The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has postulated that an area of the governance structure that requires attention is the inefficiencies in government spending.
He explained that higher budgetary allocation alone may not translate into socioeconomic outcomes unless specific measures were implemented to correct the underlining inefficiencies in spending.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame in the Ashanti Region, asked Committees of Parliament to trace and track allocations that were made to various sectors of the economy in order to assure the citizenry there was value for money in expenditures that were made on their behalf.
Making the observation at a post-2022 budget statement workshop in Ho on November 20, he indicated that, “it is worrying that below 10 per cent of the total working population in the country are registered taxpayers” and wondered how “the government is going to be able to generate enough revenue to embark on development projects with statistics in place.
“The government has not been able to raise enough domestic revenue to develop the country. our inability to raise enough domestic revenue to meet government expenditure with less than 10 per cent of the total working class registered as taxpayers, how can the government implement policies, programmes and social intervention to improve livelihoods.
“This is quite worrying and requires urgent steps to be corrected.The committees of Parliament are required to trace and track allocations that are made to various sectors of the economy in order to assure citizens there is value for money in expenditures made on their behalf,” the majority leader proffered.
Dr Alex Ampaabeng, Fiscal Policy Specialist at Oxfam, said the Minority MPs should be blamed if disapproved because the approval of the 2022 budget statement which was presented to Parliament by Ken Ofori Atta, the Minister of Finance on November 17, requires the support of lawmakers from both sides of the House.
“If the tax on mobile money transaction (E-levy) is approved by Parliament, the National Democratic Congress Members of Parliament should also be held liable, not only those on the government’s side since the tax would counter the government’s agenda of ensuring cashless stem because people would now resort to relying on cash transactions,” he cautioned. -3news.com
