NDC congress will affect scrutiny of 2016 budget – Minority

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority in Parliament says a postponement of the date for the ruling National Democratic Congress' (NDC) national delegates congress to elect its presidential and parliamentary candidates for the 2016 elections will adversely affect scrutiny of the 2016 budget.

It has emerged that the leadership of the NDC is likely to reschedule the Congress which is originally set for November 7, as the date clashes with the celebration of the Hogbetsotso festival by chiefs and people of Anlo in the Volta Region, an event President John Mahama is expected to attend.

With the Volta Region being the stronghold of the NDC, leadership of the party is therefore said to be considering the option of changing the date in order to avoid having the congress date conflicting with the celebration of the festival.

That aside, sources within the party say there are other issues relating vetting of some parliamentary aspirants in the Greater Accra region ahead of the party’s primaries. These issues could largely cause a change in the date for the congress.

However, the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, avers that any further postponement of the date will deny Parliament, especially the Minority Caucus, the opportunity of doing a critical examination of the budget before it is approved.

“As I speak, we don’t know when the budget is to be presented in Parliament. Last year, we had it around the 19th of November and we complained that it came very late in the day, now we’re being told that the NDC is likely to move their congress date forward, if that happens, it will be unfortunate.

"Already, we’re accused of not doing detailed scrutiny on agreements and other documents that come to Parliament before we pass them. Now postponing their Congress will mean that we’ll have less than one month to examine the 2016 budget which is to be presented in November and do other Parliamentary work before the House goes on recess for the Christmas break. Such situation obviously doesn’t inure to the good of the country if we’re rushed into approving the budget and passing the Appropriation Bill”.