Ghana\u2019s Parliament has approved a GHc10.9 billion request by the government to help finance \u201ccritical government expenditure\u201d in the first quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n
This follows the recommendation for the approval of the budget by the Finance Committee of Parliament.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”rB17cEWULbB9lNI5I90S3KiHBAdH9zhx”]The request for this amount was in line with Article 180 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 23 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).<\/p>\n
The Committee noted that the government\u2019s request was necessitated by the \u201ctight election calendar\u201d which made it difficult to come out with an Appropriation Act before the end of 2016.<\/p>\n
During the debate on the floor of parliament,\u00a0the MP\u00a0for the New Juaben South constituency, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah questioned what he described as the huge interest payments in the budget.<\/p>\n
GHc1.8 billion has been earmarked for interest payments whilst grants to other government units will cost GHc 2.3 billion.<\/p>\n
Also among the notable \u00a0budgeted allocation is the compensation of employees which will amount to\u00a0GHc 3.8 billion.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister, Seth Terkper who laid the request on the floor of Parliament noted that all the expenditure budgeted for the first quarter is for essential and statutory payments whilst all non-core expenses will be deferred to the second quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n