The Government of Ghana has asked Parliament to reschedule the Mid-year review from Wednesday, July 13 to July 25, 2022 to give them more room to fully attend to the demands of the visiting International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials who are in the country to assess government books for a possible bailout programme.
The Ministry of Finance was scheduled to address Parliament on the performance of the economy for the first half of the year in a mid-year review, however, addressing the press in Parliament on Tuesday, July 12, 2022 on the subject, a Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare has justified the need for the Parliamentary exercise to be postponed.
According to her, the Government needs more time and space to properly engage the IMF officials. She said, “This very mission is for data collection and we need all the space and time to enable us give them all the data they are requesting for. That is how come we are asking Parliament to postpone the mid-year budget review.”
The Deputy Finance Minister further justified the fact that the Government was still within the statutory provisions of the country since it has up till the end of the month of July to present the mid-year review to Parliament according to the PFM Act.
“So, clearly as human as we are, we should all understand that in this data finding mission of the IMF we need that space and time to address that and give them.
“Once we are done, on the 25th we would come to Parliament and do the mid-year budget review. And you should all know that per the PFM law, we have up until 31st of July do that and so it is within the law” she emphasized.
Ghana has started some engagements with the IMF for an economic bailout programme. The IMF officials have been in town since last week and they are supposed to leave on Wednesday.
They have so far concluded a meeting with the Office of the Vice President, Dr. Mahamud Bawumia, who doubles as the head of the Economic Management Team and the Finance Committee of parliament. Watch video here.
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
