The Possibility Of A New Govt Is Real - MP

Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Avenor-Ave, Mr. Edward Doe Adjaho, has appealed to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) not to read the 2009 Budget as there is the possibility of a new government in January 2009.

President John Agyekum Kufuor’s term of office ends on January 7, 2009. According to Mr. Adjaho, should the NPP read the 2009 budget next year in November and a new administration emerges after the 2008 general elections, there is the likelihood of throwing the Budget overboard which will be a financial burden on the State. “If the Kufuor administration hands over to somebody from the NPP, there will be not much of a problem because they must have been part of that government.

But if the NDC comes and there are certain things in the budget and the financial policy that ought to be changed, can it be binding on the new government whose policies focus on social democracy, thus helping the poor and the less privileged” he questions.Speaking to the Daily Dispatch newspaper in Parliament, Mr. Adjaho therefore proposed what he termed ‘Vote on account’ whereby some monies should be approved for the first three months, whilst the new administration comes out with its own budget as captured in Article 180 of the 1992 Constitution.

Article 180 of the 1992 Constitution stipulates that “where it appears to the President that the appropriation Act in respect of any financial year will not come into operation by the beginning of that financial year, he may with prior approval of Parliament, by a resolution, authorize the withdrawal of money from the Consolidated fund for the purpose of meeting expenditure in respect of the period expiring three months from the beginning of the financial year or on the coming into operation of the Act.

This provision, according to the Avenor-Ave legislator, who is a lawyer, when heeded to, will enable the new administration to take the first two months putting its house in order and come out with this own Budget in March 2009.“In the NDC time, the Budget was read in March, so we always had the vote of account. When NPP took over, it decided to read the Budget within the financial year,” he said. On the government’s decision to levy tax on mobile airtime also known as ‘talk tax’, the Deputy Minority leader strongly opposed it. He said he and his other colleagues did everything to disapprove of it, but because the majority has voted in favour of its implementation, if the NDC comes to power, it will call for its abolition.