The Finance Committee of Parliament is demanding a thorough breakdown of the Ministry of Finance’s request for GH₵500 million from the Contingency Fund to tackle drought being experienced in parts of the country.
The Finance Minister, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, made the request following President Akufo-Addo’s directive to raise GH₵8 billion relief package to assist farmers.
This amount is expected to “complement this withdrawal, as government is mobilizing support from Development Partners as well as realigning approved fiscal operations in the 2024 Budget.”
But the Ranking Member who doubles as Bolgatanga Central MP, Isaac Adongo, has said the committee cannot just approve the request without knowing what the allocation entails.
Mr Adongo is therefore seeking information on the status of previous advances, a detailed breakdown of beneficiaries, and the specific budget allocation for the requested funds.
“We want to see the budget related specifically to how the funds of the GH¢500 million would be applied in dealing with the matter. So those are the concerns that we raised.
“The committee did not take a decision whether or not to approve it but we will take a decision subject to the provision of that data and the message that data communicate to the committee,” he said in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM.
The lawmaker emphasised the need for a comprehensive breakdown of beneficiaries at the regional, district, and community levels for the GH₵500 million support.
The breakdown he noted must identify specific individuals who would benefit from the funds.
Recounting similar events during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2024, the lawmaker said the committee approved a $200 million advance from the Stabilisation Fund to the Contingency Fund.
This he said amounted to $1.2 billion at the time due to exchange rates and the committee has requested an update on the status of this advance and its replenishment.
He explained that a budget before the committee outlines a total fiscal implication of GH₵8.36 billion but their focus currently is on the GH₵500 million request.
“The committee unanimously agreed that certain compliance issues must be met with. In 2020 during the COVID era, the committee was called upon at the time to advance an amount of $200million from the stabilisation fund into the contingency fund which at the time with exchange rate amounted to $1.2 billion. We requested that they furnish us with the status of that advance…We are four years into the disbursement of that $1.2billion. We requested the ministry to give us an update as to the status of the replenishment of those funds.
“We noticed that the budget that they submitted to us was the budget for the entire fiscal implication of the action which is the GH¢8.36 billion but we are not funding the GH¢8.36 billion. We are funding GH¢500million,” he stated.
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