The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin is furious with Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta for failing to release the entire budgetary allocation made to the security ministries in 2022.

The Speaker spoke while Parliament was considering the budget estimates for the Ministry for Defence on Monday.

According to the Speaker, it is unacceptable that the Finance Ministry will release less than 20% of goods and services allocation to the Defence Ministry.

“The security agencies are one of the priority areas of government but this is not what is reflected in the performance of 2022. It’s sad when I read and saw that approximately 81% of the budget of goods and services has not been released to the Ministry of Defence,” he said.

He further questioned how the Defence Ministry is expected to operate with the development in the sub-region.

“It is not for this House to be continuing to appeal to the Ministry to release, we are in charge, we legislate, we pass the laws on taxation, they are to implement. If they are failing to do it, we have to take them on and not be appealing to them,” he added.

“I think that we should take this as the last occasion we will tolerate this from the Ministry of Finance. We don’t want to have this again.”

Mr Alban Bagbin also tasked the Ministers for the Interior and Defence to liaise with the Finance Minister to fix these issues, warning that the development could impact negatively on the country’s peace and security.

“I think that you [Interior and Defence Ministers] will take this up to the Ministry. You will have to come back again. We need to equip the security agencies to be able to deliver our safety and security, without safety and security, this country cannot develop,” he stated.