The Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, has said that the entire financial statement and fiscal for the year 2024 is empty.
According to the former deputy minister for finance, the 2024 budget statement would rather worsen the challenges Ghanaians are already facing.
Dr. Ato Forson was commenting on the 2024 financial statement read on the floor by the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Wednesday, November 15.
“Mr. Speaker, let me say that this particular budget is the true definition of an empty budget,” he said to resounding cheers from his side.
He claimed that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had, through the 2024 budget, which was termed “nkunim,” to wit, victory, bid Ghanaians “good bye.”
He moved to rope in the Economic Management Team, and there was mention of the name of the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawmia, as being part of the challenges.
He said that the government was leaving behind a bankrupt and defaulting economy and a budget that is debt-ridden and overtaxed.
He listed several things he claimed would make life unbearable for ordinary Ghanaians, adding that “Mr. Speaker, this is the legacy of this government.”
In a rebuttal, the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, expressed concern over his colleague’s indirect debate of the motion, contrary to Standing Order 143, which says such a motion should not be debated until three days after it has been moved.
However, he was shocked that Dr. Ato Forson could make such remarks about the state of the Ghanaian economy.
He wondered if it was the same person, Ato Forson, who held the position as deputy finance minister under the previous NDC administration, “when the economy was in its worst state.”
Afenyo-Markin, Member of Parliament for Effutu, criticized Ato Forson further, saying, together with his boss, Seth Terpke, that without COVID-19, they could not implement free senior high school.
He argued that the minority was not’morally’ fit to criticize the Akufo-Addo government about the management of the economy, considering the rather bad performance under the NDC.
