A Professor at the University of Ghana, Ransford Gyampo has called for truce in Parliament over the 2022 budget statement which was presented to the House by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta.
Professor Gyampo called for genuine dialogue among Members of Parliament to resolve all the controversial issues surrounding the budget.
In his view, the Minority should not take an entrenched position to frustrate governance. If governance is frustrated, he said, it will affect the entire country, not just the government.
The Majority on the hand, he added, should initiate consultations and reach out to deal with the issues.
Speaking on the Key Points on TV3/3FM Saturday, December 4, with host Dzifa Bampoh, he said “The Minority should not frustrate governance because if governance is frustrated it affects all of us and at the end of the day, because of some rancour, acrimony and tension, budgets do not go through you and I will suffer one way or the other.
“But the Majority must also know that they have a country to govern. The president has a mandate to govern and so the responsibility is more on them to reach out. The Minority has nothing much to lose.
“In fact, theirs is to be able to do some of these gymnastic and theatrics just to make you frustrated, to expose you are the incompetent person in terms of dialogue so that they will feel that will enhance political fortunes, even though I disagree that that necessarily enhances political fortune, but we all have much to lose.
“But the government of the day has a lot to lose if its budget doesn’t go through. We need genuine dialogue, genuine tolerance, genuine consultation and the kind of behind the scenes talking that is frank, honest and candid, not what they are doing here. It doesn’t help the course of democracy, it throws into the very politics that there is tension.”
Meanwhile, a bipartisan parliamentary committee made up of ten lawmakers from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been formed to handle the issues surrounding the 2022 budget statement for the next fiscal year.
Below is the list of the 20-member bipartisan committee:
Majority Caucus
Dan Botwe( Okere)
KT Hammond (Adansi Asokwa)
Patrick Boamah( Okaikwei Central)
Patricia Appiagyei( Asokwa)
Lydia Alhassan( MP, Ayawaso West Wuogon)
Alexander Afenyo Markin( MP, Effutu)
Habid Iddrisu( Tolon)
Frank Annor Dompreh ( Nsawam Addoagyir)
Joe Ghartey (Essikado/ Ketan)
Minority Caucus
Muntaka Mubarak ( Asawase )
Rockson Nelson Dafiamekpor (South Dayi)
Sam George( Ningo Prampram)
James Agalga( Builsa North)
Kwabena Mintah Akando( Juaboso)
Enerst Norgbey(Ashaiman)
Richard Acheampong( Bia East)
Ahmed Ibrahim
Comfort Doyoe-Ghansah
This follows the sharp division that has characterized the approval of the budget.
During deliberations on the floor of the House on Wednesday, December 1, a Former Deputy Attorney General Dr Dominic Ayine asked persons quoting the constitution to support the approval of the 2022 budget to read the constitution as a whole to be able to arrive at a meaningful conclusion.
He said those arguing for the approval of the budget cannot pick and choose aspects of the constitution to support their points.
Otherwise, he said, they will be wrong.
Contributing to a discussion on the budget the Bolgatanga East MP said “We think the decision that was taken yesterday gross undermining of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.”
The Minority in Parliament was seeking to overturn the approval of the budget by the House on Tuesday, November 30, without them.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu in moving a motion to overturn the approval said 137 lawmakers of the Majority could not have taken a decision.
He said they don’t consider Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Wusu (Joewise) who deliberated over proceedings yesterday, as Member of Parliament at the time he was sitting in as speaker hence, that leaves the number present at 137.
It is recalled that immediately after the approval of the budget on Tuesday, Haruna Iddrisu said that the Majority did not have the numbers to enable them to approve the 2022 budget statement.
He said at a press conference in Parliament that as of the time the Majority was taking the decision to approve the budget, they were 137 and not 138.
“The precedent they are setting will haunt them in the future. At the time that they were making the decision, the house was not 137.”
They further rejected the assurance by Finance Ken Ofori-Atta that their concerns in the 2022 budget would be addressed at the committee level.
Haruna Iddrisu said that they wanted their concerns captured in the original budget statement, not to be discussed at the committees’ sittings.
“If you are acknowledging and admitting that there were concessions, let it reflect in the statement” and not a meeting at the committee level.
He further stated that the Minority will oppose to the E-levy proposal in its current any day and anytime.
“We don’t support the E-levy in its current. Our point is to revise it to take care of the ordinary people.”
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had assured them that all the issues they raised against the 2022 Budget, would be addressed at the committee level.
The Minority had raised issues including the request that the budget for Parliament should be raised from GHS510m to GHs1.7bn, issues about the e-levy and others.
Mr Ofori Atta said in Parliament on Tuesday, November 30 that their concerns would be considered.
His comments came just before Parliament approved the 2022budget statement on Tuesday, November 30.
The First Deputy Speaker who sat in for the Speaker said on Tuesday, Joseph Osei Owusu said that “The House has adopted the Financial statement and approved the budget statement for the ensuing year ending 31st December 2021.”
“This house has approved the budget and economic statement,” he stressed.
The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu had asked him to set aside the purported rejection of the 2022 budget statement.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said on the floor of the House on Tuesday, November 30 that the rejection of the budget “did not meet the test established under Article 104,” because Parliament did not have the required numbers to be present in the chamber for purposes of taking decisions.
The minority boycotted the sitting.
Source: 3news.com