Finance Minister swerves picketing Aggrieved Trained Nurses in Parliament

Some aggrieved trained nurses on Monday picketed at Parliament House ahead of the anticipated presentation of the 2022 Mid-year budget review by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

The unemployed youth say they have now become a burden to their families and are fed up, after three years of sitting at home without any job.

According to them, picketing at the premises of Parliament is their last resort to get government to hear their plea after nearly three years of prolonged silence by their employers.

“We don’t understand why we have accessed the portal together with the diploma and degree students and we are still in the house. The degree holders are at post and the diploma holders too are at post but we are still in the house.

“Right now, we are burdens to our families. Some of them are thinking that we failed our exams, which is not so,” they told JoyNews reporter, Michael Papanii Asharley on Monday.

Mid-year Budget Review

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, was meant to present the 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review for the approval of Parliament.

He was expected to make his first official comments on the decision to seek an IMF bailout after publicly stating that the country would not go to the Bretton Woods institutions for help.

Mr Ofori-Atta was equally expected to provide information on revenue and expenditure in the first half of the year and the country’s current budget deficit figures.

The Finance Minister was scheduled to deliver the address on Wednesday, July 13, but the date was changed due to the negotiations between government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Amid the various expectations shared by stakeholders, the nurses wanted the Minister and the government to consider employing them immediately.

However, contrary to the expectations of all interested stakeholders, Minister Ken Ofori Atta only appeared in Parliament with a statement on the state of the economy, describing it as bad.