Bagbin Wants Mid-Year Budget Presented Before July 27

The Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has urged the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to consider presenting theMid-year Budget Review before July 27, 2023 to enable the House adjourn sine die on August 3, 2023 due to other commitments.

Majority Leader and leader of government Business in the House, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu had earlier announced that the mid-year budget presentation was scheduled for July 27 with the house expected to adjourn on August 9, 2023.

However, Speaker Bagbin says the House cannot sit beyond August 3 due to some other urgent commitments.

“The House has to rise before August 9 because there are commitments that the House cannot ignore which we will have to be part of. Some of these commitments are international and some are domestic, so we have to be on recess before that. So this is a notice to the Minister of Finance to try as much as possible to submit the mid-year Budget and Supplementary Budget Review earlier than being perceived because we have to work on it and approve it before August 10.”

“And so the last day we could get to convene and sit here could be only August 3, and we cannot go beyond that because even with the August 3, we would have been late to attending the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association [programme].”