Haruna Iddrisu is Leader of the Minority caucus in Parliament
Efforts by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin to resist attempts to cap the budgetary allocation to the House have received the full blessings of the Minority in Parliament.
This, according to the minority caucus, is a move by the government in its attempt to weaken the work of Parliament.
But they have stated that they will do everything they can to resist it, reports citinewsroom.com.
Earlier, Nana Bediatuo Asante, the Executive Secretary to the President, had written to the House, informing it of the decision to reduce their budget by over GH¢190 million and that of the judiciary by over GH¢70 million, giving reasons for the lack of fiscal space.
This was however plainly rejected by the Speaker.
Speaker Alban Bagbin explained that such a move is legally wrong and smacks of a step to weaken the oversight duties of Parliament, supporting his rejection.
“The budget is not for the Executive, we have the final power to approve or disapprove and so what the Constitution has done is for them to make recommendations and to negotiate during the deliberations of the budget before the House,” he said.
He added that “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.”
Stating the stance of the Minority in Parliament, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu told a cross-section of the media that they will not countenance any attempts to weaken their oversight or their work as lawmakers.
“Those of you who are familiar with the constitution, we share the view that over the years because our constitution is heavy on an executive presidency, the executive has had its way with larger proportion and substantial amounts to undertake its activities but the legislature and others are being denied,” he said.
He further explained that for the executive to deny other arms of government this way, they will not accept it.
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