House begins debate on mid-year budget today

Page 24, Aug 27, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
DEBATE on the mid-year review of the budget statement and supplementary estimates for 2009 presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning will begin today.
Already, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has referred the document to the Finance Committee for consideration and report.
The nominations of three Justices of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court by the President, have also been referred to the Appointments Committee for consideration and report.
They are Mr Justice Benjamin Teiko Aryeetey, Mr Justice Nasiru Sulemana Gbadegbe and Ms Justice Vida Akoto-Bamfo.
Last Tuesday, the government sought the approval of the House to spend approximately GH¢253 million additional resources to shore up its general expenditure.
If comments by some members of the Minority are anything to go by, then the debate, which may last for only two days, will be uncompromising.
They were apparently unhappy about what they termed as “the politicisation of the supplementary estimates”. Some of them chastised the minister for painting a good picture of the economic performance of the government.
To them, Ghanaians were the best judges of the economic performance of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government over the past eight months.
Speaking to journalists soon after the presentation of the review, a former Deputy Minister of Finance in the Kufuor administration, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Dormaa West, noted that the government was not spending, thus creating hardships among the people.
He said the government did not have a clear policy direction on how to manage the economy, eight months into assuming the reins of government. “What the government is doing is only to collect taxes."
The NPP MP for Wenchi, who is also a former Deputy Minister of Finance, Professor George Yaw Gyang-Baffour, stated that all the figures that painted a good picture of the economy were not true.
“His figures are not in the marketplace,” he said, explaining that the depreciation of the cedi and inflation were all there for Ghanaians to see.
Responding to the criticisms of the Minority, the Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament and NDC MP for Ketu North, Mr James Klutse Avedzi, said measures being taken by the government were all appropriate to fix the battered economy it inherited.
He explained that while efforts were being made to generate more revenue, the government had also reduced its spending to meet its economic targets.
Mr Avedzi said the government was now focussing on agriculture to increase production in order to improve on the economic performance of the country.
He added that the prudent handling of the economy was beginning to show and called on the revenue collection agencies to do more to meet their targets to enable the government to implement its projects.
Meanwhile the House yesterday paid tribute to the former MP for Chereponi, the late Doris Asibi Seidu, who died on Saturday, August 1, 2009 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and was buried at Chereponi on August 10, 2009.
In a tribute, the MP for Tarkwa/Nsuaem, Mrs Gifty Kusi, acknowledged the contribution of the late MP to the development of her constituency.
“We acknowledge the pains you had gone through for the past five years to bring joy to children, women and men in your constituency. You were a catalyst ordained by the Almighty to make all equations to balance for them,” she stated.
She said it was unfortunate that the number of women MPs which was reduced from 25 in the previous Parliament to 20 in the current Parliament had further been reduced to 19 through the untimely death of the MP.
Contributing to the statement, the Deputy Minority Leader, Mr Ambrose Dery, advocated the proportional representation method to increase the number of women in Parliament, explaining that the present arrangement did not augur well for women representation.
He said the contribution of the late MP to the development of her constituency should be enough proof to people in the three northern regions that women could do better when given equal opportunities.
The Majority Leader, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, said the House shared in the grief and pain of the bereaved family and called for an incident-free by-election to honour the MP, who he described as “a cool and peaceful person”.