A crucial meeting is scheduled to take place between the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta and Parliament on Friday, July 28, 2023 ahead of the mid-year budget review on Monday.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, who announced this to the House during proceedings on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 said the meeting was the decision of the leadership and the Finance Ministry.
“We will sit on Thursday and on Friday, the Minister of Finance will be available to hold intensive meeting with Members of Parliament. This is an agreement entered into between leadership and the ministry of Finance, as a prelude to the presentation of the mid-year review and possible supplementary budget on Monday, July 31, 2023” Speaker Bagbin said.
Members of the House are said to be gearing up to pose critical questions to the minister during the meeting, before the presentation on Monday. It is not known if the said meeting will be open to the public, as there are no indications in that regard.
The minister’s meeting with the entire House comes months after both sides had considerable numbers of their members demanding his removal for supervising what they termed a collapsed economy.
Information available to The Chronicle points to the fact that some majority members of parliament have adopted a subtle way of registering their displeasure by not showing up in the chamber to help government business.
It would be recalled that for some two weeks now, the House has been battling to meet the quorum needed to transact business in the House.
Many political analysts have argued that the minority could not be blamed because they had made their intention clear about boycotting the House due to the “persecution” of some of their members.
According to the analysts, the majority, whose side prosecutes government business, has 137 members and, therefore, should be blamed if they can’t raise 92 MPs to form a quorum for parliamentary business to start.
Others have also attributed the absence of the majority MPs, who are supposed to always be available to push the agenda of their own government, to the upcoming internal elections of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
However, the number of MPs on both sides of the aisle on Tuesday, July 25, 2023 was encouraging, compared to last week.
EXPECTATIONS
Meanwhile, ahead of the meeting between the Minister of Finance and the MPs before the mid-year budget review on Monday, expectations are high that it will reveal positive signs of stabilisation in Ghana’s economy, paving the way for potential growth in the latter half of the year.
According to sources at the Ministry of Finance, the economic numbers are likely to showcase improvements in various key indicators, indicating progress in handling economic challenges. Ghana’s trade surplus of $1.77 billion during the first six months of 2023, as previously reported in the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) summary of Economic and Financial Data, hints at a strengthening of international trade and external balance.
One of the areas of focus in the budget review is expected to be the prioritisation of social protection programmes like Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), School Feeding and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
The government’s emphasis on these programmes underscores its dedication to supporting vulnerable sections of society and ensuring their access to essential services and resources.
