The Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, John Jinapor, has raised concerns about the possibility of overspending beyond what the government has captured in the 2024 budget.
According to the Yapei-Kusawgu lawmaker, records have shown that the incumbent government had a bad record in election year expenditure.
Speaking in Parliament on the 2024 budget debate, Mr Jinapor noted that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was not convinced that the government would stay within its budget and not overspend.
“Mr. Speaker, for the record, in 2016, in the updated data, the deficit was 6%, and I refer to the IMF Ghana decision May 2023 document.
“In 2020, under the current government, the budget deficit was a whopping 17%, and it has never happened in the country’s history, and in that year, no country had that deficit of 17%,” he indicated.
During the presentation of the 2024 budget statement and economic policy in Parliament on Wednesday, November 15, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta was optimistic that the nation was gradually overcoming its economic challenges.
He said the government has established a robust foundation for the future prosperity of the Ghanaian economy.
However, the Minority Leader, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, maintains that the budget was empty and did not provide solutions to the current economic crisis.
“The 2024 budget is useless. It solves nothing. It is empty. What are the issues confronting Ghana today? High unemployment, high poverty rate, businesses collapsing, high lending rate, monetary policy hitting the roof, economic growth trying to do under 2 per cent, high inflation.
“These are the issues confronting the people of Ghana, and the budget must confront these issues,” Dr Forson said in a post-budget interview on November 20.