Parliament has approved the sum of GH¢13, 265,310.00 to finance the implementation of the programmes and activities for the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) for the 2023 financial year.
The 2022 fiscal year approved amount for NDPC was GH¢22,409,000, however, the allocation was revised downwards during the mid-year budget review to GH¢16,421,159.00 and as of September 2022, only GH¢5, 446,191.95 representing 33 per cent of the revised budget was released to the Commission.
The release, therefore, is related only to compensation and goods and services with no releases for capital expenditure.
In 2023, the NDPC among its activities would be the provision of technical backing for the formulation of sector policies and review of draft policies; the development of a blue economy strategy; the continuation with the evaluation of the goals of selected Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the African Union Agenda 2063.
The Commission would also formulate a national care policy, develop tools for mainstreaming policies like the food system transformation, nutrition security, gender, and climate change; the scaling up and deployment of legislative and policy almanac application, review and finalise the long-term perspective plans as well as monitor the effective implementation of local economic development.
Mrs Abena Osei-Asare, a Deputy Finance Minister moving the motion for approval in Parliament on said approval of the Motion would also help the Commission to establish a National Monitoring and Evaluation System to augment its work.
Seconding the Motion, Mr Kwaku Agyemang Kwarteng, Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, outlined the summary of the Commission’s allocation for the 2023 financial year as Compensation of employees, GH¢7,950,493.00; goods and services, GH¢5,072,190.00 and capital expenditure GH¢242,628.00 making a total allocation of GH¢13,265,310.00.
According to Mr Agyeman Kwarteng, the allocation would be expanded under the core expenditure items of management and administration at GH¢11,693,120.00 and the national development policy planning at GH¢1,572,190.00 making a total amount of GH¢13,265,310.00.
He urged the Ministry for Finance to release the allocation for capital expenditure to the Commission to enable it to meet its planned Information Technology infrastructure upgrade.
Speaking in support of the Motion, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, Minority Leader, called for an increased allocation to the Commission saying, “Mr Speaker, the Commission “deserves more than the allocated amount,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu however, called for the need for the revision of the constitution to recompose the NDPC.
In a related development, the House also approved the sum of GH¢50,229,759 for the services of the Office of the Head of Civil Service for the year ending December 31, 2023.
The Motion was moved by Mrs Osei-Asare, a Deputy Finance Minister, and a New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Atiwa East, and Seconded by Mr Agyemang Kwarteng, Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee and MP for Obuasi West on the ticket of NPP.
