Members of Parliament (MPs) are outraged over the decision by the Executive arm of government to slash their budget for 2015.
The irate MPs say they cannot comprehend why their budget has been cut by over 30 percent when they urgently need funds to operate effectively.
A budgeted amount of GHC 267.2 million was presented to President John Mahama for approval but it was reduced to GHC 185 million which is 30% short of what was presented.
[contextly_sidebar id=”6isnOo1v79JGh3Uk2MdLJbaBF6JuEd6t”]Parliament on Monday however reviewed and approved the GHC 185 million but the MPs subsequently impressed upon the Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, to use his office to get cabinet to reverse the move.
One MP told the House that “even if that has been approved 100%, it will represent less than one percent of government’s budget and we cannot be given that.”
According to him, a comparison between Ghana’s Parliament and the various Parliaments in the West African sub-region indicates that “this Parliament of Ghana is shortchanged.”
Another angry MP in his submission said the reduction of their estimate for the year 2015 will affect the quality of research they will have to undertake.
“This means that the research assistants that will be given to MPs will not be there and that means that we will not have research assistants in our job 600,” he observed.
He continued saying, “the completion of Job 600 will just be a building that is just sitting there with research assistants and without help from other people.”
The MP pointed out that Ghanaian citizens have been complaining bitterly that MPs “are not doing our work effectively as Members of Parliament,” therefore a drastic reduction in their budget will affect the quality of their work.
Another MP, was also of the view that although Ghana’s Legislature claims it is the “master of its own procedures, we prepared this very sad report and yet we get up here as ask for approval of this document.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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