[ 2016-08-23 ]

Government prepares for 2017 first quarter spending
Government is to seek parliamentary approval to
finance its operations through Expenditure in
Advance of Appropriation instead of a full budget
for the first quarter of 2017.

The Expenditure in Advance of Appropriation, is to
enable government to run its machinery during the
first three months of 2017, in the absence of a
full budget statement.

According to a Deputy Minister of Finance, Cassiel
Ato Forson, in line with provisions in the
constitution, the full budget would not be
presented to Parliament in November because 2016
is an election year.

Also, the new cabinet taking office in 2017 would
have to approve the budget which it will oversee.

He made the remarks when he addressed the media
after a stakeholders’ consultation workshop on
the 2017 budget in Accra.

The stakeholder consultation forum was organized
to solicit the input of various stakeholders on
the 2017 budget and forms part of government’s
commitment to improving the budget process to
enhance transparency and accountability.

According to Mr. Forson, Ghana has signed onto the
Open Budget Initiative which is an international
movement promoting transparency and accountability
in budget management, towards ensuring that
citizens are best served through government
budgets.

Government in 2016 sought parliamentary approval
for over 50 billion cedis [GH¢ 50,109,851,734].

At the time, Finance Minister Seth Terkper cited
developments on the global economy such as
declining global prices of gold and the
fluctuating prices of cocoa on the global
markets.

Also, government in its 2016 budget statement
pegged the country’s economic growth target at
5.4 percent which has since been revised to 4.1
percent.

However prevailing economic conditions including
the declining commodity prices, culminated in the
presentation of a mid-year budget review and
supplementary budget on July 25, to seek approval
to spend about 1.8 billion cedis.

Delivering his presentation, Finance Minister,
Seth Terkper also indicated of some adjustments to
some projections initially made in the 2016 budget
statement.

For instance, government revised the oil
production and revenue targets from 53 dollars per
barrel to 45.35 dollars per barrel and 1.4 billion
cedis to 2 billion cedis respectively.

Source - citibsinessnews.com

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