A Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Isaac Adongo, has accused the government of not showing enough commitment towards the passage of the Zongo Development Fund Bill.
Speaking to Citi News, Isaac Adongo, who is also the NDC MP for Bolgatanga Central, noted that, the delay was a calculated attempt by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to deny Ghanaians the passage of the Bill and its subsequent implementation.
[contextly_sidebar id=”xxEQ15uxOxAbSzU6cTXRJyVuhaQAW7Gh”]“They simply can’t put together a single bill… Why are they not bringing it back under a certificate of urgency? If the Zongo Development Fund Bill is as important as all the other bills that they have brought under the certificate of urgency, why are they going to gazette it again for another 14 days?”
“It should have come under a certificate of urgency immediately after the bill has been redone, to show that they are really serious and committed to seeing to the implementation of that,” he added.
The Zongo Development Fund bill seeks to establish the legal framework for the implementation of the Zongo Development Fund.
This is the second time government has withdrawn the Zongo Development Fund Bill from Parliament. In August, the initial bill laid in the house was withdrawn and later re-laid.
According to Mr. Adongo, efforts by the government to spend within the annual budget has seen the slashing of funds meant for several developmental programs.
“Technically, they want to cut off GHc 200 million from the expenditure for this year because they just don’t have money to implement those programs. The other development authorities are going through similar challenges, all to ensure that at the end, a total of 1.38 billion Ghana cedis will not be spent in 2017; thereby denying the people of Ghana the opportunity to benefit from these programs.”
He added that “…they are not serious, they are deceiving the people of Ghana and they really didn’t intend to implement any of those programs this year. There is nothing to show for 2017 except the launching of mediocre projects.”
–
By: Marie-Franz Fordjoe/citifmonline.com/Ghana