National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for North Tongu says he feels appeased by the decision of the Finance Minister to amend the 2020 Budget to include the Volta region in a list christened “Critical Regional Roads Projects.”

In a Facebook post on Friday, the Former Deputy Minister of Education, thanked all those who joined him in his advocacy to get this done and said he harbours no grudge against “those who sought to needlessly vilify” him.

The 2020 budget had omitted the Volta region from a list of roads to be constructed because they were “critical.” 

This prompted Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to question the equitable distribution of State resources.

“Why is provision not made in the 2020 Budget for critical road projects in the case of only the Volta Region?

“More fundamentally, how will Government justify this aberration in the face of the 1992 Constitution which enjoins Governments to undertake even and balanced development in all regions?” He asked on his Facebook Wall barely 24hours after the budget presentation on Wednesday by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.

This has now been explained as “inadvertent” by the Minister.  

“As it turned out on page 160 of the Budget document, the Volta Region was inadvertently left out,” he admitted in a statement to Parliament on November 15, 2019. 

According to Ken Ofori-Atta, all Regional Ministers were asked to submit a list of critical roads which require immediate attention for which three roads projects were prioritised for the Volta region.

These are Asikuma-Have (45km), Have-Hohoe-Jasikan (83km) and Ho-Dzodze-Denu (99km) roads.

Read the entire budget statement here: Full document: 2020 Budget and Economic Policy of gov't