By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE absence of specific spending objectives in the annual Budget makes it difficult to assess whether the $126.5m allocated for climate change and disaster mitigation in 2021-2022 had the desired effect, it was revealed yesterday.

The Ministry of Finance, unveiling its first-ever report on the Government’s climate-related spending, said it was “committed” to assessing the “quantity and quality” of spending in an area that has become a central focus for the Davis administration since it took office in September 2021.

“In 2021-2022, the Government of The Bahamas intended to spend $72.184m or 2.3 percent of its total budget on climate change.

The projected spend on disaster risk management is lower compared to climate change and estimated at $54.392m or 1.7 percent of the total budget,” the report said.

“Environmental protection is the function of government that includes both disaster and climate change management. In the estimates of expenditure for 2021-2022, the Government provided summary budgets by functions of Government. Environmental Protection was allocated $108.909m from the recurrent budget and $9.15m from the capital budget, or a total of $118.079m or approximately 3.7 percent of the total Budget.

“Environmental protection expenditure is, however, more heavily directed at climate change as climate change events can precipitate or lead to natural disasters. Acknowledging weaknesses in its ability to monitor the effectiveness of the Government’s climate-related spending, the Ministry of Finance said this related to the fact that “the presentation of programme objectives in the Budget documentation remains limited”.

“This has hampered the opportunities to use programme information for climate and disaster tagging,” the Ministry of Finance said. “Over the medium term, fiscal policy will focus on, among other things, greater spending on resilience as part of a credible medium-term fiscal plan.

“This first tagging exercise, while not perfect, has provided both the Ministry of Finance and budgetary units with a better understanding of why climate change and disaster risk management expenditures are important for The Bahamas. It has also revealed to respective agencies what can be done to help improve the country’s resilience to climate change and natural hazards, and how important it is for the expenditure to be traceable in the budget and linked to higher-level climate change policies as well as the eventual outcomes of the spend or the anticipated impact. It is expected that Budget submissions in subsequent fiscal years will increase climate change and disaster risk management expenditures.”

The Ministry of Finance, in a statement, added: “In the aftermath of recent climate change related disasters, the Government has implemented climate change and disaster tagging, which is a tool used to monitor and track climate and disaster-related expenditures in the national Budget. It provides comprehensive data on climate change relevant spending, enabling the Government to make informed decisions and prioritise climate and disaster investments.

“This report will inform the Government of the amount of expenditure allocated under both the recurrent and capital budgets to adequately address the effects of climate change and mitigate against future impact. Additionally, climate and disaster relevant expenditure, when traceable in the Budget, will not only inform the development climate change policies but will also gauge the impact of targeted climate spending on climate and disaster resilience.

“Finally, the Climate Spending Report will strengthen accountability and transparency by improving the Government’s ability to account for, monitor, manage, prioritise and report on climate change and disaster resilient spending and investments.” The Davis administration has repeatedly accused its predecessor of failing to account for all its COVID-19 spending as promised.