Shura Council members yesterday approved the closing government financial statements for 2017 and 2018.

Answers were sought in November over excessive government borrowing despite huge savings in 2017 and 2018.

Shura Council first vice-chairman Jamal Fakhro claimed then that the government had borrowed BD1.3 billion “unnecessarily” – BD530 million in 2017 and BD805m in 2018.

During yesterday’s weekly session of the upper chamber, Finance and National Economy Ministry officials said that money, mainly from project budgets, was being circulated from one year to the next if it wasn’t used.

PostponedThey added that the amounts borrowed in 2017 and 2018 were in line with proper procedures to manage the deficit in the budget.

Meanwhile, a debate on the closing budget statement of the Future Generations Fund for both years was postponed due to no-show by officials concerned.

The two statements were also postponed in November as Shura members demanded clear policies on investing funds.

The fund sees $1 saved from every exported or sold oil barrel on the condition market prices are not lower than $40 per barrel.

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