Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Information Minister and Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayerebi in Ghana’s Eastern Region, has warned that if the current budget is not passed, the government may be unable to pay salaries in 2022.
According to him, if the Finance Minister’s proposed budget for 2022 is not approved, the government’s only option is to set aside money for three months in 2022, after which the country will grind to a halt.
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He made this known when he spoke to Accra-based OKAY FM in an interview.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said “if we are unable to do the appropriations, we have the opportunity to allocate funds to sectors of the economy for three months after which we have no power to spend.
We will not be able to pay salaries, we will not be able to service our debts, we will not be able to pay for power, the country will grind to a halt as a result of our inability to work on the appropriations”.
The Lawmaker said it is therefore imperative that the appropriations are worked on in Parliament and passed in order for government business to go on as expected for the growth of Ghana.
“There is the need for us to work together as a house to ensure that we pass the various appropriations so that Ghana can move forward towards the right direction,” he said on OKAY FM in Accra.
The Government of Ghana has for the first time had difficulties in approving its budget for a fiscal year.
The government has been forced to modify the budget presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister because the Minority in Parliament are said to not be happy with some of the levies and other programmes the government intends to undertake and implement in 2022.
The Minority believes that these levies will bring untold hardship to the people of Ghana and therefore have kicked against the 2022 budget.
