Confuse Gorvenment!

From the horse’s own mouth on the floor of Parliament,
The Finance Minister, presented his budget for contengency plan according to
Article 177 (1) of the Constitution of Ghana. Which states: ‘There shall be paid into the Contingency Fund moneys voted for the purpose by Parliament; and advances may be made from that Fund which are authorized by the committee responsible for financial measures in Parliament whenever that committee is satisfied that there has arisen an urgent or unforeseen need for expenditure for which no other provision exists to meet the need’.

Today 17th March 2020, on the floor of Parliament, the Minister of Finance responded to a parliamentary question where he indicated that the 100 million dollars announced by the President to fight the Corona virus pandemic (COVID-19) is not available and that applications have now been made to the World Bank and International Monitory Fund (IMF) for support. This information from the Minister called for a number of follow up questions to be answered.

1. Has the Minister of Financs, based on the Article 177 of the Constitution made provision in the 2020 Budget for Contingency Fund? If the answer is yes,

2. How much is currently the amount in the Contingency Fund?

3. Why has the Minister not brought any request to Parliament for approval to use the money in the Contingency Fund to fight the Coronavirus?

4. If the answer to question 1 above is NO, why didn’t the Minister comply with the article 177 of the Constitution?

5. Finally, in the event that the World Bank and the IMF fail to support Ghana with the 100 million dollars, how is the government of Ghana going to fight the Corona virus pandemic?

A word to the wise is enough.

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