News:
Rt. Hon Speaker
December 20, 2022
The Ministry of Finance has been directed to ensure the release of the full 2023 budgetary estimate Parliament has approved for the Ministry of Defence to enable the security agencies to discharge their mandate.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin who gave the directive prior to the approval of the 3.742 billion budget estimate for the Ministry of Defence noted that partially releasing the approved budget for the ministry undermines the security agencies’ capacity to protect the safety and security of the individual and community as well as the stability of the country, which could not be toiled with by the Defence Ministry.
According to him, his (Speaker) checks from the Defence Ministry and the Controller and Accountant-General Department clearly indicated that the security agencies are one of the priority areas of the government but that was not was reflected in the performance of 2022.
The Speaker said he felt sad when he read and saw that approximately 81 percent of the budget on goods and services has not been released to the Ministry of Defence.
“In this current situation, how do you expect them to operate; it is not for this House to continue to appeal to the Ministry of Finance to release approved budget,” he said
The budget is meant for the implementation of the programmes and activities of the ministry for the 2023 financial year. “We are in charge, we legislate and pass the laws on taxation and Ministry of Finance are to implement; if they are failing to do it, we have to take them on and not to be appealing to them, he added.
“I cannot understand this particularly how the Defence Ministry and sister ministers are struggling with the safety of the Ghanaian and we know what is happening in the sub-region. I think that we should take this as the last occasion where we tolerate it from the Ministry of Finance; we do not want to have this repeated again,” the Speaker emphasized.
The Speaker’s comments were in direct response to Mr. Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, Member of Parliament for South Dayi who in his contribution towards the approval of the budgetary estimate for the Defence Ministry observed that even though the approved budget which was later revised to GH¢141 million as capital expenditure for the Ministry of Defence but later revised from GH¢196 million, as of September when the budget was referred, the ministry had received only GH¢89 million; and added that “this is a very serious matter considering the accommodation difficulties that men in uniform are facing within the army, we should not toil with their budgetary allocation.
He was not happy that every year they (parliamentarians) stand on the floor and say that they are pleading with the Ministry of Finance; “we should stop pleading and demand”.
“Mr Speaker, when they collect the tax, they use the law to do so and they come here to make allocation and we give approval, we should not be pleading with the Ministry of Finance to release money.
How do you expect the army to work well if what they require in 2022 you cannot release all to them?”
He also noted that the Defence Ministry was making “heavy demand” for 2023 especially in relation to compensation, However, while the compensation for the ministry last year was GH¢1.8 billion, it was revised to GH¢1.4 billion as of September.
The ministry was demanding over GH3billion as compensation alone for this year; “and so, if we are experiencing shortfalls in CAPEX releases I fear what will happen in 2023 in respect of releases and the Ministry of Finance must pay attention to releases to the Defence Ministry,” he stated.
Ghanamps.com