The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has admonished Members of Parliament (MPs), not to sacrifice the country by politicising the debate on the 2023 budget statement and economic policy of government.

The Speaker entreated both sides of the caucus in Parliament, to work closely together to find possible solutions to the many economic challenges the country is faced with and desist from engaging in partisan politics.

MPs are expected on Tuesday, November 29, 2022, to begin debate on the 2023 budget statement presented by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

He urged the MPs to debate the 2023 budget devoid of their political affiliations, which will have dire consequences on the country.

“We have a fine opportunity today to assert the independence and relevance of Parliament in the governance of this country, else posterity will remember us as the crop of legislators who sacrificed Ghana on the altar of partisanship. If there was any time in the history of this country that Ghanaians are looking up to the Legislature, not the Executive, for solutions to the challenges confronting us as a people, it is now, and we cannot afford to fail them,” Mr. Bagbin said at Ho over the weekend during 2023 post-budget workshop for MPs.

The Speaker of Parliament further charged the MPs to ensure that the country gets value for money in the execution of projects by the government.

“We must increase our monitoring of government expenditure to ensure the right priorities are sequentially taken and value for money becomes an essential ingredient of the lives of the governed in this country,” Mr. Bagbin advised.

The 2023 budget statement was presented in Parliament by the Finance Minister, on November 24, 2022, on the authority of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in accordance with the requirement under Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.