The Member of Parliament for the Builsa South constituency, Dr. Clement Apaak has cast doubt on the ability of the government to present the 2023 Budget and Economic policy to Parliament by November 24, 2022. Dr Apaak opined that by the communicated date, the government would still not have been able to finalise the agreements with the IMF.
This according to Dr. Apaak is because Ghana’s finance minister is presenting ‘cooked’ figures to the Bretton Wood institution.
Responding to how the minority in parliament is preparing to receive the 2023 budget on Daybreak Upper East Show, the Builsa South legislator said, the finance minister may not be able to present the 2023 budget on November 24, 2022 because IMF program which the government banks its hopes on to relieve the economy cannot be completed because Ken Ofori Atta is not being honest with the country’s Economic figures.
He said ” there is no certainty that the budget will be presented on the 24th because if you heed to the business statement on Friday, our side queried as to why there is no certainty because the proposal that has been made is conditional. Our leader was making a point that we need certainty because there are time lines, the constitution defines when the budget can be presented. That uncertainty is because of the uncertainty as far as the IMF negotiation is concerned and we have said time without number that the reason why the fund is delaying is because the government has not been honest, there are challenges. A lot of the figures that were given to the fund were inaccurate, we believe they were ‘cooked’ and they [ IMF] know because they [IMF] do their research, they have our documents. In the case of the Free Senior High School fund that I raised, when you report that the program had consumed some Ghs 7.62 billion in five years in your 2021 midyear budget review and then the year after 2022 you come and report that the program for the same period five years, 2017 to 2021 had cost the taxpayer Ghs5.3 billion, the fund is aware of that. So which figure are you dealing with?”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Samuel Adagom|Ghana
