The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bole-Bamboi constituency who is a Ranking member for Trade Industry and Tourism committee as well as the Public Accounts committee,
Hon Alhaji Yusif Sulemana has described the 2024 budget presented by the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta last week as empty and deceptive.
Alhaji Yusif Sulemana made these observations on the floor of parliament during the 2024 budget debate on Thursday 23rd November, 2023.
According to Hon Yusif, the Finance minister’s decision to title the budget as the “Nkunim” budget, suggests that he was being deceptive to Ghanaians because it was empty and didn’t deserve the celebration he was inviting Ghanaians to.
Making some references to the budget the MP said; “Mr. Speaker, let me prove to you that this budget is empty and useless, I listen to the MP for Akontobra, Hon. Alex Tetteh in his efforts to defend the useless budget, he had to resort to lies, Mr. Speaker, he said the NDC government never secured funding for the Tema/Akosombo railway, I put it to him that it is not true and that on the 24th of November, 2016, The then deputy minister Mrs. Mona Kottey signed an agreement with the Export/Import Bank of India and that loan was passed by this important house.
So in your efforts to struggle to defend this budget you must be honest with Ghanaians.”
Hon Yusif Sulemana added that after listening to some submissions of the Minister of Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who admitted that the local economy is challenged and the standard of living has declined, he can say it is the honest truth by a politician who has said the truth.
The Hon MP for Bole-Bamboi Constituency also asked if the Minister of Finance and by extension the NPP government was inviting Ghanaians to celebrate: the high interest rates, the collapsed economy, the unprecedented inflation, the junk state of our currency or the massive corruption the government has led the country into?
He said; “This budget should have been thrown to the dogs we don’t need it here”.
He added; “This is my 7th year in this parliament and you can see they themselves are running from this debate because the is nothing in it. It is useless, empty and deceptive.”
The Bole MP futher said that, instead of engaging in slogans, the government should concentrate on finding solutions to the country’s problems.
Source: nkilgifmonline.com
