{"id":444223,"date":"2017-12-06T08:52:43","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T08:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/12\/06\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\/"},"modified":"2017-12-06T08:52:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-06T08:52:43","slug":"parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/06\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament approves 2018 budget despite Minority\u2019s opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Business News of Wednesday,  6 December 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>todaygh.com<\/p>\n<p>2017-12-06<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/80855947.295.jpg\" alt=\"Ken Ofori Atta Budget17\" title=\"Ken Ofori Atta Budget17\" width=\"295\" height=\"209\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125817929577\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125817929577\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/1512550363_7_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\"> Parliament has approved the 2018 budget and financial policy statement of government, presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to the House in November 2017.<\/p>\n<p>The minority, who had expressed opposition to the budget statement since it was laid in Parliament, abstained from the vote.<\/p>\n<p>The various committees in Parliament will now be tasked with assessing the estimates and allocations made to the various sectors in the budget.<\/p>\n<p>Majority Leader, Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, praised his colleagues from both sides of the House for subjecting the statement to intense scrutiny before it was passed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to show appreciation to my colleagues in the House, Majority and Minority for the scrutiny that they applied to the budget before us. We are going to deal with the estimates and I want to implore all my colleagues to be in attendance at all the committee meetings in order for us to be able to deal with the estimates that have been given to the various committees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The minority had earlier called for the budget statement to be withdrawn, arguing that the government had reviewed some key economic targets without recourse to the House.<\/p>\n<p>A former deputy Finance Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, had said that \u201cthe minister responsible for finance cannot revise the expenditures and revenue without parliamentary resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also said the government\u2019s budgetary allocation for the Nation Builders\u2019 Corps was \u201cnothing to write home about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also noted that the minority\u2019s calculations indicated that each of the 100,000 youth to be recruited under the programme, would receive a little over GH\u00a2400, which is woefully inadequate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Speaker, the said graduates will not take home more than GHC400, this is dangerous. Mr Speaker, that GHC600,000 they intend to fund the programme with is not coming from the government of Ghana. It is going to be taken from the District Assembly Common Fund. You\u2019re going to constrain the district assemblies just for the purpose of funding it. This, in my opinion, is an extension of the national service scheme,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>However, the majority, unperturbed by the concerns that had been raised by their colleagues, dared the minority to go to court if they remain convinced that the 2018 budget breaches the laws of the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we pass an appropriation, we say that \u2018spending not exceeding,\u2019 meaning the Minister of Finance can spend up to the appropriation, so if he does not spend up to appropriation does he have to come back to Parliament?  No!  If it were the case that he exceeds the appropriation, then he has to come back to Parliament, but he has not exceeded the appropriation.<\/p>\n<p>In the mid-year review on 31st July, we decided that it is a statement and should not come by way of motion, but if he [Ato Forson] is saying that it was unconstitutional and he has stayed all this while waiting for a budget before, then you are doing a disservice to the nation, and the proper forum to test that one is the Supreme Court,\u201d the Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah, said at the time.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Us4U4sDvwaY?ecver=2\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 55 updated by: 55 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Business News of Wednesday, 6 December 2017 Source: todaygh.com 2017-12-06 Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta Parliament has approved the 2018 budget and financial policy statement of government, presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to the House in November 2017. The minority, who had expressed opposition to the budget statement since it was laid in Parliament, abstained [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":399388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Parliament approves 2018 budget despite Minority\u2019s opposition - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/06\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Parliament approves 2018 budget despite Minority\u2019s opposition - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Business News of Wednesday, 6 December 2017 Source: todaygh.com 2017-12-06 Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta Parliament has approved the 2018 budget and financial policy statement of government, presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to the House in November 2017. The minority, who had expressed opposition to the budget statement since it was laid in Parliament, abstained [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Parliament approves 2018 budget despite Minority\u2019s opposition\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-06T08:52:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":538,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Local News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/\",\"name\":\"Parliament approves 2018 budget despite Minority\u2019s opposition - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-06T08:52:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/06\\\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Parliament approves 2018 budget despite Minority\u2019s opposition - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/06\/parliament-approves-2018-budget-despite-minoritys-opposition\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Parliament approves 2018 budget despite Minority\u2019s opposition - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Business News of Wednesday, 6 December 2017 Source: todaygh.com 2017-12-06 Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta Parliament has approved the 2018 budget and financial policy statement of government, presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to the House in November 2017. 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