San-Pedro - The Regional Council of San-Pedro recorded a low level of execution of its initial budget for the 2020 financial year, at the end of the first half, below expectations, according to the state of execution presented, the Friday, July 24, 2020, at the second session of the said Council.

The statement of execution presented by the director of financial and accounting services, Mrs. Touboui Amelé Marie-Laure, indicates a low level of execution of expenditure as of June 30. Only 252,688,158 FCFA were executed for operating expenses on a forecast of 1,396,278,000 FCFA and 187,000,016 FCFA for investments on a budget of which amounts to 3,998,127,000 FCFA.

During this period of the first half, operating expenses were mainly devoted to personnel expenses and departmental operating expenses. As for investment expenditures, they are limited here to the equipment of community services.

Over the period, 540,054,372 FCFA were recovered as operating revenue (i.e. a rate of 38.68% of the budget). This low recovery rate is due to the fact that the regional council's budget is based on the one hand on state subsidies not yet recovered and on the other hand on the restriction of economic activities linked to the health crisis of COVID-19. , explained Ms. Touboui.

As investment revenue, the sum of CFAF 2,918,453,000 (i.e. a rate of 72.99% of the investment budget) was recovered.

The President of the Regional Council, Beugré Donatien, indicated that the state of execution of the 2020 budget did not meet expectations because this budget was validated in April. We can say that now is when we start to execute the budget, he explained.

He underlines that this delay forces his team to move very quickly to do the maximum during this last half of the year.

“The State is doing what it can and we must also do our part,” he concluded, hoping for a fairly convincing level of budget execution at the end of the financial year.

The initial budget for the 2020 financial year is balanced in revenue and expenditure at 5,344,405,000 FCFA, of which 3,998,127,000 FCFA granted for investment and 1,346,278,000 FCFA for operation.

This year, the focus is on building markets across the region to increase the Regional Council's own resources through taxes. Hydraulics are also at the center of priorities with the construction of 10 new village pumps and the rehabilitation of 100 others planned.