Govt budget to be ready in February (Spread)

THE first budget under the Mills administration is expected to be ready by February 15, 2009.
The document would then be submitted to Cabinet for approval and subsequently to Parliament for presentation by March.
This was made known by the Director of Budget at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr Kwabena Adjei-Mensah in an interview in Accra.
Mr Adjei-Mensah said preparatory work to get a budget for the year had already begun, adding that the personnel at the ministry were poised to complete the work in accordance with a timetable presented to the ministry by the Sub-committee on Finance within the transitional team.
He said the timetable indicated that Cabinet would be in place by the time the budget would be ready, to enable the group study it before its submission to Parliament.
At a meeting with members of the Parliamentary Press Corp in Accra on Tuesday, the Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, gave hint that the Mills administration would present its first budget by March, this year.
During the interview, the Director of Budget said there had been meetings between officials of the ministry and the three-member team appointed by the President, to take temporary responsibility for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to deliberate on the issue.
The team, which has now moved to the ministry from its base at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), is led by the Agbogbomefia, Togbe Afede XIV. The other members are Mr Moses Asaga, a former Deputy Finance Minister and Dr Kwame Duffour, a former Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
A visit at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning by the Daily Graphic in Accra on Wednesday indicated that the three-man team was in a meeting with senior public officials at the ministry.
In an interview, the spokesperson for the transitional team, Ms Hannah Tetteh, confirmed that preliminary work on the budget had begun.
She said since much of the preparatory work was usually done by the technocrats at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, members of the sub-committee were expected to make the necessary inputs on behalf of the government at the initial stage.
She, however, stated that a substantive Finance Minister would be appointed in due course to supervise the final work of the budget to make sure that it reflected the policy of the new government.
Government business is currently being run on a financial statement prepared earlier by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to enable the new administration operate smoothly till it comes out with its own.
A former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Anthony Osei-Akoto, laid before Parliament the expenditure in advance of appropriation for January to March 2009 and the estimates of revenue and expenditure of the government for the 2009 fiscal year.
The then First Deputy Speaker, Mr Freddie Blay, referred the paper to the Finance Committee of Parliament for consideration. It was later approved by Parliament.
Meanwhile, the President has directed that until substantive ministers are appointed, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) are not to make any payments or enter into any contract for purchases.
That was made known by the Presidential Spokesperson, Mr Mahama Ayariga, who said at a press briefing in Accra that, “Any emergencies should be refereed to the Office of the President.”
The President said further that all non-statutory payments, including all cheques deposited with the banks but not yet cleared, should be referred to the Office of the President for approval.