[ 2017-03-10 ]

MPs clash over budget 'plagiarism'
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of
Parliament (MP) for Asunafo South in the
Brong-Ahafo Region and Majority Leader Osei
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu clashed on the government’s
2017 budget when the former accused the ruling New
Patriotic Party (NPP) of plagiarising aspects of
the NDC’s 2016 budget.

The Asunafo South MP, contributing to the debate
on the budget yesterday, said the NPP, realising
that the NDC’s budget of 2016 had good policies,
plagiarised some aspects relating to coffee
production in the country.

He said the NPP lifted word-to-word paragraphs
405, 406 and 407 of the 2016 budget and inserted
them into paragraphs 373, 374 and 275 of the 2017
fiscal statement.

Paragraph 273 of the 2017 budget says principally
that the government has allocated GH¢2.04 million
for the procurement of five million improved 
coffee planting seedlings for free distribution to
coffee farmers while in the 2016 budget, paragraph
405 also talked about government allocating
GH¢2.0 million for the procurement of two million
improved coffee planting seedlings for free
distribution to coffee farmers.

But Eric Opoku said the whole content was lifted
into the 2017 budget which is not only a clear act
of plagiarism, but an admission that NDC’s
policies were also good enough for the NPP to
adopt.

The majority leader said the assertion by Eric
Opoku was palpable untruth because when two
budgets are compared, the figures quoted are not
the same.

“Mr Speaker, if my colleague opposite is making
that argument it means he does not understand what
he is talking about because comparing the two
documents, the amounts quoted are GH¢2.0 million
and GH¢2.04 million respectively while the number
of coffee farmers to be given such assistance are
two million and five million respectively so they
cannot be the same,”

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out, stressing that
indeed comparing the two, the NPP would use
GH¢2.04 to procure five million improved
seedlings for coffee farmers but the NDC used
GH¢2.0 million to procure just two million
improved seedlings for coffee farmers – meaning
all the money mentioned in the NDC’s budget was
not used for the purpose stated in the budget.

Mr Eric Opoku said the NPP was only offering lip
service to improving agriculture in the country,
stressing that after the then flag bearer, Nana
Akufo-Addo, had promised the people of the
Brong-Ahafo Region that his administration would
establish Cashew Marketing Board to promote the
production of cashew in the region, nothing was
said about cashew production in the 2017 budget.

The Asunafo South MP noted that the government’s
budgetary allocation for the agricultural sector
is almost twice that of the NDC in 2016, yet no
concrete policy was mentioned in the budget to
show that there would be improved agricultural
production – meaning the money quoted for the
agriculture sector could be used for something
different.

The NPP MP for Akwapim South, O.B. Amoah, who also
contributed to the debate, said the NDC left the
worst legacy in sanitation.

He said after making a lot of noise of procuring
$633 million loan for improving sanitation in the
Accra Metropolitan Area, the city is still
engulfed in filth.

“The NDC had an abysmal and poor waste
management programme after creating Waste
Management Fund of $74 million,” he noted. He
said the NPP would implement the National Urban
Programme to bring life into the major cities in
Ghana..

Mr Amoah said unlike the NDC which invested GH¢84
million into the Local Enterprise and Skills
Development Programme (LESDEP) but no results were
achieved, the NPP would implement its ‘one
district, one factory’ programme and achieve
greater results under it.

He said the 2017 budget would achieve
macro-stability and create the enabling
environment for the private sector to thrive and
in so doing, help to create more jobs for the
teeming unemployed youth.

“This budget is a budget of hope, a budget that
will sow the seed for growth and jobs and bring
greater hope to all Ghanaians,” he said, adding
that the NDC must rather support such a
life-transforming budget and not criticise it.

Source - dailyguideafrica.com

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