Low budget allocation to state bodies bad – MP

South Dayi MP Rockson Dafeamekpor has questioned the low allocation of funds to some constitutional bodies including the National Labour Commission, while allocation to the Office of the President has seen an increase.

He believes the limited funds to the said bodies might negatively affect their efficiency and smooth running.

Speaking to Class News, Mr Dafeamekpor also wondered why other less important agencies had ready access to funds at the detriment of the very important ones like the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), National Labour Commission (NLC) and the Electoral Commission (EC).

“In the budget, commensurate allocation ought to have been done for the Electoral Commission to anticipate that they will be busy preparing the ground or making themselves ready to undertake… elections, but it doesn’t appear so from the budget.

This year, the allocation is GHS33.55million and next year is just about GHS34million and the projected allocation for them in 2019 is about GHS39million, but you see that within the same period the allocation to the office of government machinery has doubled from about GHS1.6billion to about GHS3billion.

Within the same period, the allocation to national security will triple and yet the allocation to a lot of the constitutional bodies, especially the Electoral Commission, National Media Commission [will not go up]. ...The case of the Labour Commission is so pathetic that they have less than GHS3million allocation in the budget. How will they function?” he bemoaned.

Meanwhile, government has defended the GHS1.56 billion allocated to the office of the President with the explanation that the money will be used to roll out many of their fresh initiatives such as the 1-district-1-factory, 1-village-1-dam projects, the Zongo Development Fund, and others.