Member of parliament of the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party has rated at 5% the APC 2009 budget read few weeks ago in the well of parliament by the minister of finance and economic development.

Hon. Tamba Kaingbanja, in his contribution on the budget debate, said the document was not important and has no base, stressing that the minister needs to go back and rewrite the paper.

"Food security should have been at the top of government's priority rather than electricity. Electricity should not have been the APC government's priority," he said.

Hon. Kaingbanja said the revenue performance for the past one year was abysmal, which according to him, was due to the leakages in revenue collection. He said MPs need to be empowered to track down such outflows of valuable resources.

"We need to sit down and find ways to broaden our revenue base. We need to expand our revenue in the collection of taxes. Low revenue generation has been the main factor for our economic failure," he said, adding that the budget speech in itself was well written but falls short of providing measures as to how the sufferings of the masses could be addressed.

Hon. Kaigbanja said the Wanza deal has no benefit to Sierra Leone, as in his words: "I see no reason why government should pay the Wanza debt. Our economy has dropped down because of the Wanza issue and the Income Electrix deal."

However, Hon. Moses Sesay of the All People's Congress (APC) said the budget speaks on the wishes of the people, and that any budget that does contrary was not important.

"The budget is giving hope to the people. We are going to find ways of improving the revenue base of the country," he assured.