CHIEF MINISTER CLARIFIES TREASURY BALANCES

The Treasury has reported provisional/unaudited figures with respect to its balances at year end, that is, 31st December 2002, of some ninety million, one thousand, three hundred and thirty eight dollars ($90,001,338), it was reported here Tuesday.

Chief Minister and Minister of Finance the Honourable Ralph T. O'Neal told the 8th sitting of the 2nd session of the 14th Legislative Council, that of this figure, $44,744,524 represent the current account and $43,946,241 were in the form of certificates of deposit (CD's) with the different banks in the territory.

He said the overall figures also included an amount of $1,310,573 representing the US equivalent of a sterling account with the Crown Agents. "Given the level of appropriations, as evidenced by the 2002 original budget and the two Supplementary Budgets (SAPs) all in 2002, there was a total credit to the capital fund of some $73,782,330," the Finance Minister reported. He said it is customary practice for the Accountant General to transfer these funds from the recurrent budget to the credit of the capital fund on a quarterly basis.

According to him, as at December 31st, 2002, however, the Accountant General had only transferred $21,593,372 from the $73,782,330 appropriated for the entire period.

"Mr. Speaker, the treasury figures show that notwithstanding the fact that we appropriated $73,782,330 to the capital fund from the recurrent budget, only an amount of $36,373,652 were actually spent in 2002 from the said appropriation," the Chief Minister went on to say. "The foregoing would suggest that at the close of business, there was an unspent balance in the capital fund of some $52,188,957 in respect of fiscal year 2002 operations."