The Hon. Minister for the Savannah Region: Mr. Saeed Muazu Jibreel on Monday 18th October launched the Regional 2022 – 2025 composite budget hearing in a ceremony at the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council’s Conference Hall.
Prior to the official launch, the Regional Coordinating Director: Mr. Yaw Adu in his welcome remarks, appealed to the MDCEs particularly the new entrants to pay close attention to the process because a budget is the engine of every Assembly reason being that, it dictates both generation of income and expenditure. You need to pay attention also because a budget is the property of the people that Assemblies implement on their behalf, he added.
On his part, Mr. Frederick from the Ministry of Finance re-echoed the fact that a budget is the most important developmental document responsible for the generation of revenue and expenditure guide for the operations of the MMDAs. As such, budgets are supposed to be responsive to the needs of the people, he said.
When he took his turn, the Hon. Regional Minister acknowledged the presence of all particularly the newly ordained MDCEs on behalf of the Hon. Minister of Finance according to him. He officially welcomed and congratulated the new MDCEs for their appointments by H/E the president of the Republic of Ghana and for their subsequent confirmation. In a similar fashion, the Hon. Minister entreated the MDCEs to follow attentively through the process especially the brand new officers because the budget is the driver document of every Assembly in terms of revenue generation and expenditure. He tasked them to be disciplined in the implementation of the budget.
He indicated that the economy was gradually staging a return to glory from the shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic following the Government’s implementation of several containment measures such as the ‘ Ghana CARES’ and many other interventions aimed at subduing the fiscal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic including revenue shortfalls and increased expenditures among others.
He further reiterated that revenue mobilization among many other functions of the MMDAs have been so challenging in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and this situation he said requires officers to search outside the box for the solutions.
He warned that Ghana was not out of the woods yet and so everybody should be mindful and obey the COVID-19 protocols day and night to enable the efforts of Government defeat the enemy as soon as practicable.