Ministry of Foreign Affairs under resourced - MPs

Members of Parliament on Thursday bemoaned the low budgetary allocations given to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the year and called for a reversal of the trend.

They contended that even though the Ministry generates a lot of money through passport fees and other consular activities, it hardly gets the needed resources to carry out its mandate effectively.

Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, Minister of Foreign Affairs, was defending the Ministry's budget which stood at 322 billion cedis.

Mr Kofi Attor, NDC-Ho Central and Ranking member, said:"Somebody is not taking the Ministry serious. The Budget statement did not have even one sentence on the Ministry, its 43 mission abroad are all struggling."

He said the ministry should be empowered to keep part of its internally generated revenue.

"Even though it generated 5.5 million dollars in 2002, not even a cent of that money was retained for crucial projects and programmes."

Alhaji Abukari Sumani,NDC-Choggu/Tishigu, said most people see the Ministry as a waste pipe hence its woes.

"We should not forget that whatever we receive as grants, loans or gifts from abroad is initiated and received through the Ministry."

He asked that the Ministry's budgetary proposals be done in the dollar index so that people would appreciate the "load it carries"

Later in the day the House approved the budgetary proposals of the Ministry of Roads and Highways which stood at 944,486 million cedis.

It also approved 1.679 billion cedis for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to run on for the year.