The Youth Economic Dialogue (YED) an independent, nonprofit organization has kicked against the 10 million Ghana cedis earmarked in the 2013 fiscal budget for constituency offices for Member of Parliament.
The group in a statement issued in Accra said proposal by government is a misplaced priority.
Below is the statement by the group:
The Youth Economic Dialogue (YED), after an initial study of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2013 financial year, argue that Government was not audacious in proposing measures to reduce the budget deficit.
The government's projected deficit to GDP of 9% is also too high since most of the causes of the higher deficit, as witnessed in 2012, will not reoccur. We therefore request Parliament to develop a better framework to monitor executive spending and also institute punitive measures targeted at the MDAs to deter fiscal indiscipline going forward.
We are of the opinion that the provision of GH¢10,000,000.00 for the construction of MPs Constituency Offices is a misplaced priority and would want government to channel that resource into areas that will be beneficial to the constituents of the members of Parliament.
Our Case:
• The recurrent expenditure in running the 275 offices across the country will add to subsequent government budgets. We project that a whopping amount of about GH¢16million (recurrent expenses such as administrative, utilities and maintenance costs among others) will be spent to operationalize these offices when completed over the 4 year tenure of a Member of Parliament.
• Following a case study conducted on some constituencies by Youth Economic Dialogue, it was discovered that MPs spend close to 70% of their legislative work time in Accra and much less time on their respective constituencies. It was further established that, an MP who visits his constituency is most likely to devote his time or efforts on attending to social events and community meetings outside a single location.
• We strongly believe that, the most pressing need of many a constituent is employment. Youth Economic Dialogue holds the opinion that the projected Gh¢10million could be channeled into setting up revolving funds in the 275 constituencies as seed capital to support innovative activities, creation of jobs and provision of social amenities.
• We encourage members of Parliament to adopt the use of virtual office facilities such as Facebook, twitter, emails and mobile phones for easy communication with their constituents as Ghana currently enjoys over 100% Mobile penetration and the highest in Africa and sufficient internet penetration and speed.
Finally, the group will cease this opportunity to urge government to ensure the speedy completion of the Parliamentary Tower Block (Job 600) to facilitate the legislative duties of our MPs.
Signed:
Nana Yaw Adutwum
Davis Adu Larbi
Yaw Adu Gyamfi
Harold Boateng
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