UAE federal budget blown by Dh1bn in 2012, report shows

The report revealed that the Ministry of Justice surpassed its end of service bonus allowance by 2,194 per cent in 2012, and overspent in cash compensation for holidays by 1,062 per cent.

ABU DHABI // Federal ministries and agencies overspent budgets by more than Dh1 billion in 2012, the FNC says.

The report by the FNC finance and economy committee said spending for the year reached Dh46.095bn compared with a budgeted Dh45.085bn.

The Ministry of Justice spent 2,194 per cent more than budgeted on bonuses for staff at the end of their service in 2012, and 1,062 per cent more on payouts for untaken holidays.

The Ministry of Education overspent its end of service bonus allowance by 292 per cent, and spent 50 per cent more than budgeted on clothing allowances.

In December last year, some FNC members were up in arms when 19 government bodies ran up bills totalling Dh1.7bn that had not been included in the budget for 2014.

Obaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, told that meeting that the extra expenses came from unforeseen circumstances.

In a heated debate, Ahmed Al Shamsi of Ajman said: “The ministry explained how there would be no deficits. We were reassured by the ministry. This shows there are shortfalls.”

Mr Al Shamsi said he could not understand how some of the costs – such as an extra Dh750 million for the Etihad Rail network and Dh235m to open six embassies and a consulate – could be unforeseen.

“I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a strategic plan and knows it needs to open this many embassies the following year,” he said. “These are sums that have already been spent. How have they been spent?”

The report tabled on Tuesday also showed that the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs used unspent funds from their 2011 budgets in 2012.

Some entities failed to spend their allocated funds. UAE University was granted an extra Dh40m funding in 2012, “yet the amount of unused funds by the end of the year reached more than Dh52m”, the report said.

The Ministry of Public Works did not use 24.3 per cent of its funds, the Ministry of Energy 11.2 per cent, the Ministry of State for FNC Affairs 15 per cent and the Finance Ministry 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, Mr Al Tayer said on Tuesday that all ministries had handed over their budgets for next year, which were “in the process of preparation and discussion, and would be presented to the financial and economic committee”.

But he would not say if the budget would increase next year.

Under the constitution, submissions should be passed to the FNC by the end of October.