Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of parliament, Bryan Acheampong
Kan Dapaah advised not to give details of Akufo-Addo trips
Giving details of Akufo-Addo will expose him, says Bryan Acheampong
Parliament commences debate on 2022 Budget
The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of parliament, Bryan Acheampong, says he has urged the National Security Minister, Kan Dapaah, to keep President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s foreign trips ‘top secret’ for security reasons.
According to him, this is to prevent people from tracking the president’s movement and also not every information is supposed to be revealed to the public.
Speaking on the floor on parliament, Tuesday, November, 23 2021, he said “I have advised the Minister for National Security to continue to keep the information on presidential travel a secret and if we may, lift it to top-secret, because it is not every information that can be divulged to the public. Hitherto, it was confidential, now it has been clarified as secret and I have encouraged the National Security Minister to increase the security level to top-secret because that information is not the one that can be played within the political arena.”
He added that giving out information on presidential trips will give access to people to track the president, which he believes will expose the president to danger.
“If the president decides that he needs to make a quick trip to Mali, even if he decides to go with the presidential flight, using flight tracker, you will know this is the tail number of Ghana’s presidential flight, and you are able to track it. Is that how you will want to expose our president?” he asked.
Members of Parliament on November 23, 2021, commenced debate on the 2022 budget statement after the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, presented it to parliament, on the 17th of November 2021.
Among the policies expected to be implemented in the coming year is the Electronic levy (E-levy), which involves the introduction of taxes on electronic transactions such as mobile money (momo) transactions in the country.
Fees and charges of government services have also been increased by 15%.
Meanwhile, the minority in parliament has vowed not to approve the 2022 budget as they claim it will worsen the plight of Ghanaians.