Budget Debate Begins Today

Parliament on Friday suspended "Question Time" to enable it to have adequate time to debate the budget statement which begins on Today - March 13.

To this end, ministers and the leadership have been allocated 15 minutes each, chairmen/ranking members 10 minutes and backbenchers five minutes to debate the budget.

This was contained in the Business Statement for next week presented to Parliament by the Majority Leader, Mr J.H. Mensah.

Later, the motion for the adoption of the second report of the Committee of Selection was withdrawn and the Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey, requested both sides of the leadership to come to a compromise and bring a fresh report on Tuesday.

The report was first debated on February 1 but after a voice vote a Minority member challenged the Speaker's ruling and demanded a head count, which brought about disorder in the chamber.

When the Speaker asked for the motion to be moved on Friday for the head count to be conducted, the Minority intimated that since the process was not concluded on that day it should be seen as aborted and should be withdrawn.