20 Million-Dollar Breakdown Will Be Done Next Year

Government says a breakdown of the full utilisation of the 20 million dollars approved for the Ghana@50 Secretariat will be available in next year's Auditor-General's Report and urged the Minority in Parliament to wait till then before asking for accountability on the spending procedure.
Moving a motion for the approval of the 2006 Supplementary Appropriation Bill, Professor George Gyan-Barfour, Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning said it was necessary to hold on for the full utilisation of the amount to be effected.

Prof Gyan-Barfour was responding to comments by Mr John Mahama, MP for Bole Bamboi that Parliament “should never make the mistake of approving an omnibus amount without requesting the full breakdown of what it was going to be used for.”

Mr Mahama had argued that Parliament as the keeper of the national purse had the right to know what and how any amount it approves is used. “Rather when we the keepers of the national purse ask for an explanation on how monies we have approved for national development is being used, we are “arrogantly snubbed” and not given the full facts, but omnibus figures.”