World Bank letter was postive
SIR — I wish to clarify on the context and contents of an article “World Bank warns Suruma on budgetâ€, published by <i>the Daily Monitor </i> of June 17. <br>The article refers to a letter about the 2006/07 budget, written to me by the World Bank Country Manager, Ms. Grace Yabrudy, as the Cha
SIR — I wish to clarify on the context and contents of an article “World Bank warns Suruma on budgetâ€, published by the Daily Monitor of June 17.
The article refers to a letter about the 2006/07 budget, written to me by the World Bank Country Manager, Ms. Grace Yabrudy, as the Chair of the Local Development Partners’ Group, on June 6.
The article gives the impression that the letter was written in response to my budget speech and that the development partners were not supportive of the budget.
I therefore wish to clarify as follows:
The letter was written on June 6, almost a fortnight before I made my budget speech on June 15.
The letter highlights some of the key issues that were mentioned during the Development Partners’ speech at Public Expenditure Review (PER) on May 9. These included:
In this context, I thank the development partners for their support to the 2006/07 budget and look forward to strengthening the dialogue between government and development partners, especially as we implement the Poverty Eradication Action Plan and the Millennium Development Goals in the coming years.
Dr Ezra Suruma
Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
The article refers to a letter about the 2006/07 budget, written to me by the World Bank Country Manager, Ms. Grace Yabrudy, as the Chair of the Local Development Partners’ Group, on June 6.
The article gives the impression that the letter was written in response to my budget speech and that the development partners were not supportive of the budget.
I therefore wish to clarify as follows:
- Economic Development Strategy
- Rural Development Strategy and the Sub-County Development Model
- The Short and Medium-term Energy Strategy
- Value for Money and Governance
- Education Sector Issues
- Programme for the recovery and development of Northern Uganda
- Multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS
- Contrary to the negative impression it may have created, the letter was indeed positive and clearly states that “Based on the discussions, the development partner community is ready to support the 2006/07 budget.â€
- Government carefully considered all these issues raised by the development partners while making the final 2006/07 budget.
We are also continuing with the processes of consultation with development partners, including the World Bank, and other stakeholders as we implement this financial year’s budget.
In this context, I thank the development partners for their support to the 2006/07 budget and look forward to strengthening the dialogue between government and development partners, especially as we implement the Poverty Eradication Action Plan and the Millennium Development Goals in the coming years.
Dr Ezra Suruma
Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development