Government's expenditure on MPs, article 71 office holders is insignificant - NPP man

The deputy Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Kamal-Deen Abdulai, has intimated that the assertion by Ghanaians that the government's expenditure on Members of Parliament (MPs) as well as the president and his appointees is huge is not correct.

According to him, the proportion of the expenditure on these people to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country is insignificant.

He added that people overly criticize these people without taking into consideration the value of the work they do for the country.

“I have always made this argument that when you take government appointees, Article 71 holders (and) parliamentary and whoever, when you put them together and aggregate it currently, before even the cut, to GDP ratio it is less than 1 percent.

“It is insignificant, however, for the optics (people say) we are there, we are running V8, the MP is taking this allowance. People have forgotten what the MP does at the constituency level when it is not even supposed to do it.

“It is highly insignificant but all of us have run to town with this argument. Government (appointees) are given V8, MP is given V8. When you take it and you look at the GDP, it is nothing to write home about,” he said in a TV3 interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

The NPP communicator made these remarks while reacting to an announcement by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta that the use of V8 and V6 vehicles by government officials will be stopped beginning January 2023 as a measure to reduce the country's expenditure.

The finance minister made the revelation when he presented the 2023 budget in parliament on November 24, 2022.

He said: "A ban on the use of V8s/V6s or its equivalent except for cross-country travel. All government vehicles would be registered with GV green number plates from January 2023."

He also said, "there will be a limited budgetary allocation for the purchase of vehicles. For the avoidance of doubt, the purchase of new vehicles shall be restricted to locally assembled vehicles."

"Only essential official foreign travel across government including SOEs shall be allowed. No official foreign travel shall be allowed for board members ... Accordingly, all government institutions should submit a travel plan for the year 2023 in mid-December of all expected travels to the Chief of Staff," he added.

Watch the interview below:

"The amount of money we spend on MP's and other article 71 holders is insignificant" - Kamal-Deen Abdulai, Deputy Communications Director, NPP#TV3NewDay #TV3GH pic.twitter.com/WcXxMPYPBT

— #TV3@25 (@tv3_ghana) November 25, 2022