General News of Wednesday, 22 November 2017

Source: classfmonline.com

Minority threatens court action over ‘illegal’ 2018 budget

Section of the Minority in Parliamnet Section of the Minority in Parliamnet

The Minority in Parliament is threatening a court action over what they say is an illegal budget that was presented to the House last week by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

According to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs who are considering the legal channel among a wide range of options available to them, the presentation of the 2018 financial statement flouted portions of the public financial management act.

This comes on the heels of assertions by Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah for the opposition MPs to go to court if they feel the budget is unconstitutional.

But speaking to Class news, Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak said the foundation on which the 2018 budget was read on the floor is alien to the laws of the land hence their decision to contest the matter in court.

“It is an option that we are looking at because we think that, what they [government] did amounts to an illegality. We never had the revised budget and all of a sudden you are saying we have a revised budget. That is an illegality and you used the revised as the basis for most projections,” he lamented.