Public finance committee turns spotlight on investment loses
The Follow-up Committee for Public Finance Affairs of the Legislative Assembly (AL) has raised several questions over the way public money is being invested. The committee has sent inquiries on the matter to the government, the president of the committee, lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng said yesterday after a committee meeting at the AL.
The meeting is the first committee meeting of the new legislative year, and was scheduled to analyze the reports of the budget execution of the first half (1H) of 2022 as well as the execution rate of the Government Investment and Development Expenditure Plan (PIDDA) of the second quarter (Q2) of 2022. During the meeting, several lawmakers noted the significant losses resulting from government investments through several public funds.
According to Wong, in the 1H of 2022, government investment plans recorded net losses of about 8.3 billion patacas, she said, noting, “it is the first time this has happened.”
Citing the government report on the question, the lawmaker and president of the committee who monitors the public finances, said that the government explained the loss with reference to the “instability in the international markets.”
She also added that when compared with the same period in 2021, government investments suffered a decline in value of 59.2%.
Leading the drop is the Social Security Fund with MOP7.63B lost as well as the Pensions Fund, which also recorded a significant reduction (MOP1.91B).
A similar result was seen regarding the investments made through the Macau Financial Reserve that lost some MOP17.4B for the same reasons.
“In the report, we have only the big figures so we know how much was lost. But the lawmakers want to know the reasons for such losses in more detail. In the report, it is only said that the losses are related to ‘fluctuations’ and instability in the international markets that have affected the investment portfolio. Besides these details, we [the committee] also want to ask the government if there is any adjustment [to be or has already been] made [to this investment portfolio] to prevent further losses,” Wong said. “We want to hear about the direction that these investments are taking and will take in the future as well as the government’s plans to solve this problem of losses in the value of public funds and reserves,” he added.
