Parliament has approved the Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 2020, giving the government the go-ahead to draw GH¢6.37 billion from the Consolidated Fund and other funds to support its operations during the 2019 fiscal year.
Out of the total sum approved, GH¢5.14 billion was used to make payments to independent power producers (IPPs) and related parties.
The power producers are Ameri Energy, Litasco, AKSA, Karpower, Sunon Asogli, TMF Trustee Limited (ENI/Vitol) and Stratcom Energy.
The rest of the funds were applied towards interest payments as well as an upward adjustments in goods and services expenditure for the 2019 fiscal year.
These were contained in a report the Finance Committee of Parliament submitted to the House prior to the approval of the Bill last Friday.
The report was presented by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, after the approval of the budget for 2019.
This was after some significant domestic and global developments posed fiscal risks to the economy.
Those developments, the report said, were mainly related to the upward adjustments of interest payments resulting from the effect of a higher exchange rate than the programmed exchange rate and a higher net domestic borrowing in the first half of the year.
It also attributed it to the upward adjustment in goods and services in the second half of the year to meet critical security expenses and other expenses.
Approval
Additionally, the report said the crystallisation of contingent liabilities of the energy sector in respect of take-or-pay contract obligations with the IPPs increased the requirements for external amortisation above the amount provided for in the 2019 budget.
“These developments led to supplementary estimates being approved to support government operations for the year,” it said.
In view of the foregoing, it said it had become necessary for Parliament to approve a Supplementary Appropriation of the GH¢6.37 billion to be paid out of the Consolidated Fund.
In December 2018, Parliament approved the Appropriation Bill to allow for government to spend GH¢73 billion in the 2019 fiscal year.
On July 29, 2019, the Finance Minister briefed Parliament that the government would spend GH¢6.37 billion more for the purpose of providing additional financing to pay for the fore-mentioned expenditures.