The Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Ken Ofori-Atta, is obviously not a happy man. Whilst the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Members of Parliament (MPs) have filed a Motion of Censure calling for his removal, which is yet to be determined by the Plenary, his own New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs are also threatening to boycott his presentation of the budget.
To the Minority, the heavy domestic and foreign borrowing the government resorted to is what has brought the country to her knees economically, and that the Minister, who supervised the borrowing, is not qualified to be in office. But whether Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta will be censured or not, will be determined when the committee appointed by the Speaker to investigate the issue presents its findings to the Plenary.
Whilst the delay in discussing the Censure Motion may come as a breather to the Finance Minister, the elephant in the room is the presentation of the 2023 Budget, which should come off this week if things go according to plan. With the Majority side threatening to boycott him, and the Minority already pursuing a Censure Motion they have filed against him, it is obvious that Mr. Ofori-Atta will meet an empty Chamber if he goes ahead to present the budget.
Since this will not be a healthy development, The Chronicle is appealing to all the parties to lay down their ‘weapons’ and resort to dialogue in resolving the matter.
The President had already met the Majority side and pleaded with them to allow his Finance Minister to stay in office to supervise the Budget preparation and presentation. The President also thinks since Ofori-Atta is already leading discussions on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, yanking him out of the government at this crucial time will seriously affect the negotiations.
The pleadings of the President clearly indicate that he has no intention of asking Mr. Ofori-Atta to resign now. In the view of The Chronicle, therefore, the Majority side of the House will be exacerbating the situation if they insist on using their parliamentary powers to stop the Minister from reading the Budget.
As the adage goes, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers. If the uncompromising stance both the Majority and Minority sides have taken is allowed to prevail, the budget cannot be read, and should this happen the ordinary man on the street who these politicians are seeking to protect will suffer. This is why we are appealing to both parties to exercise restraint and allow the budget to be read.
We agree that these MPs are fighting for the interest of all Ghanaians, but looking at the present economic situation in the country, The Chronicle is wondering how the ordinary man will survive, should the government fail to present the budget, which contains the economic policy directions and how funds should be disbursed.
Already, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies are suffering because of the government’s inability to transfer all statutory funds due them.
Failure to read the budget will, therefore, mean no statutory payments can be approved for onward transfer to them. This is the crux of the matter, hence our appeal to the MPs to let sanity prevail at the end of the day.
