PRESS RELEASE Members of Parliament yesterday concluded debate on the 2014 state of the nations address delivered by President John Dramani Mahama after two weeks of heated arguments and interpretations from both sides of the House. The Majority Leader, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor and the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, made the final contributions to draw down the curtain on the debate. Dr Kunbour, in his submission, commended all the members for their contributions to the debate and described the debate as the most dramatic debates on sessional addresses in the House. He said the presidents address was in accordance with Article 67 of the constitution, adding that he was not under any obligation to touch on issues relating to government policies. According to him, the law makers, in contributing to the debate, dropped a number of debris along the way as the debate proceeded and explained that some members confused the presidents role under Article 34 of the 1992 Constitution with Article 67 of the Constitution. The President had no responsibility to deal with thematic areas in his government. In fact, he was not bonded to deal with state of government but rather the state of the nation, he said and that most of the contributors to the debate touched on issues relating to government policies and not the state of the nation. On the economy, he said one issue that escaped the attention of the contributors to the debate was deficits in the previous budget. Dr Kunbour, who is also the MP for Nandom said donor commitments, which had been a visible component of the governments expected revenue had been substantially reduced and attributed that phenomenon to the deficits recorded in the countrys previous budgets in recent times. On plans to restructure the countrys economy, he said economic restructuring was not an activity that could be done by one government within a single term and urged the government to lay down the structures for successive governments to continue with the restructuring process. He also urged Economists in the country to analyze the extent to which donor commitments exacerbated the deficits that had been recorded in previous budgets and help find solutions to the problem.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 14:36:48 +0000
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