Parliament has passed the Appropriation Bill 2021 to give the government the green light to spend the sum of ¢129 billion to finance government operations during the financial year commencing January, 1 and ending 31 December 2021.

The approval authorised the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund and other funds to finance the government’s projects.

The passage of the act is in accordance with article 106 (13) of the 1992 Constitution and order 119 of the Standing Orders of the House.

A total of ¢30.3 billion will be used to service the compensation of public sector employees while ¢25.6 billion will be catered for wages and salaries.

The government has also allocated ¢4.5 billion for Covid-19 related expenditures. ¢200 million has also been allocated for the Covid-19 Alleviation Programme (Electricity and Water) with another ¢929 million set aside to procure Covid-19 vaccines (Operations and procurement).

The House also approved an allocation of ¢597 million for the National Covid-19 Response and another ¢1.4 billion to provide health infrastructure within the 2021 financial year and among other expenditures.