12 Dec 2006

Chief of staff to Palau's president says 2007 budget needs to be approved

11:24 am on 12 December 2006

The chief of staff to Palau's president says it's 2007 fiscal year budget urgently needs to approved before the end of the year.

Billy Kuartei says the president will meet with congress today to try to pass the budget.

He says the draft 2007 budget was first submitted in July.

"They failed to pass the budget before the end of September came and so they went ahead and put in an interim budget for three months and now we're in to December, and the president still doesn't have a budget to sign before him, so we're having a little meeting with the congress to say 'this is not good'."

Billy Kuartei says time is running out for a budget to be approved, on the eve of upcoming holidays.