Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has criticised the government for failing to submit key documents on its major flagship programmes to Parliament for scrutiny and approval.
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the third meeting of Parliament, he said several government programmes, including the 24-hour economy initiative and the Feed Ghana programme, have yet to undergo any form of parliamentary oversight despite being scheduled for implementation.
“The 24-hour economy program, the 1 million codes program, the agro agri-food economic transformation program, the program to export labour as announced by the President, and the national apprenticeship program, just to mention a few, have not seen parliamentary scrutiny,” he stated.
Afenyo-Markin noted that the executive arm of government is obligated to present such programme documents to Parliament before execution since they rely on funds approved by the legislature. He argued that the lack of transparency undermines effective oversight.
“We cannot say that there is oversight when the basic program documents are not laid before Parliament. It is therefore imperative that the government shows commitment and avails these documents to Parliament for proper oversight to commence,” he stressed.
He also cited the April 2025 Feed Ghana programme, which was expected to modernise agriculture, create jobs, and build agro-industries, as well as the September 2025 Big Push infrastructure initiative — a $10 billion plan to enhance national connectivity — as examples of stalled programmes.
According to him, despite their announcement, none of these initiatives has been backed with formal documents for legislative review. He further criticised the government’s handling of the much-touted 24-hour economy initiative, saying expectations were raised in the President’s State of the Nation Address but were not addressed in the 2025 budget.
“The Finance Minister, in presenting the 2025 budget, said nothing about the 24-hour economic programme,” Afenyo-Markin added.
The Minority says it will continue to demand accountability from the executive and insists that all programme documents be submitted to Parliament to ensure transparency, fairness, and effective implementation.