Deputy Minister of Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson has stated government is keen to ensure there are no budget overruns this election year clarifying at a stakeholders consultation workshop on the 2017 budget in Accra that government is determined to sustain fiscal discipline while investing prudently in infrastructure and social development.
The workshop was to solicit inputs from stakeholders in the planning, formulating, implementing, monitoring and evaluation of the national budget.
He said to advance budget transparency, Ghana has signed on to the open budget initiative to promote transparency and accountability in budget management, towards ensuring citizens participation.
He said for improved budget transparency and accountability, the stakeholder consultation process has become one of the pertinent methods to improving good governance and proper accountability to the citizenry.
The minister stated in line with provisions in the 1992 constitution and 2016 being an election year, the full budget would not be presented to parliament in November but rather government will seek parliamentary approval to cater for expenditure for the first quarter of 2017 so that government machinery does not grind to a halt.
“This is to allow, whoever, emerges as the winner of the 2016 elections and also the incoming parliament to approve the budget they will be overseeing,†he stated.