable nature of free primary education
In front of the elected officials, Sama Lukonde confirmed the irrevocable nature of free primary education, according to the wish expressed by the Head of State during his inauguration.
He informed the national representation that the President of the Republic made free education one of his priorities, stressing that, thanks to the correct application of article 43 of the Constitution, which establishes free education of primary education, « more than 4 million children who were previously out of school, 40% of whom were young girls, have joined the school bench ».
Regarding the long-awaited improvement to cope with the induced effects of this free education, the Prime Minister announced an increase of around 9.16% compared to 2021, in the education sector alone.
« Results of the permanent dialogue with the union ban and other traditional partners », he said, while recalling that the implementation of this measure obviously poses multiple challenges, in particular the support of teachers as well as ‘improvement of the quality and construction of new school infrastructures.
Regarding defense, the Prime Minister indicated that this sector in particular constitutes the third item of expenditure after respectively education and health.
He affirmed that the appropriations allocated to national defense and the maintenance of public order increased by 22% and 32% respectively compared to last year, while reaffirming the will of the national executive to go towards the return to peace and for the development of the country through the decision of the Head of State to place under a state of siege the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu in the grip of insecurity caused by groups armed and terrorists.
For the head of government, it should be added that other expenditure related to the security sector, considered as sovereign expenditure, is executed through other lines of credit housed at the Ministry in charge of Budget, in particular in the framework of common charges, current expenditure and centralized credits.
Regarding the organization of the elections scheduled for 2023, the Prime Minister has indicated that his Government has set aside FC 200 billion on initial forecasts of FC 90 billion for 2021 financial year. However, for 2022 financial year , the government has aligned 500 billion to cover the costs related to the electoral process, and that the national executive waits for the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) to provide it with a concrete plan that will allow the start of the first electoral operations . ACP / Lys
