Ken Ofori-Atta
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Friday
returned to Parliament to make an amendment in the 2020 Budget Statement of the
government presented to the House last Wednesday, which inadvertently omitted
the construction of some critical roads in the Volta Region to include those
omitted roads in the budget.
According to the Finance Minister, critical
roads to be constructed in 2020 which were captured on table 21 in the budget
statement inadvertently omitted those under the Volta Region; therefore, after
the presentation of the budget, his attention was drawn to the omission by the
Volta Regional Minister, Archibald Letsa, and the Minister of Energy, John
Peter Amewu.
He, therefore, came to make those corrections
and announced three major roads that were to be considered critical for
construction in 2020 under the 2020 Budget.
He mentioned the critical
roads as the 45 km Asikuma-Have road, 83 km Have-Hohoe-Jasikan road and the 99 km
Ho-Dzodze-Denu road.
He said apart from that, the Ho bypass road,
upgrading of the Akatsi town roads, upgrading of Kpando town roads, upgrading
of Ketu South roads and upgrading of Ketu North roads had been prioritized by
the Ministry of Roads and Highways for construction in 2020.
He also said the new Volivo Bridge over the
Volta River would be constructed while maintenance on the bridge at the Lower
Volta at Sogakope would be done.
The Volta Caucus of Minority National
Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament on Thursday held a press conference to
say that the government intentionally left the region out of the equation in
terms of road construction.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said it
was good that the minister came to do ‘the appropriate thing.’
He, however, noted that the mode of amendment
was not legitimate and that a mere statement cannot be made to amend a motion
for the presentation of the budget.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu,
said that was not the first time that such omissions had occurred in the
presentation of budget statements.
He said during the time of the former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, such omissions were made in the budget and insertions made later in Parliament, and so the Minority should not make any political capital out of that but rather praise government for making the necessary corrections.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr
