The minority in Parliament has provided reasons why they believe the 2020 budget is suffering from Kwashiorkor
According to the minority, most of the expenditure in the budget is meant for consumption leaving out capital expenditure.
Speaking during the 2020 budget debate in Parliament, Minority spokesperson Cassiel Ato Forson said the Finance Minister should tell Ghanaians where the rest of the money which will not be used for capital expenditure will go.
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He added that based on the fact that most of the monies being borrowed by the government are going into consumption and leaving the rest of the economy, the budget is suffering from Kwashiorkor.
".....Mr Speaker let me take you to Eurobonds that have been issued over the period, in the budget statement, the Minister instructs that he is going to issue two eurobonds amounting to 17.15 billion Cedis, what he says it that of this amount one will be interested where this amount will go, unfortunately we all know that you go to this capital market to borrow for investments that can repair when the repairment time is due but this money is going into consumption not investment, Mr Speaker, i can tell you if you are to analyse the budget and you are to look at the appendices, domestic capital expenditure excluding AFA is only 740 million Cedis, domestic.........including...... is only 740 million Cedis so what it means is that you go out there to borrow 17.1 billion Cedis and spend 740 million for capital expenditure and the remaining 16.41 billion you used it for consumption, Mr Speaker the Minister needs to tell us what he is going to use the remainder of the money for, Mr Speaker 2018, 2019 and 2020 this adminstration has consistently gone to the capital market, in the year 2018 they went to the capital market and raised an amount of 5.1 billion Cedis of this amount only 1.2 billion was used for capital expenditure the remaining 3.89 billion went to consumption, in the yar 2019 and raised 13.1 billion of this amount they only used 469.7 billion cedis for capital expenditure, the Minister should tell us where the rest of the money is, over the period they intend to raise 35 billion from the capital market, capital expenditure over the period amounting to 2.9 billion and a big amount 33 billion cedis we al don't know what the Minister is going to use the money for, now if you are to llok at all the capital expenditure from 2017 to date, so far the administration has spent 15 to 26 billion Cedis only on capital expenditure, inspite of that this administration has inherited a public debt of 120.3 billion cedis out of this amount and as at September 2019, our public debt has risen to 208.6 billion Cedis, this means that over the period 33 months in office they have 88.3 billion cedis, what will surprise you Mr Speaker is that only 15.6 billion of this amount has been used for capital expenditure sadly Mr Speaker my question is where is the remaining 72.7 billion cedis? from what I've told you it's clear that our budget is suffering from Kwashiorkor..."