Do not cap parliament’s budget – ACEPA

The Executive Director of the African Center for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr. Rasheed Draman, has said that the executive must rescind its decision to cap parliament’s budget.

According to him, insufficient funding has over the period stifled the performance of the House.

Speaking to Citi News, he said inadequate funding has resulted in parliamentary committees depending on government departments that it is supposed to have oversight responsibility on.

“The Executive should be softening their stance. I think year in year out, what we hear is the fact that the legislature is starved of information to do its work, but it is also starved of resources [finances] and eventually, what you get is the situation like what we see every year where the government departments that Parliament and its committees are supposed to be holding to account are the same departments that fund Parliament’s oversight activities,” he said.

On Tuesday [March 16, 2021], the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin threatened to stall processes towards the approval of the 2021 budget estimates if the Executive slashes budgetary allocation to the law-making body are not re-structured.

The Executive Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante in a letter to Parliament informed the House of the Executive’s decision to reduce their budget by over GH¢ 190 million and that of the Judiciary by over GH¢ 70 million.

The letter cited the lack of fiscal space as the reason for the plan.

This development, the Speaker believes is wrong and a step to weaken the oversight duties of Parliament.

“It is not for the Executive to impose a ceiling on the Judiciary and Parliament, we have to do the proper thing and so during the consideration of the estimates particularly the Committees concerned, take that on board. At the end of the day, come and inform us as to the negotiated figure, not the ceiling that has been given by the President,” he said.

Alban Bagbin vowed that he will not append his signature to any letter of submission of the approved budget to the presidency if the decision is not rescinded.