Dr Kwabena Duffour sharing some thoughts with MP for Manhyia Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh. Pix by Gifty Lawson
Government has given GH¢50 million to the Electoral Commission (EC) to begin biometric registration of all Ghanaian voters ahead of the 2012 polls.
According to Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, the monies have been released to the commission to specifically implement activities preceding the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Critics including the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) have all clamored for biometric voting in the next elections scheduled for next year in order to promote fairness and transparency in the general elections.
However, it is not clear whether biometric voting will be applied during the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Seeking parliamentary approval for GH¢1.463 billion when he presented a supplementary budget to the House yesterday, the Finance Minister said, “To advance the cause of democracy through transparent, free and fair elections, government has released GH¢50 million to the EC to implement activities preceding the 2012 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.”
Pushing for the acceptance of the motion, Dr. Duffour said, “Based on the budget submitted by the Electoral Commission, over GH¢80 million will be needed for the biometric exercise, of which GH¢50.8 million will be required in 2011. Government has therefore released GH¢50 million to the electoral commission to implement activities preceding the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.”
According to him, government was committed to ensuring that the EC replaces the voters register for the conduct and supervision of the 2012 elections.
He also emphasized that the government had released an amount of GH¢8 million, out of an allocation of GH¢25 million for the 2011 fiscal year, adding government would release the rest of the funds to SADA to ensure a speedy implementation of programmed activities.
Touching on the need to get more funds to fund government projects, he said developments in both the domestic and global environment had necessitated some variations in the assumptions underlying the 2011 Budget and Economic Policy presented to the House in November 2010
“Notable among these is the following, the passage of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, (Act 815)”.
Key provisions in the law, he said, had direct implications for the estimation of the benchmark revenue, determination of the annual budget funding amount, and transfer of funds into the Ghana Petroleum Funds Account.
Secondly, the receipt of two major inflows from the World Bank, and the sales of AngloGold shares in lieu of royalties expected in 2010, were realized in the first quarter of 2011, he explained.
He said a total of GH¢1.1 billion cash payments have been made to reduce arrears owed to road contractors, Statutory Fund and state owned enterprises (SOEs). Additionally, GH¢891.3 million in bonds have been issued to creditors as part of the liquidation strategy.
On revisions to expenditures, he said an amount of GH¢327.3 million is estimated to be transferred to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation as its equity and cash ceded to it out of the carried and participating interest.
He said following revisions made to the projections for VAT revenue, NHI levy and total tax revenue in general, transfers to the Ghana Education Trust Fund, National Health Insurance Fund and the District Assemblies Common Fund are estimated to be higher than were earlier projected.
Some specific programmes that will be supported with part of the supplementary funds include Sakumono Sea Defence Works, Sanitation, Schools under Trees, Rural Electrification and National Flood Control Programme. They have all been allocated GH¢7.5 million, GH¢15 million, GH¢7 million, GH¢15 million and GH¢3.55 million respectively.
Others are the construction of ferry on the Black Volta, Office of Parliament and National Youth Employment Programme. They will each get GH¢6 million, GH¢16.339 million and GH¢10 million respectively.
By Charles Nixon Yeboah & Awudu Mahama
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