The mid-year budget review presentation by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has been rescheduled to Thursday, July 27, 2023.
This was disclosed on Friday, July 21, by the Second Deputy Majority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, who presented the business statement for the ensuing week in Parliament.
“The committee also took into account a formal communication from the Finance Ministry that the mid-year budget review will be presented on Thursday, July 27, 2023, instead of Tuesday, July 25, 2023, as announced by the business committee,” Mr Iddrisu stated.
But that was not welcomed by some legislators.
The First Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, expressed worry that the rescheduled date is in contrast with the directive of the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, that the mid-year budget review be presented on July 25.
“Parliament and the Church of Pentecost (CoP) are holding a development conference. The date 27th was chosen by the right honourable speaker, and upon that, the former president and the current president and members of parliament are all invited and are all going together with the speaker. So when the speaker gave the date, that date had been used in making all the adverts.”
“And beyond that, when the house was mentioning the 27th, the tentative idea was that the house was to go on recess on the 9th of August, and the speaker said the 9th of August may be too late for the house to go on adjournment because the house is supposed to adjourn on the 3rd August and due to that if the mid-year budget review is presented on the 27th, it will be to close to the 3rd August. So combining these two issues, thus the joint conference by parliament and the CoP and the closeness of the date of adjournment, the speaker entreated the house to present the mid-year review on the 25th,” Mr Ahmed bemoaned.