The Minority in Parliament has said that they expect the government to embark on major expenditure cuts to achieve fiscal consolidation.
According to them, the size of government must be reduced drastically.
“We demand responsible spending,” their leader, Haruna Iddrisu said at a press conference in Parliament on Monday December 5 while speaking on the 2023 budget statement.
He added “We will not accept the outrageous GHC1.4billion allocation as contingency vote contained at page 209 of the 2023 Budget statement. We note that, this allocation is an additional GHC400million compared with last year’s allocation of GHC993million. This cannot be happening in a period of austerity.”
They are also opposed to an allocation of GHS10 million for what has been strangely described as Defense Advisory Services.
“We also strongly denounce plans to increase the staff strength at the Office of Government Machinery by a staggering 1,570 at Page 230 of the 2023 Budget. This will increase total staff strength at the OGM to 3,681.
“This is unconscionable at a time Government has announced a total freeze in public sector jobs. If ever there was proof that this government has lost its way and shown itself unworthy of the trust of the people of Ghana, this would be it.”
“We in the Minority wish to make it very clear, that if we do not see significant improvement in the attitude of the Majority side and sector Ministers do not turn up to lead the Budget process on their sectors, we will withdraw from the Budget process.
“We will no longer countenance this embarrassing gross dereliction of duty to the people of Ghana.”
On the Budget itself, he said “we note that far from offering hope and assurance of a quick turn-around in our gloomy economic situation, it is packed with measures that will exacerbate the suffering we are already enduring.
“We also note that no lesson has been learnt on how reckless and unrestrained expenditure have undermined the Ghanaian economy. The 2023 Budget continues on the same spending trajectory that has led to our collective economic doom.
“Instead of cutting down on non-essential expenditure, we have rather seen an increase with additional spending of up to GHS 82 billion. Some of the envisaged expenditure items are entirely wasteful and needless.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana
Read Full Story
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
Instagram
Google+
YouTube
LinkedIn
RSS