The Effutu Member of Parliament (MP), Alex Afenyo-Markin has accused the Minister of Finance, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Controller and Account General�s Department of conniving with the Presidency to overspend scarce financial resources of the nation.
He stated that it is highly disappointing that the Presidency exceeded its 2014 budgetary allocation by about GHC 45 million when the nation is experiencing financial difficulty.
Afenyo-Markin said it is disheartening to note that while key government institutions have been starved of funds throughout 2014, the seat of government was receiving monies from the Finance Ministry on the blindside of Parliament.
�It is so obvious that whereas some Ministries need money to perform certain key statutory and constitutional functions�the Office of the President is able to outspend far in excess and what is so alarming is the office of the Chief of Staff,� he remarked.
The office of the Chief of Staff under the Presidency was allocated GHC7,487,048 for the year 2014, but as at the end of September, it had spent GHC48,811,722.
The Effutu MP thus concluded that the situation is indicative that the Minister of Finance, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the Controller and Account General�s Department �can all be cajoled at the whims and caprices of the President.�
The Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance on Tuesday presented the expenditure returns of the Office of the President to Parliament which stated that the Presidency had overspent its 2014 budgetary allocation by more than 100%.
Although Parliament approved a ceiling of GHC 30,929,343, the Presidency spent GHC 75,917,714 between January and September alone.
Afenyo-Markin who also doubles as a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance on Eyewitness News accused the Presidency of blatantly disregarding the laws of the country.
This, according to him undermines the powers of Ghana�s Legislature which has the powers to check the Executive arm of government.
�If it needed more money, it should have come to Parliament for approval�That is an office that is supposed to be law abiding�if they can overspend then there is no need for them to bring their budget to Parliament at all,� he fumed.
The outspoken Minority MP called for an �in-depth investigation� into the matter because according to him, �some answers must be provided�as to why a whole office of the President can act this way. The President�s office cannot choose to be this indiscipline.�
Attempts by Citi FM to get a response from government on the matter proved futile.
<<Print>>