Asiedu Nketia ‘exposes’ Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu over 2022 budget

Majority Leader accuses Bagbin of frustrating approval of 2022 budget

Bagbin rejects accusations on 2022 budget

Parliamentary Service Board rejects inclusion of new chamber in 2022 budget

Johnson Asiedu Nketia, a member on the Parliamentary Service Board, has dismissed claims by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu that the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, is stalling discussions on the 2022 budget because his wishes were not granted by government.

Asiedu Nketia reports that the budget for parliament was prepared by Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s office and it had no input from the Speaker.

“What is happening is due to Kyei-Mensah’s leadership and his abhorrence for the truth. I doubt he knows the word truth. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu prepared the parliamentary budget and Speaker complained that the accountants did not show it to him before we went for board meeting. How can speaker dictate what should be captured in the budget.

He says the Suame MP is peeved because his attempt to have the New Parliamentary chamber captured in the budget was rejected by the board.

“Kyei-Mensah is angry because he added the new chamber to the budget and Speaker rejected it. That is why he is hurting and saying all kinds of things about the Speaker. He is the one who prepared the budget. The first time Bagbin saw the budget was when it was presented,” he said.

He stated that Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu only dabbles in falsehood because he is unable to appreciate the truth.

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress said that it is difficult to engage the government’s side on issues in parliament because of characters like Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

He went ahead to list instances where Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu reported differently agreements reached behind closed doors.

Asiedu Nketia’s comment is in relation to Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu assertions that the Bagbin is deliberately frustrating total approval of the 2022 budget because he wanted Parliament to be allocated a specific amount of money.

“We are where we are because in my view of the genesis of the presentation of this budget, the day when this Budget came to be presented, we were in the chamber, and we all saw that after the Finance Minister had walked in, we had to be at the Speaker’s office for close to 1 hour. We were not coming out.

“Why weren’t we coming out? We were not coming out because we had a Speaker who told the Finance Minister that because he had not given parliament an amount of ¢1.72 billion, that he the Speaker has requested the Finance Minister to give to Parliament, he the Speaker was going to ensure that the Budget was rejected. That is what happened that day,” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu claimed.