Expunge GNPC loan from budget – Prof Gyan-Baffour

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi, Prof George Gyan-Baffour has called on Parliament to expunge the $700 million Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) loan from the 2015 budget before the appropriation bill on the budget is passed.

He said the $700 million loan had been incorporated into the budget to be given legality by the Appropriation Bill, adding that Parliament ought to expunge it from the budget to save its face and protect its integrity.

“Mr Speaker, the Finance Minister tells Parliament in the budget that the $700 million loan to GNPC is not for central government,” he said, adding that the camouflaged statement is an attempt by President Mahama and his government to gag Parliament and give legality to this loan through the back door by using the Appropriation Bill that will be passed by Parliament before it rises later in December.

The Wenchi MP made the call in his contribution to the 2015 budget statement on the floor of Parliament.

Prof Baffour-Gyan explained that payment of the loan, when it is due, would be deducted from the total petroleum receipts from two sources according to the Petroleum Revenue Management Act.

“Mr speaker if the loan is to be paid from using the GNPC’s share of the carried and participating interest, it is still part of the sovereign wealth of Ghana and if the government will indirectly be paying for the loan how can anybody say the loan is not for government,” he queried, stressing that as Members of Parliament representing the sovereign people of the country, they must know what the loan is being used for and subsequently endorse it.

The Wenchi MP, therefore, asked his fellow parliamentarians and the leadership not to give legality to this loan by including it in the budget until the government uses the proper channel to get the loan approved by parliament.

He also commended three Members of Parliament for taking the bold initiative to seek the constitutionality of the GNPC loan and said that if Parliament as an institution had questioned the legality of the GNPC loan, those Members of Parliament would not have taken the matter up on their own in the best interest of Ghanaians.

“It is a matter of the law, and we have to always respect the constitution which represents the sovereign will of the people,” he noted.

On the economy, Prof Gyan-Baffour, who is the ranking member of Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee of the Parliament, said real transformation means changing the structure of the economy from one dominated by commodities to an industrial manufacturing based economy.

“Underlying the emerging structure is the fact that the economy is still very vulnerable to external shocks because it depends heavily on raw materials and commodities that are mostly consumed in the industrialised world and whose prices are determined and controlled by commodity exchanges in developed nations so giving this year’s budget the title ‘Transformational Agenda: Securing the Bright Medium Term Prospects for the Economy’ does not mean anything economically,” he pointed out.