General News of Thursday, 21 February 2019
Source: Myjoyonline.com
2019-02-21
President Akufo-Addo addressing the Parliament of Ghana
Addressing Parliament Thursday, the President announced that under the new budgetary realignment programme each constituency will get “$1 million a year for priority projects.”
“We have re-aligned the national budget to ensure that every constituency gets the cedi equivalent of $1 million a year for priority projects,” the president said.
President Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo delivering the 2019 State of the Nation’s Address (SONA) explained that evidence of these priority projects is “the water and toilet provision segment of the Special Development Initiatives taking place in every constituency.”
“We came into office with a plan, Mr. Speaker, and I am happy to say that we are working and delivering in accordance with that plan,” he told the Parliament of Ghana.
The SONA to Parliament was President’s third since he assumed office in 2017. The annual address is in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which states: “The President shall, at the beginning of each session of Parliament and before the dissolution of Parliament, deliver a message on the state of the nation.”
The president made the announcement of a million dollars for each constituency to underscore the fact that the creation of the six new regions has not shifted governments’ focus from its core function of developing the rest of the country.
In his words “Mr. Speaker, no corner of this country is being left behind. I am able to state, and every member of this House should be able to testify, that work is going on in each of the 275 constituencies around the country.”
This groundbreaking announcement from the president would seem to contradict earlier information by the Minister for Special Development Initiatives, Mavis Hawa Koomson, who was reported by the Chronicle newspaper last year as saying 2017 US$1 million per constituency promised by the government has expired with the budget for that year.
According to her, the US$1 million was not a statutory fund like the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and other forms of funds, so when the budget expires, the funding ends with it.
