Joe Wise wisely counted himself as the 138th MP as Parliament approved the 2022 budget
Ghana’s Parliament has rescinded its earlier decision to reject the 2022 budget and has now ruled that the ruling rejecting the budget on Friday, November 26, 2021, presided over by the Rt. Honourable Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin was illegal and thus has no grounds, thus has been nullified.
Today’s sitting which was presided over by Honourable Joseph Osei-Owusu had only the Majority side of the house present with the Minority boycotting the sitting after negotiations on the budget broke down.
However, believing that their absence would render the house insufficient of the required number to carry out usual business, the NDC’s decision has been made a mockery of by their counterparts on the Majority side.
Honourable Joe Wise, sitting in for Rt. Hon. Bagbin who has travelled outside the country for a medical checkup praised his boss for his knowledge in the law and of the rules of the house. He, however, was on a simple mission, to correct the error his boss committed last Friday and that meant reversing the decision made on Friday and now doing the right thing which eventually led to the approval of the 2022 Economic Policy and Budget Statement after it was re-tabled by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
In another twist, the Minority has called the bluff of what their counterparts did today and have threatened to use only headcounts to determine issues that would come to the house. Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, the Minority Leader stated that “cooperation has suffered” and that the only option now is to use the headcount.
Discussions between the two sides of the house and also the Finance Minister could not yield a consensus with the NDC taking an entrenched position on issues such as the E-levy through which the government will tax all electronic transactions by putting a 1.75% tax on it.
By: Clifford Adumbire | myactiveonline.com
