The Member of Parliament for Builsa South Constituency in the Upper East Region, Clement Abas Apaak, has said that cutting down on needless expenditure should be part of government’s priorities in the Mid-year budget review.
According to him, one of the ways this can be done is for the Akufo-Addo government to cut down the size of the presidential staffers who are over 1200.
He quizzed what exactly Akufo-Addo is doing with such huge numbers of presidential staffers amidst economic hardship.
Speaking in an interview with Ghanaweb’s Nimatu Yakubu Atouyese, he said, “I’m expecting government to cut down on needless expenditure, I’m expecting government to focus on the key strategic parts of the economy that we need to overcome current economic challenges that we have.
“Government should completely scrap freebies. For example, why do we need over 1200 presidential staffers, what exactly are they doing at the presidency? Department and agencies have two PROs, does it make sense? People are just being paid for doing nothing. So, these are some of the areas I would want to see some cuts,” he said. Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister will on Monday, July 25, present the Mid-Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government and Supplementary Estimate for the 2022 Financial Year to Parliament.
This is pursuant to the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).
Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Leader, added that, Members of parliament would be given the opportunity to give brief comments of the statements which have been scheduled for July 26, 2022.
The leadership will also give a concluding submission on the statement on July 27, 2022.
