By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Parliament has urged the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori Atta, to support the State Broadcaster, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, to pay what the Committee has described as a legacy debt to the tune of GH¢ 51,598,085 as the House acknowledged the precarious financial circumstances of the Information Ministry and its other agencies under it.
While encouraging GBC to vigorously pursue its revenue mobilization agenda to support its activities, “the Committee urges the Ministry of Finance to provide additional funds to clear the legacy debt and to meet the Corporation’s investment expenditure shortfall”.
This came to light when the MPs debated the report of the Committee on Communications on the Annual Budget Estimate of the Ministry of Information for the year ending 31st December 2023.
The Committee observed “the prevalent funding challenges facing GBC” and that, the under-funding of the operations of the State Broadcaster has not only undermined its capacity, but, has caused the Corporation to contend with huge legacy debts arising from Judgement Debts, Electricity Bills and Long Service Awards.
The report revealed that, despite the frantic efforts of the GBC to pay its debt, “it is still battling with a legacy debt of (GH¢51,598,085).
The funding capacity of GBC would worsen in view of the meager allocation made to the Corporation for its investment activities in 2023″.
The report said, “Officials of the Corporation informed the Committee that though GBC requested an amount GH¢7,412,088.02 to meet its investment expenditure in 2023, an amount of GH¢4,769,893.32 has been approved by the Ministry of Finance for that purpose”.
