By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE government has increased the capital budget allocation for the Ministry of Education and Technical and Vocational Training by over $30 million, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis revealed in the House of Assembly yesterday.

The ministry initially had a capital budget allocation of $41,122,940 for the 2022/23 fiscal year, but it was raised to $79,400,446.

This is due to the government’s supplementary budget funding of $38,277,506.

 Mr Davis, in his mid-year budget communication, addressed the increase, explaining that it was done to fund ongoing school repair projects.

 “When we came into office in September 2021, face-to-face learning had not yet fully returned to schools. The learning loss that resulted from a lack of face-to-face learning was harmful both to students, as well as to national development,” he told parliamentarians yesterday.

“And so, Madam Speaker, we immediately moved to reinstitute face-to-face learning in ways that were safe for both staff and students. While we were very successful in doing so, we were shocked by the deplorable state of school premises left behind by the former administration.”

 He said as a result, his administration embarked on a comprehensive school construction and repair programme.

 “This programme will continue into the next fiscal year, and involves the near-complete rebuilding of some campuses, as well as extensive renovations of others,” he  said.

 “To fund this programme, we have to make adjustments in the budget allocations, and this partially explains the need for the supplementary budget funding of over $30m for the Ministry of Education’s capital budget.”

 He said the move was in line with his government’s plans to invest in education and training.

 Addressing the government’s supplementary appropriations budget, Mr Davis said it would not be possible without the improved revenue performance experienced by his administration.

 He said in the first six months of the fiscal year, revenue exceeded its projections by $79.4m.

 He added: “In addition, the Department of Social Services, Mr (Obie) Wilchcombe identified $8m in an account, let’s put it this way, of unused balances on its accounts at the Bank of The Bahamas and Kanoo. These amounts were for previous years so they had to be transferred to the Consolidated Fund and account for as revenue.

 “In keeping with our conservative approach to managing our fiscal affairs we have only increased our revenue projections for the entire fiscal year, $33m by $53m, which includes the $8m returned by Bank of The Bahamas and Kanoo. The net increase is $45m which is only 56 percent of the excess revenue received by the government.”

 He also clarified the difference in numbers in the Supplementary Appropriation Bill from the budget book.

 “The explanation is easy; the supplementary budget is necessary because we choose to re-allocate the greatest extent possible to meet new obligations. Re-allocated amounts have already been appropriated by the Parliament.

 “In some cases, we have re-allocated between the recurrent and capital budget, hence the difference between the numbers in the Supplementary Appropriation Bill and the Supplementary Book which is being tabled.”