The government reduced the civilian emergency fund in the budget although the country is facing more natural catastrophes.
Official data from the Ministry of Finances show that the budget has only 144.9 million ALL for 2016, from 779 million that it was one year ago. Data show that the funding for civilian emergencies have dropped year after year.
The civilian emergency fund is the first financial mechanism used to assist families affected by catastrophes. If this fund is not enough, the budget has another element for helping and paying the affected families, the contingence fund, but that has been cut too.
The government has set aside 3 billion ALL, or 0.2% of the GDP for the contingence fund. Official data from the Ministry of Finances show that this is the lowest level of budget contingences in the past eight months.
In the past, this fund has been 4 billion ALL, or 40 million USD.
Besides the financial aid for emergencies, the contingence fund is the guarantee that saves the budget from unpredicted spending. If the floods will make the government touch this fund, the budget remains exposed in the months to come not only to natural catastrophes, but also in case the government fails to collect taxes as planned.
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