Minority shrugs off gagging on budget
Former government overdrew accounts-
Osafo-Maafo
Allies of majority to the rescue
Minority shrugs off gagging on budget
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 March 2001
Mr. Moses Asaga, the Minority spokesman on Finance on Tuesday shrugged off heckling, interruptions and booing from the Majority to declare the budget presented to parliament last Friday as a half-baked and mundane document.
"The budget which is expected to be a budget of 'positive change' does not measure to its description and does not address the high expectations of the Ghanaian public, who were misled into voting for the NPP'.
The statement drew boos, catcalls like "who cause am" and a series of point of orders with the Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey having a hectic time shouting "order! order"!
Mr. Asaga, who was a former Deputy Finance Minister, was on his feet for almost an hour instead of 15 minutes that was allocated to him and could hardly drive his points home because the Majority moved heaven and earth not to allow him do that.
At different times Mr Ken Dzirasah, Second Deputy Speaker and Mr Doe Adjaho, the Minority Chief Whip, said they were ready to add their time allocation to that of Mr Asaga to enable him to complete his submissions.
Mr. Adjetey urged the House to be tolerant for the debate to proceed on democratic principles as far as the budget was concerned since all members would have the chance to make their contributions and make references to issues they disagreed with.
He said Mr Asaga had been on his feet for more than 45 minutes and that he, the Speaker was aware of the interruptions.
Mr. Asaga said the budget neither addressed the issue of providing 100,000 jobs for the youth in a year nor did it abolish the cash and carry system.
It did not give any hope of employment to the youth but only ordered the unemployed "to go back to the cocoa growing areas to spray cocoa farms".
"Fuel prices have been increased by 64 per cent, transport fares have shot up, electricity tariffs will go up by 35 per cent and water rate will climb to 150 per cent."
Mr. Asaga asked if this was the budget of a "positive change".
On the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative adopted by the NPP government, Mr Asaga said the move would lead to the cancellation of a number of projects being financed by some donor countries.
Touching on foreign indebtedness of the country, the former Deputy Minister dared "the NPP government to publish within a week the projects for which the loans were taken and publish the amount of loans repayable during the NPP tenure and those repayable thereafter".
Mr. Asaga said it is noted that the NPP is going to borrow more than 10 trillion cedis this year to close the gap in their budget and yet they were making a mountain of previous debts, which were used on infrastructure development that all Ghanaians are enjoying.
"Now that the NPP budget has reduced the VAT threshold to 100 million cedis, many "Waakye sellers, chop-bar keepers, pito sellers and the street hawkers and shoe-shine boys should get set to register for VAT. The arithmetic of the threshold is that any business that makes sales of about 300,000 cedis a day is already caught in the NPP's VAT net".
Mr. Asaga said what the NPP claimed would be the golden age of business would crystallise as the withering age of business.
He said the 15 per cent tax on the gross profits of banks, insurance and other financial institutions, after allowance has been made for bad debts and the 2.5 per cent tax on the gross profits will strangulate businesses.
If that happens, he said, entrepreneurs would remember and cherish a by-gone era.
The only other contributor to today's debate, Alhaji Mohammed Issa Abah, NDC-Chereponi, said the budget was "a killing me softly budget" saying since the NPP had accused the NDC of making Ghanaians tighten their belts it was expected that they would make Ghanaians loosen their belt.
He said if the government cuts its expenditure, rural development, especially on-going electricity and road network projects in his constituency would suffer a setback.
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Former government overdrew accounts-
Osafo-Maafo
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 March 2001
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance, on Tuesday reiterated that the former government overdrew almost 900 billion cedis of its accounts at the Bank of Ghana.
In a statement delivered by the Minister in Parliament, he said: "I wish to go on record that I will never impugn the integrity of my colleagues on the other side (minority), for the sake of political expediency."
The statement sought to react to a Ghanaian Chronicle publication that alleged that Mr Victor Selormey, a former Deputy Minister of Finance, has challenged Mr Osafo-Maafo's claim, promising to "put his reputation on the line to prove him wrong"
In that publication, another former Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Moses Asaga, questioned the credibility of Mr Osafo-Maafo's allegations made on March 9, and called on the Minister and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to give details of the transaction.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo said: "I wish to state emphatically that my declaration of government overdrawn accounts at the Central Bank is supported by communications that I have received from both the BOG and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)".
He said on February 16, 2001, the Governor of BOG communicated to him that "at the end of the third quarter of year 2000, central government account showed an overdrawn position of three billion cedis. This position deteriorated further on monthly basis, during the last quarter, rising to 855.5 billion cedis by the end of December 2000."
Mr. Osafo-Maafo said the overdrawn position reflected the net balance on total government inflows and payments, both statutory and discretionary.
"Where as the statutory payments were pre-determined and Bank of Ghana could monitor, most of the discretionary payments especially from the districts and regions were undertaken without making reference to government financial position at the Central Bank."
He said such payments were effected at the regional treasuries after which the cheques were forwarded through the clearing system.
The Minority requested that the governor of BOG be summoned to brief the "Committee of the Whole" (Parliament sitting in camera) on the matter but the Majority dismissed the idea saying it prefers that the Finance Committee handle the matter.
Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey, Speaker, appealed to both sides to consult on the matter and reach a compromise soon.
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Allies of majority to the rescue
Accra (Greater Accra) 14 March 2001
A timely show of solidarity by two Independent and three PNC members helped the majority in parliament win narrowly, a crucial motion that has remained stalemate for over a month.
The majority polled 87 against 80 in a head count to carry through the adoption of the composition of select committees of the house.
Select committees are parliamentary bodies instituted to oversee activities of the various ministries.
The minority had objected to earlier compositions on the grounds that ministers or ministers-designate have been given places on them.
They contended that their de jure status on committees would undermine the legislative functions of the committees.
The minority, who until the last election were in the majority, had the luxury of a comfortable majority which made it possible for them to exclude ministers from enjoying de jure status on the select committees.
Realities in parliament will not afford the majority that luxury as they have just 100 members and are constitutionally mandated to choose most of ministers from them.
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