Blame Mahama for Chief of Staff’s overspending – Afenyo Markin

The President must ultimately be blamed for the staggering overspending of the Chief of Staff, a member of Parliament's Finance Committee has said.

According to Afenyo-Markin, the nature of the overspending at the presidency breaches the Financial Appropriation Act of Parliament.

A report by the finance committee shows that the Office of the chief of staff spent Ghc48.8 million instead of the Ghc7.4 million allocated to it in the 2014 budget. The amount was spent out of a total of Ghc326.8 million allocated to Government machinery for the year 2014.

Chairman of the Finance Committee in Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi, explained to Parliament that the total amount allocated to government machinery is a combination of the original and supplementary budgets.

Speaking to MORNING STARR host Kafui Dey, Wednesday, Markin said the presidency must explain the cause of the fiscal indiscipline.

“Every expenditure is approved by parliament, so what we (parliament) approved, they have gone contrary to what we approved and that is in breach of the Appropriation Act”.

When asked who should be faulted for the apparent overspending of the Chief of Staff, the MP for Efutu said “ It’s the office of the President, except that the Chief of Staff’s office is a sub-set under the President”.