Haiti - Economy : Uncertainties on the next budget 2010-2011
Nenel Cassy, the president of the Finance Committee of the Senate, estimates that the absence of the chamber of deputies will complicate the respect of the procedure of analysis of the draft budget for the fiscal year 2010-2011 which must begin on October 1st. Recalling that the lower house is dysfunctional since May and that the study of the draft law of the budget requires the presence of the two rooms, which is likely to complicate the respect of the procedure.
He recalls that the emergency law does not give to the government the right to make the budget alone, stressing that, the only thing the government can do is to amend certain sections of the existing budget by making such reallocations. Indicating that so far the government has not submitted any draft budget to the Senate.
For its part, the economist Eddy Labossière, president of the Haitian Association of Economists (Association Haïtienne des Economistes AHE), believes that this is not the absence of the lower house will prevent the Government to submit to parliament the draft budget. Stressing "in normal times, when both houses of parliament work, the government never managed to submit its draft budget at time [...] for the next exercise we will not have a legal and constitutional budget" says the economist who believes that "is the budget for the current year that will be renewed" adding that "the government may even claim the right to revise upwards and apply it without any parliamentary approval [...] is the logic of the bad practices of Haitian leaders"
