Ghana: ‘Ofori-Atta must come before Parliament to re-lay proposed budget modifications’ – Bagbin

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has asked the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to re-lay the proposed budget modifications for MPs consideration.

On his first day of resumption, Mr Bagbin announced that the modifications will have to be laid before Parliament properly.

“My first proposal is for the Minister responsible for finance to come before the House with those modifications specifically captured in the document and known and accepted by the House.”

“Those modifications, amendments and concessions would then be adopted by the House, and the revised document with the estimates will stand committed to the various Committees of Parliament,” he said.

He then asked the Committees to “reconcile the revised estimates with what they have hitherto considered and submit a report for the consideration of the House.”

The Minister had announced some concessions on the 2022 budget at a press conference after the Minority in Parliament raised concerns.

He formally wrote to Parliament while Mr Bagbin was away in Dubai for medical attention, notifying the Acting Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, about the concessions.

He underscored that the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu was wrong to have counted himself to form a quorum in deciding to reverse the rejection of the 2022 budget by the Minority.

“The First Speaker for the period of my unavoidable absence in Parliament was the acting Speaker, and thus all rules and limitations apply to him in a manner that applies to a substantive Speaker.”

“By and large, the reasoning of the First Deputy Speaker outlining the facts that he is not the Speaker [and that] he holds his membership and thus does not lose his privileges as a member when he takes the chair can be said to be correct.

“However, in so far as he takes on the role of the acting Speaker of Parliament, his decision to be counted as part of the numbers forming a quorum raises procedural challenges,” he explained.

Subsequently, Alban Bagbin agreed for a motion to be moved to overturn the rejection of the 2022 budget done by the Minority.

Source: joyonline