Another Reason Why Ken Ofori-Atta Must Be Censured – Different Figures Reported as Cost of Free SHS In 5 Years To Parliament And Matters Arising | Features

As it's already identified publicly, the NDC in Parliament has filed a movement, sponsored by Hon. Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka and 128 of us - to move a vote of censorship on the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta; in accordance with Article 82 of the 1992 structure of the Republic of Ghana.

This historic movement, slated to be moved on Thursday, November tenth, 2022, consists of seven particular expenses leveled towards Ken Ofori-Atta. Thus, the aim of this text, is to offer a selected instance of conduct by the Finance Minister which is intentionally dishonest and disrespectful to Parliament, for which sanctions are justified. I'll illuminate my case with figures Mr. Ofori-Atta introduced to Parliament in 2021 and 2022 as complete value of funding Free SHS in 5 years, from 2017-2021.

The distinction between the price in 5 years, reported as GH¢7.62 billion within the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget and the reported value for similar interval, GH¢5.3 billion within the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget is GH¢2.32 billion. This is and stays problematic. I present particulars under.

On Wednesday July 21, 2021, Ken Ofori-Atta, in response to a query as as to whether government had taken a mortgage to fund the implementation of the Free SHS coverage I requested, mentioned the next in reply: “Mr Speaker, government has taken no mortgage to particularly finance the Free SHS coverage. The Free SHS has since its inception been financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and from the Government of Ghana (GoG) funding sources. Over the 5 years, a complete quantity of GH¢7.62 billion has been allotted to implement the Free SHS programme. Out of this quantity, GH¢4.18 billion was sourced from GoG, representing 54.76 %, whereas the steadiness of GH¢ 3.44 billion representing 45.24 %, got here from ABFA."

This reply is captured within the Parliamentary Debates, Official Report, on Wednesday twenty first July 2021, Fourth Series Vol.113 No.32, column 040-041.

Just a few days later, Ken Ofori-Atta introduced the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana, to Parliament on Thursday, twenty ninth July, 2021. He repeated what he mentioned in response to my Parliamentary query.

In paragraph 284 on pages 49-50, he mentioned: "Mr. Speaker, the Free SHS School Policy has since its inception been financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and Government of Ghana (GoG) funding sources. Over the five years, a total amount of GH¢7.62 billion has been allocated to implement the Free SHS Programme. , cam from ABFA."

Given, that he repeated the response to my query within the Mid-Year Review Budget of 2021; that "GH¢7.62 billion had been spent to implement the Free SHS programme," and an additional breakdown of "GH¢4.18 billion (54.76%) from GOG sources and GH¢3.44 billion (45.24%) from ABFA," it got here as a shock that he surprisingly reported GH¢5.3 billion as the overall funding made to implement the identical Free SHS for a similar interval, from 2017-2021, within the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget.

For the avoidance of doubt, Ken Ofori-Atta introduced the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana to Parliament on Monday, twenty fifth July, 2022. In paragraph 466 on web page 90 of the official assertion, Ken Ofori-Atta is quoted as follows: "Mr. Speaker, we have invested in the future of our children through the Free SHS where GH¢5.3 billion has been spent to enable 1,261,495 student have access to secondary education."

The all of the sudden much less and unexplained value of funding the Free SHS coverage was additionally verbally said by Ken Ofori-Atta, throughout his 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review Speech on Monday, twenty fifth July, 2022. The video recording of his speech captures him vocalize the next , below Free SHS Program. In paragraph 60 on web page 17, Ken Ofori-Atta mentioned: "Mr. Speaker, we have placed human capital development at the core of our national transformation efforts since 2017. We have invested GH¢5.3 billion to enable 1,261,495 Ghanaian children access secondary education under the Free SHS program at the end of 2021 to improve access to education."

This unexplained reporting of a far much less value of implementing the Free SHS program in 5 years as captured in official Parliamentary information, and paperwork made accessible by Ken Ofori-Atta himself to Parliament, offends Parliament in each manner, form and type. How can the Minister report GH¢7.62 billion as the overall value of Free SHS in 5 years, present a breakdown in nominal (GH¢4.18 billion GOG and GH¢3.44 billion ABFA) and in proportion phrases (54.76% GOG and 45.24% ABFA ) in reply to my query, repeat similar within the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget, all of the sudden, with out clarification, report a generic GH¢5.3 billion as the price incurred in implementing the identical Free SHS program in 5 years within the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget Statement and as contained in his 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review speech?

Reporting vastly totally different figures of GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion as value of the identical programme, Free SHS, for a similar interval, 2017-2021, a distinction of GH¢2.32 billion to Parliament, is questionable. If the sooner figures reported in 2021 had been in error, the right factor to do was to withdraw the GH¢7.62 billion reported, clarify what occasioned the error, apologise and search go away of Parliament to amend to the proper determine, since information of the home already captured GH¢7.62 billion a 12 months earlier as value of Free SHS in 5 years. This was not, and nonetheless has not been carried out. So, because it stands, Parliamentary information have each GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion as the price of Free SHS from 2017 to 2021. This can't be allowed to go unchallenged.

Though I've filed inquiries to the Minister of Finance in search of an evidence to this questionable and contradictory reported value of Free SHS in 5 years, it's essential to share this particular instance with Ghanaians to additional justify why Ken Ofori-Atta have to be censured. Like the opposite offenses we've introduced as expenses towards Ken Ofori-Atta, it's sure that the totally different figures, GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion respectively, had been deliberate, to deceive Parliament and to hide the reality. This and different such deliberate dishonesty in reporting to the individuals by way of Parliament should entice probably the most extreme sanctions. Indeed, Ken Must Go!