News:
March 14, 2021
Misappropriation and misuse of public funds should be blame on the door step of the President and Parliament, Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin said on Sunday, March 14, 2021 at the opening of a three days post budget workshop for Members of Parliament.
According to him it is unfortunate for lawmakers to be seen to be acting as “guard dogs” of the president, and not “watch dogs of the people” during budget debates on the floor of the House and on airwaves.
He added that it is important to look at the challenges lawmakers face in performing their duties in this regard, especially scrutinizing the budget and its approval. There are number of challenges in a thorough review of the budget statement as it requires time in scrutinizing it properly.
And budget should be made sufficiently well in advance at the beginning of the financial year, but in the case of Ghana when the budget is presented to the House, it takes less than one month to consider it and it is then approved by the House.
Again, budget should be evidence base, and there should be available and reliable data that MPs can rely on, when they are deliberating on it, he said. “However, there is limited access to quality information for parliament to rely on for its debate”.
Mr. Speaker gave an example of impact of the budget on women and children, youth and the aged, rural against urban areas and how alien is the budget to national priorities he noted is crucial to the debate and approval of the budget.
“Currently Parliament lacks the ability to independently do analysis of the budget within a short time frame and it is not because lawmakers do not have such capacity, but parliament is rather constrained with constitutional, legal and institutional weakness”.
International best practice, the Speaker noted, requires a minimum of three months to debate and approve budgets by the legislature. It is to be based on meaningful analysis and the budget should be tabled sufficiently in advance of the financial year.
This workshop will offer MPs the opportunity to listen to experts to make informed debate, which should address the aspirations of the people before its approval and scrutiny of the budget should therefore make Ghana better for the country to be in a better position to face the challenges that confront its people
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com