Mills bars ministers from travelling, till after budget

President John Evans Atta Mills has directed all Ministers and their Deputies not to undertake any travel or assignment outside the country until the national budget has been presented, debated and passed.

He further directed Ministers currently on leave outside the country to return home with immediate effect.

The directive will enable the Ministers to make an input into this year’s budget “in a more focused manner”, in line with the President’s “Better Ghana” agenda.

The Communications Director at the Presidency, Mr Koku Anyidoho, told the Daily Graphic at the Castle, Osu, in Accra yesterday that “the President is demanding strict compliance with this directive”.

He said the directive would also affect Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives.

He said the budget was the blueprint in which the government’s agenda would be determined and defined.

Mr Anyidoho said the President had declared this year’s budget a more visible and deliverable one in which all efforts must be in play to ensure that it had “a strong foundation upon which the economy could be built”.

He said the President believed that making inputs into this year’s budget should be done in a more co-ordinated and focused manner, hence the need for the key players to be in the country at a time their services were needed.

President Mills, early this week, suspended indefinitely the Offinso-South Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Victor Amponsah, following an official complaint lodged with the Presidency about his conduct.

Mr Amponsah allegedly travelled to the United States of America without official permission.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, who seemed to be unhappy with the conduct of Mr Amponsah, lodged the complaint this week and indicated to the Daily Graphic that the MCE was on his way out of office.
Source: Daily Graphic