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12.05.2012 Politics

Parliament Wants Budget Act Enacted

By Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah - Daily Graphic
Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo - Speaker of ParliamentMrs Joyce Bamford-Addo - Speaker of Parliament
12.05.2012 LISTEN

Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo - Speaker of Parliament The Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo, has called for the enactment of the Budget Act to guarantee the active involvement of Parliament in the entire process of budget preparation.

Since Parliament itself cannot initiate the bill, the executive has to submit the bill for the House to pass it into an Act.

She noted that even though the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth Republic had played significant roles in budget processes right from the approval through the implementation stage, there was the need for the Act to enable the House to take part in the entire budget cycle.

Mrs Bamford-Addo made a call in a speech read on her behalf at the opening of the post-budget review workshop for selected Members of Parliament (MPs) in Ho in the Volta Region Saturday.

The workshop was to provide a platform for the participants to get a thorough understanding of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for the 2012 financial year to enable them to make well-informed contributions to debates on the floor of the House.

One hundred and thirty-five MPs comprising the leadership of Parliament, chairmen of the various committees and their deputies and some selected backbenchers.

The Speaker, whose speech was read by the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, expressed the hope that consultations among stakeholders would be concluded as soon as practicable for the bill to be brought before the House.

For his part, Dr Rasheed Darman the Director of Africa Programmes of the Parliamentary Centre, a non-governmental organisation, which sponsored the workshop, stated that the need for the enactment of Budget Act was highlighted this year when Parliament ranked itself the lowest compared with six other African countries in its capacity to perform financial functions.

These, he said were the finding of the maiden African Parliamentary Index, a self-assessment tool on budget oversight, which was launched by the Parliamentary Centre in June, this year.

Dr Draman said it was, therefore, encouraging to see that in the 2012 budget statement, Parliament’s intention of promoting the establishment of a Budget Office through the enactment of the Budget Act was captured.

He pledged the centre’s commitment to continue to partner Parliament to help make the passage of the Budget Act a reality since it would help increase the capacity for budgetary analysis and review and strengthen the legislature as an institution.

Dr Draman called on MPs to look beyond the national average during debates and rather focus on the impact of policies across regions and among different groups such as children and women.

The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; called for counterbalancing structures to complement fiscal decentralisation to avoid massive corruption as reported by the Audit Service every year.

The Majority Leader, Mr Cletus Avoka, who chaired the function; urged the participants to use the occasion to thoroughly study the 2012 budget document in order to make informed debate and contribute to the shaping up of the budget.

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