2023 budget will be presented before November 30 deadline – Majority leader assures

Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has assured that the 2023 Budget and Economic Statement of Ghana will be presented to Parliament before the constitutionally mandated deadline, November 30, 2022.

According to him, the budget could not be presented before November 15, as advised by the Public Financial Act, because of the ongoing discussions the government is having with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout.

Speaking in a Neat FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said that the budget is likely to be read in Parliament on November 24 because by then, the first stage of the IMF discussions will be completed, and the finance minister and the president, who are currently out of the country will be back.

“… the finance minister (Ken Ofori-Atta) is currently out of the country. He is working on issues surrounding the budget and IMF negotiations and will be back by Wednesday. The president (Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo) is also out of the country; he chaired the United Nations Security Council meeting and will be returning to the country this evening. Because the budget is for the president, he also has to discuss it with his cabinet and okay it before it is presented to the House.

“… so now we are expecting that the budget will be presented before the House on November 24. Our Constitution states that the budget can not be presented after November 30, and so we are going to stick with it – by November 24, the budget will be presented,” the majority leader, who is also the Member of Parliament for Suame, said in Twi on Friday, November 11, 2022.

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