AL passes own budget for the coming year

In a parliamentary plenary yesterday, the Legislative Assembly (AL) passed its budget for the fiscal year of 2023. The budget amounted to MOP198,208,000, a reduction of MOP265,000 from the initial budget of 2022.

Compared with the current fiscal year, the parliament will spend less on operations as well as facilities and equipment next year, about MOP1.5 million and MOP740,000 respectively. A smaller sum will be spent on vendor products and services, as well as on construction projects and IT equipment.

More money will be assigned to workforce expenses, given that some of the existing staff will see promotions within the coming year. Subsidies and other regular expenses will be maintained at current levels.

Lawmakers Leong Sun Iok and Lei Leong Wong questioned how it would be ensured that parliamentary staff would receive overtime compensation as deserved. To this, Ieong Soi U, secretary-general of the parliament’s Administrative Council, provided assurance that the allotted sum should be sufficient. In the event that the budgeted amounts were insufficient, a budget overhaul would not be required. Instead, sums from other areas could be adjusted to support extra sums.

The secretary-general also assured that the parliament’s computer systems have either been updated or upgraded this year, so the reduced budget for IT equipment should not impact service quality.

Ieong also disclosed that two members from the parliament’s staff will retire in the coming year. AL