Release the Entire Budget For Defense Ministry: Speaker Tells Ofori-Atta

The Ministry of Finance has been urged by Parliament’s Speaker, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, to release the Ministry of Defense’s approved budget in its entirety.

According to him, the practice of depriving the defense of funds allotted by the House does not augur well for the safety and security of the nation given the rise in terrorism and general security danger around the world.

“My checks from the Defence Ministry and the Controller and Accountant-General Department clearly indicated to me that the security agencies are one of the priority areas of the government but this is not what is reflected in the performance of 2022,” he iterated.

In support of a claim made by South Dayi Member Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor that only GH89 million of the GH141 million in capital expenditure approved for the ministry has been released as of September, the Speaker made this call yesterday during consideration of the GH3.742 billion budget for the ministry in Parliament in Accra.

“It is sad when I read and saw that approximately 81 percent of the budget on goods and services have not been released to the Ministry of Defence.

“In this current situation, how do you expect them to operate and I agree totally with Honourable Dafeamekpor that it is not for this House to continue appealing to the Ministry of Finance to release approved budgets,” Alban Bagbin asserted.

Meanwhile, the speaker added that;

“We are in charge, we legislate and pass the laws on taxation and Ministry of Finance are to implement; if they are failing to do it, we have to take them on and not to be appealing to them.

“I cannot understand this particularly how the Defence Ministry and sister ministers are struggling with the safety of the Ghanaian and we know what is happening in the sub-region.

“I think that we should take this as the last occasion where we tolerate it from the Ministry of Finance; we do not want to have this repeated again.”

Conclusion

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