Parliament Approves Budgetary Estimates Of Two Ministries

Parliament has approved the Budgetary Estimates of two Ministries and the National Development Planning Commission, NDPC for their 2013 operations. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development receives 447 million 495 thousand 901 Ghana Cedis, while the Communication Ministry has been allocated fifty-six million nine hundred and sixty-eight thousand three hundred and thirteen Ghana cedis. Presenting the report on the estimates, the Chairman of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development, Dominic Azumah said the total allocation to the Ministry has increased from over 223 million cedis in 2012 to 449 million 495 thousand 901 Ghana cedis in 2013. Reviewing the 2012 expenditure of the Ministry Mr. Azumah said the Committee observed that a total of 77 million 179 thousand 138 Ghana cedis was allocated to Ministry for employee compensation, however the Ministry expended over 196 million constituting about 254 percent of the amount allocated. This excess expenditure by the Ministry drew a lot of comments from the Minority side of the House. The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Akwasi Opong-Fosu moved the motion for the approval of the estimates. For the 2013 operations the Ministry of Communications has been allocated fifty-six million nine hundred and sixty-eight thousand three hundred and thirteen Ghana Cedis. over nine million is expected from the government of Ghana, 898 thousand 880 Ghana Cedis from internally generated funds and over 46 million from donor funds. In recommending the approval of the estimates, the Chairman of the Committee on Communications, Herod Cobbina, said as a matter of urgency the Ministry must take steps to lay before Parliament and facilitate the passage of the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of excellence in Information and Communication Technology Bill to guide the legal status of the Centre. On National Digital Broadcasting Migration, he said December next year is the deadline for migrating from Analogue to digital adding that the Ministry must commence the implementation and public education as soon as possible to meet the deadline. Presenting the estimates for the National Development Planning Commission, the Chairman of Finance Committee, James Avedzi said inadequate funding has been a major challenge for Commission over the years. He said though the Commission�s 2012 budgetary requirement was 9 million 295 thousand Ghana Cedis only a little over four million was approved and about three million released. For the 2013 fiscal year, the Commission requires 15 million 862 thousand Ghana Cedis but only 8 million 994 thousand 734 has been allocated. This represents 56-point-7 percent of the 2013 requirement. In moving and seconding the motions on the various estimates the MPs advocated strongly for government to consider increasing the budgetary allocation to the NDPC.