Government Expenditure drops by $34.7 million

By Lagi Keresoma

APIA, SAMOA – 04 OCTOBER 2022: As of last month, the Bureau of Statistics recorded $34.7 million (4.6%) decrease in Government’s expenditure of $718.8 million compared to the Financial Year 2020/2021.

“This reflects the decline in acquisition of non-financial assets by 74.5% from $74.3 million in FY 2020/21 to $18.9 million for FY 2021/22,” stated the report.

The drop in expenses is due to the completion of the Government’s three major projects, the Museum, the Waterfront project and the Faleolo Airport.

The three projects operating expenses in the Financial Year 2021/2022 amounted to $699.8 million and it increased by $20.7 million (3.0%) compared to the previous fiscal year.

The report noted that four of the seven components of expenses increased, contributing to this growth.

The compensation of employees went up to $13.6 million totalling expenses on a year-on-year basis to $281.5 million in the Financial Year 2021/2022.

The amount of grants allocated to other Government units also increased by $19.9 million (12.5%) totalling $178.9 million.

Government Expenditure by Function for the Financial Year 2021/2022 recorded a drop of $30.2 million (4.0%) with a new total of $723.3 million compared to the Financial Year 2020/2021.

“Of this amount, the four main sectors which the government invested most of its resources on were General Public Services, Education, Economic Affairs and Health.”

Public Order & Safety Sector Expenditure increased
There was an increase of $7.0 million to the Public Order and Safety Sector Expenditure bringing the total to $64.8 million compared to the previous year.

It is recorded that the Police Service and Court sustained the majority of spending at $17.7 million and $18.4 million.

“Of all components under this sector, only Prisons had a decrease in expenditure by 11.0% in the year under review compared to the FY 2020/2021,” stated the report.