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The Member of Parliament for Ofoase-Ayirebi and Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has said government won’t be able to pay salaries if the 2022 Budget Statement is not approved.
According to Oppong Nkrumah, should Parliament fail to approve the budget statement, then the country “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.”[ads2]
Speaking on Accra-based Okay FM, 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. [ads3]
“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 Accra-based Okay FM.
This follows the minority decision to reject the budget statement after the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta presented it in Parliament on November 17, 2021.
The Finance Minister has written to the Speaker of Parliament over modifications of portions of the 2022 budget following public reaction.[ads4]
He said, though, consultations would continue with respect to the implementation of the E-levy but “The full consequences of not passing the budget are serious. This would imply that from January 1, 2022, for the government to continue work, we would need to obtain parliamentary approval to spend in advance of the appropriation either than that, the entire government would have to shut down which will mean to name a few, no salaries for almost 700,000 public sector workers including doctors, nurses, teachers, personnel of the security services and others.”[ads5]
