The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, ruled against the minority’s preliminary issue raised ahead of the presentation of the mid-year budget review by the Minister for Finance.
Though the minority had opined that the Finance Minister presenting the fiscal policy review as a statement instead of a motion was against Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act (Act 921), the Speaker thought otherwise and thus ruled against the minority.
“Hon. Members, the said section does not mandate the minister [for finance] to come to the House by motion. It doesn’t. That is not for Parliament to decide how the minister should come to us. It simply says the minister should prepare and submit to parliament a mid-year fiscal policy review, and so it is for us to decide how we want that to be done,” he said.
The Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, had, just before the minister would be called upon, raised concern about the presentation being in the form of a statement instead of a motion.
“If the minister responsible for finance is varying even expenditure line downwards, there will be the need for Parliament to approve it. Mr. Speaker, in case we know for a fact that the [2023] budget was prepared with the assumption that the government was not going to increase wages and salaries, subsequently, the government increased wages and salaries. That clearly means that in the mid-year budget review that the minister is presenting today, there will be an increase in the compensation line,” Ato claimed.
He continued, “Mr. Speaker, he (the Finance Minister) cannot do it unilaterally. Parliament will need to give him permission to spend that money. That is why he should not come to us (the Parliament) with a statement. He should come to us in the form of a motion in line with Section 28 of the PFM Act 9. Mr. Speaker, let them do the right thing.”
In his ruling, Speaker Bagbin guided the House on the issue, reading Section 28 that the minority leader referred to.
The Section reads; 28. (1) The Minister shall, not later than the 31st of July of each financial year, prepare and submit to Parliament a mid-year fiscal policy review.
(2) The mid-year fiscal policy review shall include the following
information: (a) a brief overview of recent macroeconomic developments of Government; (b) an update of macroeconomic forecasts undertaken by Government; (c) an analysis of the total revenue, expenditure and financing performance for a period up to the first six months of the financial year; (d) a presentation of a revised budget outlook for the unexpired term of the financial year, and the implication of the revised budget outlook for the Medium-Term Fiscal and Expenditure Framework if necessary; and
(e) where necessary (i) plans for submitting a proposed supplementary budget for approval by Parliament; and (ii) an overview of the implementation of the annual budget and of the budgets of covered entities.
The Speaker, after reading that section, said, “But clearly, if you look at the import of the section, it refers to those submissions as information.”
He added that if the information submitted is identified as containing a supplementary budget, that needs the approval of parliament.
“That is the law that you have passed,” he told the minority, and he invited the Minister for Finance to present the statement.
