Deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei Asare has emphasized that proactive measures have been implemented to uphold fiscal discipline in 2024. She stated that the government is committed to avoiding excessive spending during the upcoming election.

This response comes in light of concerns raised by the Minority in Parliament, who feared that the government might exceed its budget in 2024 to fulfill unexpected campaign promises associated with the elections. The Minority cited available records indicating a 17 percent budget deficit in 2020 attributed to election-related spending.

John Jinapor, the Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu, expressed these concerns.

“You said that you have a track record in election year expenditure. For the records, in 2016, go and read the updated data; the deficit was about 6 percent.

|"Mr. Speaker, I refer to the IMF-Ghana decision May 2023 documents; I refer to page 36, table 2 (A). In 2020, under your regime, election year, your deficit was a whopping 17 percent. It has never happened; no country has that deficit of 17 percent.”

But responding in her debate on the budget presentation, the Deputy Finance Minister “In the past, governments have used election year as auctioning periods, engaging in all kinds of projects to win votes. But this government is committing itself to strong fiscal consolidation and efficient management of existing commitments, in order not to derail the hard-won stability that we are witnessing.”

“Government is not initiating new commercial loan funded projects. Government has also put in an amount of money in the budget to clear their arrears so that we can complete existing projects,” the Deputy Finance Minister said.