At the commencement of proceedings on the floor of parliament on Monday, November,13,2023, a decision has been taken to now hold the 2024 post-budget workshop in Accra-parliament.
“Democracy has finally decided and the people have prevailed on their representatives to decide that this year’s post-budget workshop be held here in Parliament,” Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin had stated
Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, had announced that the Post Budget Workshop would be held at the Rock City Hotel in the Eastern Region from November 17 to November 19, however, members of Parliament were divided on whether to resort to the Rock City Hotel or the Volta Serene Hotel for the workshop on the basis of it costing financial drain to the country.
Member of Parliament for Buem Constituency in the Oti region Honorable Kofi Iddie Adams who called for it to be held in parliament, had also told the press that a calculation made by himself shows that parliament will spend not less than 1.4million should the workshop be held outside.
But at the commencement of proceedings on Monday, the Rt. Hon Speaker explained that the budget is a critical budget coming after the government or the country’s agreement with IMF, of which most of the terms of the agreement are not known to members and therefore it’s critical to get the usual professionals and experts to assist honorable members digest the proposals in the budget and information.
He went on to say that experience has shown that anytime attempts are made to hold a post-budget workshop in parliament, it has not been successful hence the decision to be looking outside.
“Because it’s been a lot of disruptions anytime we attempted doing it on the floor of parliament, a lot of members not usually present, those present can’t focus”.
“Yes we are aware of the economic situation as well as sensitive to what is happening not only in Ghana but the world but unless we don’t want to do a good job or the country doesn’t want any input from parliament, then we can decide to host it here” he added
He further added that the report of the technical committee looked at a number of facilities and the estimates of participants among others and came out with recommendations, a copy of the report he says will not compel anybody to support parliament hosting the workshop at “Rock City Hotel”.
He lamented that parliament was lambasted for a decision it had not yet taken.
Minority leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson disclosed that the venue for the post-budget workshop was never discussed at the committee meeting. “ Mr Speaker, in fact, the draft business committee statement that was submitted to us, prior to the meeting has nothing to do with the venue of the post-budget workshop” he explained
Majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu contributing to the matter, also alluded to the fact that maximum attention and concentration of honorable members is not enough when held in Accra.
“On two occasions when we held the workshop at GIMPA, one participation was poor and those who participated soon after the inauguration, many left others were distracted in many ways and we took a decision that it’s better to have these workshops outside Accra, so for participation and maintaining the focus, outside Accra is a better option and that’s what we’ve been doing”
On the issue of cost disparities between Rock City and Volta Seren Hotel, the management of Rock City Hotel according to the information available has had a second look at its cost, making it the same as Volta Seren Hotel.
A final decision was hence taken that the 2024,post-budget workshop will be held in parliament.
“reporting will definitely be on Saturday early in the morning, we will use the floor of the house as the main conference room but the other conference rooms will serve as side workshops and the model has changed. We will now not listen to lectures from experts but training of trainers, you yourself will have to be trained on how to analyze the budget from sector to sector going through the estimates yourselves, drawing your attention to various alternatives which will gender healthy debates on the floor” he ruled
Source: Mary Quartey
