The former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Dormaa East constituency, Paul Apraku Twum Barimah, has raised alarm about the whopping GHc2.7 billion Ghana cedis allocated to the Jubilee House in the 2025 budget.
“It is strange to note that the Mahama government which promised to run a lean government in its 2nd term with about 60 ministers and 40 presidential staffers currently, has allocated a huge sum of GHC2.7 billion to itself in the 2025 budget and plans to spend freely,” he contended.
He has therefore called on civil society to carefully monitor and scrutinize the budget and pile pressure on government to reduce its proposed unnecessary expenditure.
According to Paul Twum Barimah, the allocation to the Jubilee house is too big for a so-called lean government with 60 ministers and 40 presidential staffers compared to the 327 million allocated to the same seat of government in the 2024 budget; under the Akufo Addo government which the NDC described as Large at the time.
He quizzed “How can a government that promises fiscal discipline and aims at reducing public expenditure allocates such a huge sum of money to itself. I see this act as the beginning of corruption in this government and I urge the civil society to closely monitor the expenditure pattern of the government. We need to follow and monitor the money to save this country from the wrath of this government.”
Appendix 4a, in the budget statement on page 133, allocates GHc2.7 billion to be spent at the office of government machinery in 2025 for compensation, meanwhile President Akufo-Addo used GHc327 million in 2024 for the same office under for compensation.
“Besides, the budget of GHc78 million cedis and GHc70 million respectively allocated to government communications and research department at the office of the president are far in excess of the budgetary allocations to almost five miniseries under president Akufo-Addo. This is beyond reasoning,” he said.
