A budget of $150,000 was earlier proposed to fund the inauguration rites, it did not pass in Congress however.
The lawmakers instead passed a continuing resolution which does not earmark a budget for the inauguration ceremonies.President-elect Johnson Toribiong’s camp said it will need at least $180,000 for the celebration to be held in Ngerulmud on January 15, 2009.The Toribiong camp said that if the budget will not be approved then it will finance its own inauguration celebration.The Senate has not scheduled a session yet to discuss pending pieces of legislation that includes the proposed inauguration budget.Earlier President Remengesau blamed lawmakers of politicizing the passage of several pending bills.He said that the Senate did not work on moving things forward because of political considerations.
