News:
December 20, 2022
Parliament has urged the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori Atta to support the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation to pay what the Committee has described as a legal debt to the tune of GH¢ 51,598,085 as the house acknowledged the precarious financial circumstances of the Information Ministry and its other agencies under it.
While encouraging GBC to vigorously pursue its revenue mobilization agenda to support its activities, “the Committee urges the Ministry of Finance to provide additional funds to clear the legacy debt and to meet the Corporation’s investment expenditure shortfall”.
This came to light when the MPs debate the report of the Committee on Communication on Annual Budget Estimate of the Ministry of information for the year ending 31st December 2023.
The Committee observed “the prevalent funding challenges facing GBC” and that, the underfunding of the operations of the state broadcaster has not only undermined its capacity but has caused the Corporation to contend with huge legacy debts arising from Judgement Debts, Electricity Bills and Long Service Awards.
The report revealed that, despite the frantic efforts of GBC to pay its debt, “it is still battling with a legacy debt of (GH¢51,598,085).
The funding capacity of GBC would worsen in view of the meagre allocation made to the Corporation for its investment activities in 2023”.
The report said, “Officials of the Corporation informed the Committee that though GBC requested an amount GH¢7,412,088.02 to meet its investment expenditure in 2023, an amount of GH¢4,769,893.32 has been approved by the Ministry of Finance for that purpose”.
In a related development, The Informed Ministry has planned to spearhead the passing of the Broadcasting Bill in 2023 to introduce broadcasting standards towards bringing sanity and professionalism in Ghana’s media space.
It has also planned to facilitate the passing of subsidiary legislation under the Right To Information (RTI) Act to enhance the implementation of the law.
The Committee however urged the Ministry to prioritize the passing of these two important legislations in 2023 in order to restore some level of sanity to the broadcasting industry.
The House to adopted the Committee’s and therefore approved the sum of One Hundred and Fourteen Million, Seven Hundred and Eighty Thousand, Three Hundred and Thirty-One Ghana Cedis (GH¢114,780,331) for the implementation of programmes of the Ministry of Information for the 2023 Financial Year.
Ghanamps.com