Parliament suspends GHȼ6m 2018 budget for office of Senior Minister

Parliament on Monday suspended the approval of the 2018 budget estimates for the services of the Office of the Senior Minister, after an application by the Minority Leader that the office had to be backed by legislation.

During the consideration of a report to approve the estimate, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, who is also the MP for Tamale South, argued that the position of the Senior Minister should have been backed with an Executive Instrument.

He was of the view that the absence of the Instrument made the Office of the Senior Minister not valid and therefore would not qualify for allocations to be made to it.

Consequently, the GHȼ6 million budget for the Office of the Senior Minister, headed by Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo was withdrawn.

The approval of the budget was held back after contributions from the Minority Side pointed out that the name of the Office of the Senior Minister was not contained in the list of the Executive Instrument outlining the various ministries.

Meanwhile, the House has approved an estimate of GHȼ52.26 million for the Ministry of Business Development; GHȼ198.35 million for the implementation of the programme of activities of the Ministry of Aviation; and GHȼ544.29 million for the Ministry of Railways Development for the 2018 financial year.

Source: GNA