Lomé - The Council of Ministers met on Thursday, November 12, 2020 at the Palace of the Presidency in Lomé under the aegis of the Head of State. The work was largely devoted to the examination of the finance bill, management 2021.

Togo's 2021 budget focuses on the budgeting of the commitments of the government's roadmap translated into the general policy statement. It is projected at 1,521.6 billion FCFA in expenses and resources according to the press release having sanctioned the Council of Ministers. This amount represents a decrease of 7.1% compared to the 2020 amending budget which was set at 1,638 billion FCFA.

This finance bill devotes an amount of 445.1 billion FCFA to the social sectors, i.e. an increase of 10.8% compared to the 2020 budget. The relative share of these sectors is 53.7% of budget appropriations against 52.9% in the previous budget, according to the government. At the sectoral level, the orientations of the finance law revolve around the following sectors: agriculture, health, education, energy and water, digital economy and security.

"For this 2021 budget, our country will maintain a prudent budgetary strategy in a context marked by uncertainties born of the Coronavirus pandemic with its unprecedented socio-economic consequences", indicates the press release which specifies that 20 billion FCFA remain elsewhere. mobilized to deal with this situation.

It should be noted that budget revenue fell by 27.1 billion FCFA to settle at 839.6 billion FCFA, a decrease of 3.1% compared to the 2020 budget. A decrease that the executive explains by the drop of 78.6% in program donations.

Furthermore, and due to the crisis, the government is announcing that in 2021 it will further accentuate its policy of reducing state expenditure initiated in 2018. This will be marked by a reduction of 20% made on the operating credits of all ministries and institutions "in order to finance part of the projects and reforms contained in the government's roadmap and meet social needs". An initiative that allows the State to earn some 11 billion FCFA.

According to the government, this draft budget law reflects the implementation of the program budget which materializes, on the one hand, by the deconcentration of the function of ordering and approving public contracts as well as the strengthening of the role of the financial controllers, program managers, planners and monitoring-evaluation for more effectiveness and efficiency in the management of budgetary resources based on results, and on the other hand, by the increased responsibility of these authorizing officers now subject to the rules of public accounting and their accountability to the Court of Auditors.

After its adoption, this bill will be sent to Parliament, which will have to validate it before the end of the year. It should be noted that before the start of the meeting, the Council of Ministers observed a minute of silence in memory of the former Ghanaian President, John Jerry RAWLINGS, who died on Thursday morning in Accra at the age of 73.