Member of Parliament of Yapei-Kusawgu, John Jinapor has attributed the inability of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to get the 2021 budget rejected by Parliament to the ill health of some of its members.
Parliament on Friday approved the 2021 budget after voting following the Minority’s earlier disapproval of the outcome of the voice vote after calling for the rejection of the budget due to its tax components.
But after the voting, 137 MPs were in favour of approving the budget as against 134 MPs voting against the budget.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, however, the former deputy Power Minister said the members of the minority side of the house lacked the numbers as of the time of voting in the House since some of them were receiving treatment at the hospital.
He said they cannot be blamed for the loss.
“All of us present were whipped in line and that is why the Chief Whip ensured that everyone present voted in accordance with our position. Some of our people were in the hospital. Everyone present voted in line. We lost three votes because they are in hospitals. We tried bringing them, but there was no way we could bring them.”
“I don’t think we can be held so much liable and create the impression that the NDC minority must necessarily win every voting in the chamber. Assuming everybody was present and were all available, and we all voted, we still might not have carried the day. This is not a secret ballot.”
Meanwhile, ahead of the approved budget’s appropriation sittings at the Finance Committee level, John Jinapor assured of the caucus’ commitment to ensuring more scrutiny that will serve the interest of Ghanaians.
“The Finance Committee will sit down and look at all the approvals and even the taxes we are kicking against. All of that will be considered at the committee level, so we will do our best. We will serve the party and Ghana at large but when it comes to voting, we do so in our respective positions and that is what we did on Friday,” he added.
