Parliament approves Budget

Accra, Feb. 13, GNA- Parliament on Friday approved the 2004 Budget Statement, presented by Minister of Finance and Economic Planning to the House on Thursday, February 5.

The were the usual walk outs, name-calling, use of un-parliamentary words to describe the budget and members, claims and counter claims as well as exchange of words.


Mr. Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, at one stage made a statement that the budget was drafted based on IMF prescriptions, adding that it was in keeping with the dictates of the HIPC initiative.


Mr. Joseph Henry Mensah, Senior Minister, challenged Mr. Kedem's description of the budget saying that, it was mischievous, intended to throw dust into the eyes of the public and to score cheap political point.


He said "the fact that government want to construct roads, is not an IMF prescription - it is wrong to suggest that we do not have a mind of our own and we demand a proof of that statement or a withdrawal."


Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, the Speaker, demanded a withdrawal and an apology from Mr. Kedem since he had no proof.

Mr. Kedem withdrew the statement and apologized, after which he said "I cannot continue to participate in this debate since I am being restricted", he then stormed out of the chamber.


In his contribution, Mr. Modestus Ahiable made reference to portions of the budget, which claimed that as part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy, about 685 schools around the country have been provided with some specific facilities, saying that, that was not wholly true.


Mr. Ahiable said "I got the list of schools who were supposed have benefited from those facilities from the Ministry of Education and they included at least three schools in my constituency where my own investigation revealed that those schools have not had such facilities."


The Speaker told Mr. Ahiable that the word Satanic used by the MP was un-parliamentary and he needed to prove the criminality of the paragraphs he quoted from the budget, "otherwise withdraw those words."


Mr. Ahiable did withdraw the two words but said it was not right to say that 685 schools have benefited from a program, when at least three in my Ketu North constituency had not.

Meanwhile the Minister of Roads and Transport, Dr. Richard Anane did not find it easy with the minority side when he claimed that the construction of some dual carriage roads from Accra to Yamonranza, Nsawam and other place, were begun by the NPP government.


Mr. Steve Akorli, NDC-Ho East, debunked his statement, saying that the NDC awarded all those roads on contract, but when the NPP government opted for the HIPC initiative, the sponsor nations, like Japan, withdrew their funding.


The debate necessitated one hour extended sitting, but ended with less than a hundred members in the chamber.