Minority mocks 2016 ‘dead goat budget’
The Minority in Parliament has mocked the 2016 budget delivered in Parliament on Friday by the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper.
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Immediately after the Minister finished reading the budget, the Minority members, who had occasionally interrupted his speech with boos and chants, whipped put placards with the inscription ‘Dead Goat Budget’.
As at the time of writing this report, the Minority was preparing to hold a press conference to express its displeasure with the budget.
In his address, Mr Terkper touted what he said was fine economic performance of the government in what he said was a harsh climate typified by disruptions in gas supplies for over two years and the fall in prices of cocoa, gold and petrol.
He said despite those setbacks, monumental investments had been made in the several sectors of the economy.
"Mr Speaker, these investments have not only provided critical social services to improve the lives of our people, they have resulted in the creation of tens of thousands of jobs for the youth," he said.
In the health sector, the Minister said massive infrastructural development had taken place to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in the country.
“Work is on-going on the construction of new hospitals, including the nearly completed University of Ghana Teaching Hospital and the Ridge Hospital. These will deliver about 6,000 hospital beds by 2017 which will guarantee access to improved healthcare for our people,” he said.
Mr Terkper said 77.5 million gallons of water per day was added to the generation capacity as at the end of July 2015, following the huge investments made in the sector. He said the country’s water generation capacity would increase to 109.7 gallons per day by 2016.
On the education front, the Minister said: “After the success of the ‘Schools Under Trees Programme’, we began the construction of 123 Community Day Senior High Schools (SHS) to provide space for hundreds of thousands of JHS graduates. “
“We have added to the stock, two new functioning universities and implemented many other social interventions in education,” he added.
To address the ongoing power crisis, aka 'dumsor', the Minister said: "We are bringing on stream 845 MW of power to add to the generation capacity by the close of the year and providing the necessary investments and guarantees to permanently address our perennial power generation shortfall."
