GHC6m budget for Osafo Maafo withdrawn after minority protest

The Six million Cedis budget earmarked for the office of the Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has been withdrawn.

The approval of the budget was held back after the minority said it could not trace the name of the ministry in the list of the executive instrument outlining the various ministries.

Former deputy finance minister Cassiel Ato Forson who first raised the concern said the minority will not help approve monies for an institution which is not covered by an executive instrument.

The office of the Senior Minister has therefore been urged to depend on the office of government machinery for its expenditure in the ensuing year.

Finance minister Ken Ofori Atta during the 2018 budget reading in March announced that GHC6 million had been allotted to the office of the senior minister.

The senior minister in his initial comment on the budget described it as classy.

“A budget that can bring a deficit of 10.2 to 6.5, a growth of 3.6 to 6.3; that’s growing and reducing deficit all simultaneously and eliminating taxes. I have never seen a combination like that. This is a budget of its own class, in a budget you solve one problem, this one is solving three,” he said.