Emergency budget for Khartoum State

Sudan Events – Rehab Abdullah

The Khartoum State Government discussed in a meeting today (Sunday) headed by the Governor of Khartoum, Ahmed Othman, the emergency budget proposals for the fiscal 2024, presented by the Director General of the Ministry of Finance, Ms. Nawal Bashir.
Bashir explained that the budget was prepared according to the directives received from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the most notable of which is that the budget is unconventional and focuses on mobilizing internal resources.
She also said that it is a flexible budget, amendable every three months.
The budget was classified according to specific priorities, and the meeting decided that the explanatory memorandum should include the data that prepared the budget proposals and discussed them with the federal government in accordance with the current situation as the states most affected by the war. It was decided to keep the revenues of the 2023 budget as it is and to keep the accompanying laws approved in the year 2023 with increasing expenditures by focusing on increasing the allocations of necessary services, health, water, education, infrastructure rehabilitation, and anticipating any developments in light of the current crisis and the ongoing war.
The meeting confirmed that the war has completely paralyzed work in the state, and the meeting saluted the cadres who exposed themselves to dangers and continued to work under compelling circumstances, praying for mercy on those who were martyred at their work sites, targeted in their homes, and who were forced to work in service facilities.
During the meeting, a lengthy discussion took place in light of Khartoum State losing all the resources it relied on to finance the budget, with the lack of opportunities to estimate revenues and the absence of a vision for the future of the situation as the war continues.
The meeting confirmed the effort with the federal government to pay the 7-month arrears of salaries of workers in the state and the necessity of paying them before the end of the current year.
The meeting directed the state units to begin developing a vision for the post-war period by preparing studies to rebuild what was destroyed by the war.