For the second day in a row, the absence of a quorum caused the Parliamentary Budgets Committee caused the failure of a meeting, which was scheduled to vote on the 45 supplementary and independent budgets, while the open parliamentary sit-in continued within the National Assembly.
But not approving the budgets means termination of the session, and what are the consequences of not approving them? A local Arabic daily quoting parliamentary sources, confirmed that “the scenario of the last session is on its way to repetition, even if the method is different,” explaining that in the last session, the representatives occupied the ministerial chairs and disrupted budget sessions, and this year the quorum hinders voting on budgets, even if the committee’s quorum can be completed.
The sources said: “In the event that budgets don’t get the OK, the interests of citizens at various levels will be harmed, and the greatest damage is represented in not approving the budget of ministries, government departments, and related institutions and independent institutions for the current fiscal year, because failure to approve will lead to the suspension of sessions until the next session, which affects the budgets, especially new appointments, promotions, allowances and bonuses, in addition to the fact that failure to approve budgets will automatically be reflected in the freezing of scholarships, treatment abroad, housing loans and other related matters.
In the same context, the head of the Budget Committee, MP Adnan Abdel Samad, said: “We were supposed to finish and submit the reports on June 20, but it seems that we will be late as a result of lack of quorum, and we do not want what happened in the previous session to be repeated by withdrawing the report from the committee and approving budgets received from the government, while there are important adjustments made by the committee for the benefit of citizens.
He pointed out that the amendments requested by the committee from the Ministry of Finance, regarding the state’s general budget, arrived, as discussed by the technical office, and accordingly, the state’s general budget is almost finished, everything is ready within the budgets committee and only needs to vote.
