The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has opined that the opportunity to present a new 2022 budget cannot be such a bad idea, after all.
The legislator in his opinion stated that apart from incorporating major concerns of the Ghanaian people which the NDC caucus has been re-echoing in Parliament, government should take advantage and tidy up the document.
The MP suggested there were several errors in the budget and it would be prudent for the government to take steps in presenting before the house a new budget.
“For example: It is quite embarrassing that paragraph 85 captures our President’s name wrongly;
Government must have mistakenly failed to include YouStart on the list of Flagship Programmes contained under Appendix 6 at page 272;
Government’s fiscal tables at Appendix 4A do not add up — the figures provided for under the Ministries of Roads and Highways, Education, Local Government, Lands and Natural Resources, Trade and Industry and Office of Government Machinery all require a second look;
Government could take the opportunity of a revised 2022 budget to explain why the promised Cape Coast Airport, the Cape Coast Harbour and the Keta Port do not feature in the list of approved projects for 2022-2024 as presented in Appendices 10B, 10C, 10D and 10E at pages 290-293 of the rejected budget. The neglected Blekusu Coastal Protection Project – Phase 2, has already been well highlighted;
A new 2022 budget could also avoid a lot of the minor interventions which are better left for DCEs to talk about. For instance, see paragraph 509 which reports that the Zongo Development Fund completed 8 institutional toilet facilities, refer to paragraph 503 for donation of 100 tricycles, then paragraph 488 which relates to 80 mechanized water systems (boreholes) completed in 2021 and so on,” he said.
He added: “Government would be well-advised to stop the belligerence and bluster and hurtle in the direction of diligently preparing a new and improved budget and economic policy document for the consideration of the august house. They must necessarily eschew all the “kokotii” and “ahumasuo” for cool heads to prevail.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
