Minority criticises govt over budget for Chief of Staff
The Minority in Parliament yesterday criticised the government for allocating GH¢132 million to the Office of the Chief of Staff for goods and services for the 2017 financial year when less than GH¢5 million was earmarked for some ministries.
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It said, surprisingly, the allocations to some ministries had been slashed, only for the allocation to the Office of the Chief of Staff to be raised.
Besides, the Minority said the centralisation of projects at the Presidency would render technical civil servants at the various ministries, departments and agencies (MMDAs) redundant, as the projects would be executed at the Presidency.
The Minority MPs, led by the MP for Ketu South and former Minister of Transport, Mr Fifi Fiavi Kwetey, and the MP for Ajumako/Enyan/Essiam and former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Cassiel Ato Forson, made the accusation first on the floor of the House while contributing to the motion for the approval of GH¢1,560,926,672 for the services of the Office of Government Machinery for the 2017 financial year.
They reiterated their points at a press conference held some 30 minutes after the approval of the GH¢1,560,926,672.
Mr Forson repeated the Minority's earlier stance that the total allocation of GH¢1,560,926,672 to the Office of Government Machinery was too high.
He said the allocation to the Presidency was bigger than allocations to all the infrastructure ministries.
Lack of confidence
Mr Kwetey said the Presidency did not have the needed structures and technical experts to execute the numerous projects centred there.
He said the removal of some projects from some ministries to the Presidency suggested that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did not have confidence in his ministers.
He again wondered why the government would slash the budgets of the ministers if, indeed, he wanted to achieve efficiency in government, saying: "It is a bit disincentive to see the movement towards centralisation."
Deception of Ghanaians
Mr Kwetey accused the NPP of deception regarding the one district, one factory and the one village, one dam policies and their allocations.
He said what the government simply did was to allocate $1 million to each constituency from government allocations for capital expenditure.
He said the NPP had taken the country for a ride for making the promises without clarifying how the projects would be funded.
He asked the government to be forthright in the funding arrangements for the one district, one factory and the one village, one dam projects.
Majority's response
But the Majority MPs, led by the MP for Old Tafo and Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, and the MP for New Juaben South and Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, defended the allocation to the Presidency, saying it was to cater for new initiatives and services at new ministries.
Dr Akoto Osei said the President had concentrated his new initiatives in the Office of Government Machinery because he wanted the appointees close to him to implement them to fulfill his promises to Ghanaians.
On the $1 million allocation to the constituencies, he said the money was taken from the allocation for capital expenditure to the constituencies.
He said that was a bottom-up arrangement that would allow people to determine their priority projects.
Some allocations
According to the report of the Finance Committee of Parliament, the budget allocation for goods and services for the Office of the Chief of Staff was GH¢132,178,635; Vice-President Office, GH¢4,625,000; General Administration, GH¢12,885,696; Cabinet Secretariat, GH¢1,725,000; Press Secretariat, GH¢200,000; Council of State, GH¢490,000, and State Protocol, GH¢475,000.
Capital expenditure
Out of the GH¢1,560,926,672 allocated to the Presidency, GH¢992,876,610 had been allocated to finance the one district, one factory with GH¢433,435,120; small business development, GH¢104,786,513; agric inputs, GH¢66,682,326; one village one dam, GH¢89,723,825; water for all projects, GH¢44,561,913; sanitation projects, GH¢44,861,913, and Zongo Development Fund, GH¢208,525,000.