Examine budget critically-Minister of Finance appeals to MPs

Frontpage, March 9, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah & Daniel Nkrumah
THE Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, has urged MPs from both sides of the political divide to critically examine the 2009 budget and provide useful suggestions for its effective implementation.
“I implore all of you to make time to read the budget and suggest alternatives or better ways you think we can implement it,” he told the MPs at a budget review workshop for Parliament in Accra last Saturday.
The minister stated that the country was facing some economic challenges and needed the contributions and constructive criticisms of all MPs in order to make life better for Ghanaians.
“We need all of you on board as we tackle these economic challenges,” he told the MPs, adding, “I believe we can surmount these economic challenges if we work together.”
He said since there was only a slim majority in Parliament, it was important for the MPs to work in the true spirit of collaboration.
The minister stated that the President had expressed his intention to reduce government expenditure and gone ahead to reduce the number of cars in his motorcade, the number of officials on foreign trips and the number of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Dr Duffuor added that the President had also indicated his intention to reduce State Protocol budget for official travels of all MDAs, as well as that for official seminars and workshops.
“I would be grateful if Parliament will, this year, as part of its oversight responsibility, monitor the expenditure of the MDAs to help the government to achieve this objective. Please help us to fight waste in the system,” he said.
The Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo, in a speech read on her behalf by the Second Deputy Speaker, Professor Mike Oquaye, said Parliament had the prime duty of monitoring public expenditure to ensure that moneys were authorised and used for their intended purposes.
She said the ripples of shrinking economies of the developed world were gradually being felt in the Ghanaian economy and that as a result of that the public would have great interest in Parliament’s debate of the 2009 budget.
She advised the MPs to take advantage of the workshop to obtain an insightful examination on the perspectives of the 2009 budget.
The Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, said the workshop had proved useful over the years.
“In the past five years, through this forum the leadership of parliamentary committees had interacted with resource persons outside Parliament and the Executive, as well as the MDAs, on the annual budgets and economic policy statements of the government,” he explained.
The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said his side would criticise and offer suggestions not to destroy the intentions of the government, as contained in the budget, but assist in their achievement.
He reiterated the need for consensus building and called on the Majority to reciprocate such a gesture from the Minority.
The In-Country Co-ordinator of the Parliamentary Centre, Ms Marilyn Aniwa, said the centre, in partnership with the Parliament of Ghana, and under the Ghana Parliamentary Committee Support Project, had, over the past six years, organised a series of post-budget workshops to help parliamentary leadership to review the government’s budget and economic policy statement.
“The partnership with the Parliament of Ghana is based on the centre’s belief that vigorous and continuous parliamentary scrutiny and oversight of the budget process is at the heart of qualitative Executive-Legislative relations,” she stated.