Debate on budget turns chaotic

Page 55, Nov 26, 2009
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
CHAOS and confusion characterised the atmosphere in Parliament yesterday as the House began debate on the 2010 Budget and Financial Policy of the government which was presented by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, to the House last week Wednesday.
So rowdy was the situation that it became very difficult for the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, to control the debate, since members from both sides of the House would not keep quiet for the listening public to make their informed judgement.
The presence of a Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Fiifi Kwetey, also seemed to have rekindled the bad blood that existed between him and the Minority, as his explanation of a statement he had made on an Accra-based radio station seemed to make the already charged atmosphere worse.
In his submission, the Ranking Member of Finance, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, was not happy with Mr Kwetey’s description of the 2008 GDP growth of 7.3 per cent as cocaine-induced growth.
When he was given the chance to explain his assertion, the deputy minister explained that what he had said on the radio station was metaphorical.
He said he had compared the 2008 growth rate to an athlete who had taken cocaine and steroids to assist him to ran a race, explaining that such growth was not sustainable.
In his bid to explain himself, Mr Kwetey wondered why Dr Akoto Osei, who is also the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, could not understand such a metaphorical statement.
That assertion inflamed passions and brought all the members on the Minority side to their feet. It took tact on the part of the Majority Leader and Mr Adjaho to prevail on Mr Kwetey to withdraw and apologise for his statement, which was deemed “unparliamentary”.
Even after the House had adjourned and the First Deputy Speaker was being led out of the Chamber, the Minority back benchers were still banging their desks and shouting, “We want Madam Speaker; we want Madam Speaker.”
Their counterparts on the Majority side responded with shouts of “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
In the end, only two people, one from each side, instead of the expected three from each side, were able to contribute to the debate during the first day.
Contributing to the debate, Dr Akoto Osei accused the government for failing to provide end-of-year figures of the 2009 budget in the 2010 budget, explaining that that had deliberately been done.
He also referred to revenue figures in the 2009 budget and said it was unfortunate that revenue targets had not been achieved and asked Ghanaians to inquire from the government whether that was the better Ghana that had been promised them by the NDC during the 2008 electioneering.
Dr Akotoi Osei’s contribution, which was expected to have lasted for 15 minutes, lasted one hour due to heckling and the noisy atmosphere in the House.
When he took his turn, the NDC MP for Anlo, Mr Clement Kofi Humado, accused the past government for running down the economy and leaving a huge deficit behind.
He said the NDC put in a lot of measures this year to enable it to make meaningful gains, compared to those of the previous government.
Mr Humado’s description was also met with a lot of heckling and he could not complete his submission before Mr Adjaho adjourned sitting.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic after the sitting, the Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, described the situation in the House as not the best and stated that measures would be taken to ensure a lively debate today.
He said the leadership of the House would prevail on the Speaker not to allow points of order during subsequent debates, in addition to ordering the marshal to drive away members who disturbed outside the chamber.