By Adu Koranteng
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, Paul Apraku Twum Barimah has indicated that the Approval of the 2022 Budget and Financial Statement by the Parliament of Ghana on Tuesday 30th November 2021 was constitutional.
Honourable Twum Barimah noted that the Minority cannot supress government and bring government business to a halt just for their parochial partisan interest against the larger interest of the people of Ghana.
He said there was a need for the budget to be approved to keep government business running and therefore urged the good people of Ghana to disregard the claims and propaganda by the Minority in Parliament regarding the passage of the budget.
According to him approving the budget was constitutional to enable the state provides salaries and funds for civil and public service operators in a bid to prevent government business from running to a halt.
He said the majority in Parliament went through all the constitutional provisions and requirements to approve the budget and NDC lacks the number to reverse it.
Parliament approved the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government presented by Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta on November 17 on Tuesday
The budget was approved in the absence of MPs from the Minority, who declined to participate in the business of the day for reasons best known to their members.
The First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu, counted himself as an MP making the Majority Caucus in the House 138 members. Paul Twum Barimah said the First Deputy Speaker did the right thing because he represents a constituency and had to make known the voice and interest of his constituents.
The House has now began considering the budget estimates in the coming weeks for specific sectors of the economy before passing the appropriation bill to give government the green light to spend according to monies appropriated in the budget.
Meanwhile, Majority Leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said the approval of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government, on Tuesday, November 30, is to set the records straight by the House.
He said at the time Parliament voted on November 26 to reject the Budget, the House lacked the legal and the constitutional capacity to take that decision.
He said based on Article 104 of the Constitution, which was fortified by Parliament’s Standing Order 109, what was done by the House on November 26 was in flagrant violation of the Standing Orders and the Constitution.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stated this at a press conference after 137 Members of Parliament (MPs) from the Majority side voted to reinstate and approve the 2022 Budget and Economic Policy.
In all there were 138 Majority MPs in the House including the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu, MP for Bekwai, who presided.
However, the First Deputy Speaker did not part take in the voting because he was Presiding as the Speaker.
The Minority was absent from the Chamber at the time of voting.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said that was not the first time the House had undertaken such a procedure and recalled that a similar thing happened during Edward Doe Adjaho’s days as the Speaker.
Quoting from a ruling by the Supreme Court, which was extracted in the Parliamentary Hansard, he read: “Indeed, this is not the first time the House is facing this problem, the Speaker should have followed precedents set by his predecessors when a similar case arose in the Sixth Parliament on the 22nd of December 2015, the then First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ebow Barton Oduro, after reading Order 109:1 of the standing orders ruled that the whole voting process was an exercise in futility”.
That was akin to what the Majority did by voting to reinstate and approve the Budget, he said.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said according to Mr Adjaho, who understood the imperatives of their rules, statutes and the Constitution, there was no quorum.
The quorum to do business required one third of the House to take a decision.
“So, at the time that the votes were taken (on November 26), this House lacked the legal, in fact, the Constitutional capacity to take the decision,” he said.
The Majority Leader said he entirely endorsed the position taken by the First Deputy Speaker that the House did not have the number constitutionally to take a decision at the time.
“So, compatriots what we have done is just to recognise the fact that what happened on that day was a complete violation of the Constitution, it cannot stand any constitutional test or even the test of our own Standing Orders.”
‘It is the reason why we said that it is nullity, it is void and is of no effect,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said.
“So, for emphasis, the Budget of 2022 was never rejected by the house, today the records have been set straight.”
