The World Bank is expected to provide Ghana’s Parliament $200,000 to support the recruitment of Economists and acquisition of ICT Infrastructure to enable Parliament establish and operationalize a Budget and Fiscal Analysis Office. The office will among other things support the Legislators with daily updates and analysis on the economy and the financial economic transactions of the government to ensure that the House discharges its constitutional Obligations efficiently and effectively.
The Budget and Fiscal Analysis Office will also play a supporting role to the proposed Committee on Economy expected to be established with the review of the Standing Orders to among other things serve as an Oversight mechanism for monitoring the health of the Ghana’s economy and fiscal performance of Government. “In pursuance of this, the Office of the Speaker and Leadership are currently engaging the World Bank for financial and Technical Support.
It is refreshing to note that the Bank has already pledged an amount of US$200,000.00 to support the recruitment of Economists and acquisition of ICT infrastructure to enable the Office Commence operation”. This was said in a statement read on behalf of the Speaker of Parliament Mike Aaron Oquaye by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu at the 2019 Post -Budget Workshop.
The Speaker urged Members of Parliament to properly scrutinize the 2019 Budget taken into consideration the global economy at large since planning and allocation of resources has become a non-isolationist endeavor as the world has become more integrated than ever before, therefore economic shocks in any part of the World could impact on Ghana’s economy.
On his part, the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu stated that with the high number of unemployment and poverty rate bedeviling the country, “the National Budget which is a fundamental tool for the implementation and ensuring the sustainability of government programmes must be carefully interrogated to assure ourselves that it meets the Basic tenets of prioritization and value for money…..and to determine the extent to which its addresses our developmental Challenges”.
