Parliament has given the nod to the government’s request for GHS11.8 billion in supplementary estimates for the 2020 financial year.
This was done after three days of scrutiny and debates among members of the House. Before the approval, the Minority raised questions of accountability over the use of the resources in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu in the House on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, said, “Mr Speaker, we heard about Agenda 111.
The President himself said Agenda 88. So who should we believe? And this is not the first time.
The President did well commissioning the Eastern Regional Hospital but to the credit of the NDC.
The Upper West, Central, Brong Ahafo regional hospitals were all infrastructure undertaken by the previous NDC government.” In response to the concerns, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, outlined the areas of expenditure for the funds approved by Parliament for the management of COVID-19.
Government projections for the 2020 financial year have largely been affected by the economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic, but it hopes to restrategize to generate more revenue to revamp the economy.
It is for this reason that it put before Parliament a request for a supplementary budget of GHS11.8 billion to support its expenditure for the rest of the year.
The Finance Minister, during the mid-year budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday, July 23, 2020, said the supplementary budget is to assist the government to implement various initiatives to strengthen various sectors of the economy due to the revenue shortfalls and budget deficit created by the impact of the pandemic.
Despite the government’s optimistic outlook, some Minority legislators have accused the government of not giving the true state of the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
