The Ranking Member of the Finance Committee in Parliament, Isaac Adongo has accused the Office of the President of engaging in reckless and irresponsible expenditure after Parliament approved GH₵2 billion for the office in the 2024 budget.
According to him, many institutions under the Office of the President were cited for overspending their budget by the Finance Committee.
The Chief of Staff’s office, the Press Office and the Cabinet Secretariat all exceeded their allocated funds.
Mr Adongo questioned where the Office found the extra money to spend, and urged them to show leadership by avoiding overspending.
He emphasised that the Chief of Staff Secretariat, under the Office of the President, is very ‘reckless’ in expenditure.
“Mr. Speaker, how on earth can you get releases of GH₵131 million and be able to spend GH₵144 million? You are given GH₵133 million, but you magically spend GH₵144 million. How do you get that money? It means something wrong is happening there, and the office or the Chief of Staff is making expenditures irrespective of whether you release funds to the office or not.
“We need to get to the bottom of how that office is able to find the money to spend when it has not even been released. When we release GH₵131 million, we expect you to spend GH₵131 million [but] you spend GH₵144 million, and we don’t know where you got that money from,” he said.
Mr. Adongo further clarified that the Cabinet Secretariat had a budget of GH₵4.5 million, stating that as of September when the year had not ended, they spent GH₵7.6 million.
“So clearly, the Office of the President is not part of our budget. They spend as they wish, they don’t care about appropriation, and all they are doing is spending money that you don’t know how they got it.
“Now, when you budget for GH₵4.5 million, you have not even ended the year [and] you are already spending GH₵7.6 million, overspending their budget by September by almost 3 million, which is against the Public Financial Management Act,” he stressed.
The Ranking Member on the Finance Committee maintained that the Press Secretariat, also under the Office of the President, was released GH₵89,000, but they spent GH₵162,000.
“I don’t know how the Office of the President is able to find those monies that have not been given. When you release GH₵89,000 and expect them to spend GH₵89,000, they spend GH₵162,000.
“So Mr. Speaker, this is the office that is supposed to be signaling to the whole government how to be responsible in our fiscal management, and that is the office that is really guilty of being fiscally irresponsible,” Mr. Adongo stated.”
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