Budget Debate in Parliament: Minority promises a showdown

The Honourable Member of Parliament for the Agotime-Ziope constituency, Charles Agbeve, has stated that every double figure in the 2020 budget statement and economic policy of the government as presented to parliament recently by the Finance Minister would be thoroughly scrutinized by members on the Minority side.

According to Agbeve, who is a member of the Health Committee of the House, the Minority is going to evaluate every figure on spending item to ensure that the government does not swindle the Ghanaian taxpayer with empty promises.

The Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, presented the 2020 budget statement to parliament on Wednesday, November 13, 2019.

Parliament has scheduled the debate on the budget to start on Monday, November 18. The debate would enable the members from both sides of the House to air their views on the budget and consider the allocations for the various Ministeries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) approval.

In his preliminary comments on the budget ahead of the debate, the lawmaker for the Agotime-Ziope constituency vowed to scrutinize the 2020 national budget amidst reports that the spending outlay contains conflicting figures.

“Whether it is Dam or Factory, we will find out from the budget submitted to us. We will question it and exert every effort to weed out any double suspicious figures from the budget,” Agbeve said.

“We on the minority side are prepared to scrutinize the budget to make sure that every item in the budget is accounted for, for the best interest of the public, not for us lawmakers alone.

“So the scrutiny of the budget will be tough and thorough. In my three years in the House, what I have observed is that oftentimes, the hardest questions and proper scrutiny come from members of the minority.

“But the debates actually is not just the minority’s or majority job but of every member regardless of political affiliation,” Agbeve stated.

While describing the 2020 budget as empty as nothing, the young lawmaker said the minority have a wide array of issues to focus on, such as the inflating of project figures, revenue figures, abandoned health projects, the NHIS, poor roads, and programs, among others.

He said the budget in its totality failed to address key issues facing the people of Ghana and its economy and further described the three year performance of the Akufo-Addo led government as “abysmal.”

Source: Felix Nyaaba || therepublicnewsonline.com