Bujumbura — The National Assembly has demanded the removal of the extra budgetary accounts mentioned in the draft law governing the 2008 budget.

This demand was made as members of the parliament participated in an oral questions session. The Second Vice-President of the Republic, Gabriel Ntisezerana, who is in charge of the social and economic ministries in President Nkurunziza's government, attended this session of the parliament as a guest.

The Bretton Woods institutions also demanded that the extra budgetary account be stricken from the budget. MPs say that these extra budgetary accounts could be sources of embezzlement which would be very difficult to detect.

Ntisezerana had difficulty answering questions related to the creation of the account of good initiatives as well as those questions pertaining to the disparities in the increase of salaries to civil servants. The draft budget for the moment seems unrealistic in respect to its figures.

The defence and security ministries were apportioned a lion's share of the funding as if the country was making preparations for war. The demobilization of some members of the police and army, which the government recently announced, was seemingly not taken into consideration when the budget was being drawn up.

A government which expects an increase in economic production has decreased the funding allotted to various economically important ministries such as the agriculture, despite the recurrent promises of the head of state that he would do his best to increase agricultural production. The agriculture ministry was allotted 2 percent of the budget instead of 10 percent.