Andy Kwame Appiah Kubi, spokesperson for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament from the majority caucus, demanding the removal of Mr Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister, has reiterated their stance not to participate in the 2023 Budget hearing and passage if President Akufo-Addo insists on keeping him in office.
Mr Appiah-Kubi, who is the NPP MP for Asante Akyem North said per their consultation, the majority of their constituents and NPP members were in agreement that, Mr Ofori-Atta should be removed from office.
He said the members disagreed with the suggestion that it is only Mr Ofori-Atta who can present the 2023 Budget.
“If he is not there, can’t others present the budget,” Mr Appiah-Kubi questioned in a radio interview on Accra based Oman FM monitored by Graphic Online on Monday morning (November 21, 2022).
“We have lost confidence in him because in the 2022 Budget, he promised that with an E-levy and property rate, there will be no need to go to the IMF for support… As we speak now, that has not happened and the property rate is even yet to take off.”
“We are not convinced that it should be Ken Ofori-Atta and nobody else,” Mr Appiah-Kubi added and insisted it is their “political decision” that Mr Ofori-Atta must go for “the collective interest” of the NPP.
Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah, a former NPP MP for New Juaben and former chairman of the Parliamentary Finance Committee had appealed to the NPP MPs to support the 2023 Budget hearing, debate and the passage of the appropriations since time was of essence.
He said when it comes to the Budget reading, it is possible anybody at all can read it provided the person was a Minister of State, but the chunk of the thorough work demands that the Minister and his team must lead.
“It will be suicidal for the minister to be taken off at this crucial hour,” he said.
This is not the time for that, “to what end, what will it profit us. Even if a new minister is nominated today, it will not take this short period to swear that person into office. That person is likely to be sworn into office in 2023. The deputy ministers can also not perform the function of the substantive minister,” Dr Assibey Yeboah added.
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