The Minority in Parliament has tasked the Interior Ministry to see to the immediate increase of the feeding grant for prison inmates which currently stands at a paltry ₵1.08 pesewas per day.

The Caucus said government cannot continue to feed prison inmates with such a paltry amount, a figure they described as woefully inadequate.

Contributing to the debate to approve the allocation to the Interior Ministry, Ranking Member on the Defence and Interior Committee, James Agalga, said the current feeding grant does not reflect the current inflationary trends.

“I will like to make a special request to the Ministry of Finance that something urgently needs to be done about the feeding rate for prison inmates. At this moment inflation in respect of food items is over 100% and yet the figures allocated to the feeding of our inmates simply does not reflect the inflationary trends in respect of foodstuffs in our country,” he said on the floor of the House, Monday.

The former Deputy Interior Minister tasked Mr. Ambrose Dery to see to an increase in the grant.

“On this note, I would like to urge the Minister for Interior to ensure that these figures are revised. In the meantime we know the prisons maintain farms, they could liaise with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that the Prison Service benefits from the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.”

Meanwhile, Parliament has begun the approval of budget estimates for some Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

The sum of GH¢5,295,359,626 for the activities of the Ministry of Roads and Highways for the financial year ending December 31, 2023 has already been approved for the Ministry.

The Transport Ministry and its agencies have also received approval for GHC1.2 billion to carry out activities for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023. 

The amount represents a 33.06 per cent increase over the 2022 initial budgetary allocation of GHC921,483,000.00.

The House is still considering the approval of the budget estimates for some Ministries and Departments while it has rejected the estimates for others.