Ken Ofori-Atta
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Friday returned to Parliament to make an amendment in the 2020 Budget Statement of the government presented to the House last Wednesday, which inadvertently omitted the construction of some critical roads in the Volta Region to include those omitted roads in the budget.
According to the Finance Minister, critical roads to be constructed in 2020 which were captured on table 21 in the budget statement inadvertently omitted those under the Volta Region; therefore, after the presentation of the budget, his attention was drawn to the omission by the Volta Regional Minister, Archibald Letsa, and the Minister of Energy, John Peter Amewu.
He, therefore, came to make those corrections and announced three major roads that were to be considered critical for construction in 2020 under the 2020 Budget.
He mentioned the critical roads as the 45 km Asikuma-Have road, 83 km Have-Hohoe-Jasikan road and the 99 km Ho-Dzodze-Denu road.
He said apart from that, the Ho bypass road, upgrading of the Akatsi town roads, upgrading of Kpando town roads, upgrading of Ketu South roads and upgrading of Ketu North roads had been prioritized by the Ministry of Roads and Highways for construction in 2020.
He also said the new Volivo Bridge over the Volta River would be constructed while maintenance on the bridge at the Lower Volta at Sogakope would be done.
The Volta Caucus of Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament on Thursday held a press conference to say that the government intentionally left the region out of the equation in terms of road construction.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said it was good that the minister came to do ‘the appropriate thing.’
He, however, noted that the mode of amendment was not legitimate and that a mere statement cannot be made to amend a motion for the presentation of the budget.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said that was not the first time that such omissions had occurred in the presentation of budget statements.
He said during the time of the former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, such omissions were made in the budget and insertions made later in Parliament, and so the Minority should not make any political capital out of that but rather praise government for making the necessary corrections.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr