Parliament was on Thursday, forced to defer voting on the 2015 budget for\u00a0the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) after the Deputy Minority Leader, Dominic Nitiwul, raised some critical issues with it, saying for a budget as big as the national budget, there ought to be much clarity.<\/p>\n
Parliament was expected to debate and vote on the budget and programme of activities of the GNPC for the year 2015.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”jWXAenE8L9rIaWvwRSd0iRmkAX9riypX”]The budget contained a proposed multi-million dollar office complex project and a research center for the corporation.<\/p>\n
In his address on the floor of Parliament, Mr. Nitiwul questioned the timing for the budget saying it was supposed to have been approved in June 2015.<\/p>\n
“I am looking at the committee\u2019s report and I’m asking whether the fault is from Parliament or from GNPC. Today is third December and we are approving the programme of activity of GNPC for 2015. We have less than a month for this year to end. The minister is to lay the report, according to the law in June. Meanwhile the report we are looking at is in November,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
Dominic Nitiwul further said that; \u201cI think we must state that GNPC\u2019s activities are approved by Parliament before they can do anything. We are talking of people who are spending in excess of $1 billion. This is the largest single budget item, apart from the national budget. We cannot be rubber stamping this. How are we going to approve this?\u201d<\/p>\n
He also stated that the building for the headquarters of GNPC would not have the research center incorporated, and that \u201cif there are other explanations why the headquarters is 16 million, the minister should let us know. And he must tell us whether that money has been spent or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his response to the statement of the Deputy Minority Leader, the Minister of Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, explained that the budget of GNPC was presented to Parliament in January and that \u201cI can speak on authority that the error was not GNPC\u2019s. As I speak to you, GNPC\u2019s report for 2016 is ready. As happened last year, the finance committee wanted to be part of the committee reviewing the GNPC report; the energy committee didn\u2019t think that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, on his part closed the debate on the issue and deferred voting on the matter.<\/p>\n
He further advised the leadership of the House to meet with the Energy Committee for further deliberations.<\/p>\n
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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n