An amount of 3, 649, 004 Ghana cedis of oil funds allocated for the re-branding of Metro Mass Rapid Transit buses generated huge controversy in Parliament yesterday.

 Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu says the allocation is unacceptable and a waste of resources.

“The branding of each bus costs 31, 000.00 cedis and this is too huge and unacceptable,” he asserted.

The Member of Parliament for Suame constituency quoted the figures from the 2015 annual report on the Petroleum Funds.

The amount captured under the annual Petroleum Fund is meant to brand 116 MMRT buses with pictures.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu questioned government’s priorities especially when key sectors of the economy are underfunded.

The issue however could not be addressed by the Transport Minister Dzifa Attivor when she appeared before the legislators. She claimed said she did not have the details of the re-branding at hand and promised to make it available to the House at a later date.

The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho said the matter has been referred to Roads and Transport Committee in parliament for review.

Presenting the Roads and Transport Committee’s report to the house, Chairman of the Committee, Theophilus Tetteh Chaie said the 2015 approved budget for the Ministry and its agencies were drastically revised downwards to GH 50,047,963 by the Ministry of Finance from GH 179, 767,991.

Accra-based Citi FM Mr. Chaie as saying the reason for the revision was because “the expected revenue inflow was particularly affected by the slump in the international oil price.”

He added that the “committee however could not review the 2015 ceiling for the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) item since the mid year review did not specify the reduction for the Ministry.”