Parliament yesterday debated and adopted the 2018 Budget
Performance Report of the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives which
generated a lot of controversy between the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP)
members and Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) members with regard to
the actual amount released to the ministry and projects that were initiated by
the ministry.
The Chairman of the Employment, Social Welfare and State
Enterprises Committee of Parliament (which scrutinized the budget performance
before the adoption), Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, said that despite the limited resources
made available to the ministry, the ministry, which is a new one, was able to
achieve a lot within the year under review.
The Minority NDC led by the NDC MP for Yapei/Kusawgu, John
Jinapor, criticized the government, especially the President, for making
campaign promises of developing the constituencies by allocating $1 million to
each constituency every year but since taking office just about 8% of that
amount had been released. He said the committee itself which scrutinized the
budget performance was not happy with the paltry release of budgeted amounts to
the Ministry by the Ministry of Finance.
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said that the amount
promised by the government was not intended to be given to MPs but rather to
the development authorities and in collaboration with the various district
assemblies initiate development projects according to the peculiar needs of
each constituency.
He, however, urged the committee members to visit all the project sites to ensure that there is value for money for all the projects being undertaken by the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr
