By: Augustus Acquaye
Parliament has approved 2.74 billion cedis for the services of the government machinery for next year. Government Machinery consists of the office of the President and public organisations which fall outside sectoral responsibilities for which the office of the President exists to provide administrative, managerial and technical services.
They include Council of State , Ghana Aids Commission, State Protocol, Scholarship Secretariat and the Millennium Development Authority.
The Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah Amoako put the vote for the budget approval.
The approval however did not come without the Minority registering their deep concern over the high figures captured in the budget of the Office of Government Machinery, OGM.
Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson said the increase in the allocation for next year compared to this year raised more questions than answers citing for instance the office of the President having a budget increase of over 100 per cent.
He was alone as other members raised similar concerns stating that some bureaucracies created under the OGM were a duplication of the responsibility of existing State Agencies and so must be scraped.