Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, James Klutse Avadzi, is confident that the government’s financial statement for the year 2016 will be passed despite the minority’s posture.
The assurance comes on the back of threats by the minority to stay away from the debate on the budget and its subsequent approval if the president does not apologize for his recent attacks on them.
[contextly_sidebar id=”34sCgag8cxfDOZq7dfIuovoQcqLFS63o”]The Minority is protesting what they they call a disrespect by the President towards them, after he said on a campaign platform that the minority members were sleeping on the job.
But speaking to Citi News, James Klutse Avedzi, is hopeful the minority will rescind the decision after a meeting in Parliament today[Thursday].
“If really the minority wants to be patriotic as their name portrays, then they should rather come to the House and work with the majority so that we pass the budget because the work is not only for the majority members of Parliament, it’s for both sides of the House.”
He explained that “although we need their opinion on the budget, [because] they need to criticize the budget and we would also want to point to them the good side of the budget…it will definitely be passed before the end of the year.”
“There wouldn’t be a shutdown and government will get the approval of Parliament to start spending from the consolidated fund from the beginning of next year,” the legislator stated confidently.
Mr. Avedzi’ s comment follows claims by a former Deputy Majority Chief Whip, Sampson Ahi, that the Minority in Parliament are plotting to sabotage government business.
“I saw that this issue is a planned thing. It was just a calculated attempt to thwart government business. I saw more than 20 minority MPs sitting at the coffee shop drinking tea. Some of them sitting down doing nothing and you just realize they were just sneaking out of the chamber one after the other…I saw the Majority Chief Whip asking them to leave the chamber. You cannot do this deliberate thing,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana