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The Majority Leader in Parliament Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has indicated that any Minister of State, whether for Roads or for Communications, can be nominated by the President to present the budget statement to Parliament.

At the time of the presentation, he explained, that person will act as the Minister responsible for Finance in the interim.

Speaking in Parliament on Friday November 11, the Leader of Government Business in Parliament said “Article 179 states that the President shall cause to be prepared and laid before Parliament at least one month before the end of the financial year, estimates of the revenues and expenditure of the Government of Ghana for the following financial year.

“The budget statement and economic policy is the President’s own work programme for the country into the ensuing financial year. The President refers that to Parliament through the Minister of Finance.

“Any Minister of State is capable of being nominated by the President of Ghana to do that. At the time, that Minister will be described temporarily, as Minister responsible for Finance, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it should be done mainly by the Minister of Finance. This explains the reason why the other day, when the Minister of Finance was indisposed, I was tasked to stand in for him.

“I will suggest to you that we could even have the Minister responsible for Communications or the Minister responsible for Roads to be here. We could have also have the Minister responsible for Finance to be here to do that. The answer, as I told you, lies in Article 179, the language is clear.”

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu further indicated that the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has informed the legislature that he is working to ensure that the 2023 budget statement is presented to the House on November 24.

“Given the circumstance now, the Minister has informed us, in fact, he has written, that he would rather prefer to come here and work everything out in such a way that on the 24th, he will do the delivery here,” he said.

The budget was supposed to have been presented on the 15th of November but Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu indicated earlier that it was going to be pushed forward due to the ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He said this to journalists on Thursday November 3.

“I am yet to have discussions with the Minister responsible for Finance to determine exactly when he will be able to present to us,” he said.

The Leader of Government business in Parliament added “it will be difficult to submit to the 15th deadline, I don’t know , I ma just conjecturing.”

“Nothing should be done which will eventually become wishy-washy. They want to have the best to be able to uplift us from where we are as a country.

“And that being the case, if we want to do a thorough job, I think there will be too much pressure if it has to be done on the 15th,” he added.