Akatsi South MP Commend Judiciary For Detail Budget Expenditure To Parliament

Hon. Bernard Ahiafor, the Member of Parliament for Akatsi South constituency

24.12.2019 LISTEN

Hon. Bernard Ahiafor, the Member of Parliament for Akatsi South constituency, has given the Judiciary thumps up for the detailed budgetary expenditure for 2019 presented to Parliament.

According to him, the detailed budget expenditure of the judiciary and the judiciary services had enhanced transparency in the judiciary.

Mr Ahiafor made the observation when contributing to the 2020 budget estimate of the judiciary and the judiciary services for approval in Parliament last Saturday.

For the financial year 2020, the judiciary submitted a total budgetary of GH¢195,423,590.24 to the President.

The judicial service also submitted a total budgetary of GH¢201,916,246.50 for the 2020 financial year to the President.

The two budgetary requests amount to a total of GH¢397,339,836.7, for the Financial year, 2020.

But the Presidency per recommendation reviewed the judiciary budget downwards to GH¢153,795,550.00, while the judiciary budget also reviewed down to GH¢202,947,454.00 to be approved for the year 2020.

Nevertheless, Mr.Ahiafor said the Judiciary needed to be commended for such a detailed budget and asked that more funding should be made available to the Judiciary Services.

He noted that decoupling the judiciary budget from the judiciary services should be equally commended.

The Minority MP added that the validation Supreme Court ruling also means the Judiciary would be overstretched and that more funds would be needed to operate at weekends and holidays sitting.

“Mr.Speaker, decoupling of the Budget of the Judiciary and Judicial Service, the Committee noted that, for the first time, the Annual Budget Estimates of the Judiciary and the Judicial Service has been decoupled.

“Mr Speaker, it may be recalled that the Committee, in its previous Budget Reports, had recommended for the separation of the budget of the two institutions towards full compliance with Article179(3), (4),

(5) and (6) and 127(4) of the Constitution and that has truly been done, ” Mr Ahiafor said.

Mr Ahiafor, therefore, appealed to the Ministry of Finance to consider to ping up the Judiciary and the Judiciary Services budget location for 2020 to enable them to perform to expectation.