The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, has bemoaned that the 2009 budgetary allocation of GH¢73,108,536.00 for his ministry for personnel emoluments, administrative expenses, services expenditure and investment activities is woefully inadequate.

He said this amount is not enough to enable the ministry and its outlays abroad to adequately undertake critical high yielding activities that can actually bring more benefits to Ghana from her relationship with the rest of the world. Addressing media practitioners at the weekly meet the press series in Accra, the Foreign Affairs Minister pointed out that his ministry requires a lot of money to run its operations but hardly receive enough from government to enable them operate optimally.

Alhaji Mumuni stressed that due to the ministry’s extremely low budgetary ceiling, “Most of our Missions have been unable to carry out their programmed activities. Many of our Missions, for instance, have for protracted periods been indebted to landlords and face threats of ejection for non payment of rent.” He said Ghana’s Missions in Dakar and Luanda, among others, face such an embarrassing plight.

He cited the fluctuating conversion rate of the cedi against other currencies as well as charges imposed by banks on transfers to Ghana’s Missions abroad as some of the contributory factors to this problem. “The foreign exchange component of our operations at the time of preparing the Ministry’s current budget was pegged at the rate of GH¢1.00 to the US$1. But as I speak now, the rate is US$1 to GH¢1.50. This has had serious implications for the implementation of our Mission’s budgets and seriously affects the meeting of statutory and non-discretionary expenditure, including the payment of local staff salaries,” he stated.

However, Alhaji Mumuni noted that within the constraints his ministry’s budgetary allocation, a number of activities shall be undertaken, such as the phased provision of computerized document processing facilities, the initiation of online application procedures and travel advisory, the modernization of consular receptive facilities of Ghana’s Missions abroad, the gradual registration of Ghanaian nationals abroad under clear privacy protection rules, the activation of Umbrella National Association abroad and the enhancement of interactions between such Associations and Ghana’s Missions abroad.

The Foreign Affairs Minister observed that as a result of the consular service the ministry abroad, it was able to generate for government each year, an average of US$5million from consular fees and other consular charges. He consequently hinted that it is “Imperative that government should take a second look at our essential requirements with view to approving a workable budget for our operations, especially in this era when we are expected to utilize the important tool of economic diplomacy as a catalyst for national development.”

The Minister also used the occasion to reiterate the advice that while migration is a necessary phenomenon in an era of globalization, it is important that Ghanaians travelers going abroad ensure they obtain the requisite entry documentation of their intended destinations and comply with the visa requirements including their return, when due. Continuing, he said it is also important that Ghanaians abroad, who are qualified to extend their stays or seek long term residency, should ensure that they make the necessary application before the expiration of their visas, in order not to be on the wrong side of the local laws.