Haruna Iddrisu
The Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu has disclosed in parliament that the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) in parliament will boycott the approval of GH¢1.5 billion that has been allocated to the Ministry of Special Initiatives in the 2019 Budget.
According to the minority leader, the Ministry of Special Initiatives’ mandate is bringing a lot of conflicts between the district assemblies as well as the three development authorities set up to execute programmes of the Ministry.
“The creation of that ministry in pursuant of the government’s poverty policy is creating confusion with the President’s established development authorities like the Zongo Development Authority, Northern Development Authority, Middle Belt Development Authority and the Coastal Development Authority,” he said adding that the ministry is now doing things that ordinarily must be done by the development authorities or at worst by the district assemblies.
He has therefore called for the scrapping of the ministry because of its duplicated mandate or better be infused with Ministry of Evaluation and Monitoring for effective discharge of duties.
The minority leader made these known yesterday on the last day for the budget debate when the two leaders were rounding up on the budget before the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy was adopted by the House.
He said the minority will never be part in approving the huge budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Special Initiatives and that the majority could use its numbers to approve it.
He also indicated that the promise by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to give $1 million to each constituency for development has not been fulfilled adding that for two years of NPP’s administration the government is owing each constituency $2 million or GH¢9 million equivalent.
The minority leader pointed out that it is also wrong for the Ministry of Special Initiatives to expend the $1 million promised each constituency from the Jubilee House adding the money ought to be expended at the district level by the district assemblies.
The minority also took on the Finance Minister for boasting that the NPP government has been able to settle all arrears of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the Road Fund.
According to him, the arrears were paid from revenues accruing as a result of the capping legislation introduced by the government.
He said as a result of the capping, the government saved GH¢688 million from GETFund, GH¢688.3 million from NHIA and GH¢549 million from Road Fund stressing that those savings had helped the Minister of Finance to be current on those statutory funds.
The Minister of Special Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson, who was present during the minority leader’s debate told the parliamentary press corps that the NDC was afraid it will be in opposition for long as a result of the development projects being undertaken by her ministry.
According to her, the minority leader is calling for the scrapping of the ministry because of the fact that the ministry is undertaking a lot of projects in the constituencies of the minority MPs which are giving the government a lot of credit.
She said the government will not be perturbed by those baseless criticisms and continue to undertake more projects across the country to benefit the people.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr