Parliament has approved the annual budget estimates of a number of Ministries but expressed concern that the amounts were most significantly inadequate to meet their financial obligations and functions.
It was therefore, recommended that the total amounts allocated to the Ministries for the year ending 2003 be approved by the House.
These were contained in the recommendations in the Reports of the Committee on Works and Housing and the Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture in Motions for the approval of the budget estimates presented to Parliament.
The Chairman of the Committee on Works and Housing, Mr. Sampson Darkoh, said in the 2002 fiscal year, 623,180,755,240 cedis was approved to the Ministry to meet its expenditure, however it was realised that the amount was cut down by the Ministry of Finance due to inadequate donor inflow.
He said this affected the general performance of the Ministry especially in the area of investment and service activities and as such the Ministry has this year designed its budgetary allocation alongside the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy guidelines.
Mr. Darkoh said the aim is to provide and facilitate the provision of the basic needs of people such as water and shelter and for this purpose; a total budgetary allocation of 656,293,000,000.00 cedis has been allocated for the operations of the Ministry.
The Government is funding a total of 59,635,000,000 while donor component constitutes 596,658,000,000 cedis to meet personnel emoluments, administration, service activities and investment.
Mr. Darkoh said the Committee was of the view that if the money was not released on time or there was a slash as happened last year, much cannot be achieved by the Ministry though a lot was expected from it to improve on the lives of Ghanaians.
The Committee therefore, recommended that the Ministry of Finance should ensure a timely release of the allocations to enable the Ministry to execute its projects as scheduled.
The Ministry has a number of important unfounded projects that have not been catered for in the allocations to the Ministry by the Ministry of Finance, but are crucial that they are undertaken to realise a meaningful achievement of the Minister's objectives.
These unfunded projects include the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project for which Government was expected to contribute a counterpart fund of 38.7 billion cedis this year, the Tamale Storm Water project and the Keta Sea Defence Project.
The Committee said it was strongly urging Government to take a very serious view of the situation and honour its part of the agreement to save the people from untold hardship if those projects are left uncompleted.
Mr. Darkoh said the Committee was informed that the Ministry of Finance delayed in issuing out letters of commencement of projects for the various Departments and agencies under the ministry, hence projects were implemented late in the rainy season instead of the dry season.
The Committee further noted that there were other priority on-going projects that deserve attention for immediate completion. These include rehabilitation of the Castle phase three, Independence Square and conversion of Job 600 into offices for Members of Parliament.
The others are emergency flood control and construction of culverts, rehabilitation of UNDO Flats and general rehabilitation of the Sekondi -Takoradi - Inchaban and Weija Dams Remedial Works.
The Committee expressed concern about the inability of the Public Works Department, Department of Rural Housing, Rent Control Department, Technical Services Centre and Hydrological Services Department to be assisted to be play their expected roles and to be pro-active.
The Minister for Works and Housing, Mr. Yaw Barimah, said if the Ministry was allocated its budgetary demands it would go a long way in reducing poverty and ensuring the efficient exception of services. Mr. Samuel Nkrumah-Gyimah, Chairman of the Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture said 38,472,000,000 has been allocated to the ministry and its affiliated bodies to cover Personnel Emoluments, administration, Service and Investment expenses an
The Committee noted that the shortfall of over six billion cedis to the Ministry adversely affected the administrative Service and Investment expenses since Personnel Emoluments had to be paid at all cost.
It said the delay in release and in some cases non-release of approved funds by the Ministry of Finance made last year very hectic but in spite of these, the Ministry successfully undertook some projects and activities.
These included continuation of work on the multi-purpose office complex at Kaneshie to serve as the Headquarters of the National Youth Council, establishment of three Youth Leadership Training Institutes and arrangement to obtain grant to construct modern Youth centres in Accra and Kumasi. + Mr. Nkrumah-Gyimah said others were Ghana participating in the Commonwealth Games, Black Stars played two African Cup qualifiers, National Women's Team participation in African Women Championship in Nigeria and rehabilitation works undertaken at the North Wing of the Accra Sports stadium.
The Committee noted that the Ministry, out of its internally generated fund contributed about 655 million cedis towards the rehabilitation's, construction and fencing of about 12 projects.
The Committee also noted that cabinet has approved a 50 billion Youth Endowment Fund initiated by the Ministry to assist the Youth to set up private enterprise.
Mr. Nkrumah-Gyimah said the Committee noted with regret the non-release of the allocations for the National Sports Council, the National Youth Council and National Sports Council and that has affected their performance.
The Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr. Edward Osei-Kwaku, (MP) said despite the inadequate funding the Ministry has been able to chalk a number of successes. He called for increased financial support not only for sports development but also, especially for youth training in entrepreneurial skill acquisition.
