Month: January 2011

The Member of Parliament for Adenta , Kwadwo Adu Asare has rubbished an online opinion poll that indicate that the First Vice Chairperson of National Democratic Congress(NDC) Nana Konadu Agyeman is in poll position to lead the party as its Flag bearer in the 2012 elections.

The opinion poll run by peacefmonline.com which sample the public’s opinion on who is likely to lead the NDC come 2012 show that out of a total of 7354 as at today Monday 31st January 2011, Mrs. Konadu Agyeman Rawlings leads the pack with 2842 votes which represents 38.65%.

She is followed by incumbent President John Evans Attah Mills who has bagged 2375 representing 32.30%, Dr Ekow Spio- Garbrah follows with 823, 11.19% and John Dramani Mahama in fourth position with 618, 8.40%.

Sections of the public have made a huge issue out of the polls claiming that this amply shows the mood of the country with majority yearning for a change in the presidential candidate position of the NDC party.

However commenting on the polls in a panel discussion on Peace FM’s morning show on Monday, the Member of Parliament for Adenta, Kwadwo Adu Asare stated that the poll with its attendant interest that it has generated described it as “much ado about nothing”.

He said the opinion poll which has no scientific basis cannot be taken seriously particularly when those who have cast their votes on the poll are not party delegates who are mandated to elect presidential candidate for the party.

“I find it difficult to understand the fuss about the results of this opinion poll especially as anyone with access to the internet can freely vote, I think we wait and see what comes up when the party organizes its national delegates congress to elect the flag bearer later this year.

Hon. Adu Asare was however optimistic that incumbent President John Evans Attah Mills will be elected by the party at congress, to continue with the good works that he has begun.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawasi, has called on the ward and constituency executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to double their efforts, by reaching out to the constituents to explain government policies and programmes to them.

The Mills Administration, he said, had so far succeeded in meeting the aspirations of the people but a lot more depended on well- meaning activists to tell the party’s success story.

This would help avoid unnecessary criticisms and what he described as “politics of lies by the main opposition party some of which are crafted to confuse the citizenry”.

Alhaji Mubarak said this when he presented a cheque of GHC2,000 to the Darul Hadith Institute of Islamic Studies at a ceremony in Kumasi. The MP donated the money from his share of the Common Fund, to support the Institute to construct a mechanized borehole, to address the perennial water shortage experienced by the institute.

He said with the various development projects springing up in his constituency, particularly in the area of education and youth development, he was convinced that the party would retain the seat in the 2012 general elections.

Alhaji Mubarak said projects currently being undertaken, includes the construction of a four-unit classroom block each in four deprived communities, a dormitory block for the Kumasi Academy Senior High School (SHS) and the provision of street lights, from the Aboabo Post Office to Asokore Mampong.

Sheikh Abdul Razak, Director of the Institute, who received the money, commended the MP for the gesture, and thanked him for his continuous support to educational development.

Source: GNA

President John Mills may have broken the ground for the commencement of the STX housing project but the controversies that preceded the official ceremony appears far from over.

The Minority spokesperson in-charge of Finance, Anthony Akoto Osei says he is unaware of the financing arrangement for the project and has called for the agreement to be brought back to Parliament.

The $1.5 billion project is expected to provide 30,000 housing units for security personnel. It is part of a three-tier project aimed at building 200,000 housing units at a total cost $10 billion.

The project and its financing agreement endured a chaotic partisan political scrutiny with members of the minority walking out of Parliament on the night the agreement was passed.

Government at the last hour aborted a signing ceremony with the Korea construction firm – STX, but offered no official explanation.

The agreement was later signed on December 14, 2010, with the ground breaking ceremony taking place on January, 27, 2010.

But the minority spokesman on Finance Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, in an interview told Joy News he is not convinced the agreement approved by Parliament was the one signed with STX.

“We have had a case where Parliament passed a bill but what was signed was not what we approved. So we need to be assured. Even if it was the word ‘is’ that has been added it is only Parliament that can remove it,” he said.

He said the concerns raised before the signing and subsequent ground breaking still persist, saying he doesn’t know which bank will be financing the project.

He is demanding that the agreement be brought back to Parliament.

Source:myjoyonline.com

A senior member of Parliament who has broken ranks with colleague MPs on the matter of recent demands for increased pay, has told Citi News that he would be embarking on a lone protest March to press home his concerns.

Shai Osu Doku MP, Hon David Tetteh Assuming, told Citi News on Tuesday January 25, that he is opposed to the proposed upward review of salaries and benefits for members of the legislature.

He believes salaries for all article 71 office holders, which include MPs, should not be increased for at least two years.

His comments come at a time Parliament is preparing to put before the Presidential Committee on Emoluments a detailed proposal to demand as much as 7,000 new Ghana cedis as monthly salary for lawmakers.

The MPs currently receive GH2, 500 a month. They last had a pay rise in October 2010, when their salaries were increased by 17%.

But Hon. David Tetteh Assuming said the increment is unwarranted. He said it is time for people in government positions to try and sacrifice for the nation to move on.

The MP has thus decided to embark on a one-man demonstration, but it is unclear if the lone voice amongst the 230 honourable men will be heard.

He told Citi News he will first start by wearing red arm bands in Parliament to register his disapproval for the proposed increment.

“We want money but we need to look at the general conditions that are prevailing. We need to look at the people who put you in the very positions that you are and see whether they are also moving alongside you. When they see that you are moving wider ahead of them and the gap is becoming wider, then you have to sit down and think and see how you can narrow the gap. So I am saying that, in an attempt to lower the gap and make sure that those at the lower bracket also enjoy some better living conditions, I am saying that I want to wage a crusade on the issue of raising any upward adjustment of persons in the Article 71 bracket including MPs. I am going to wear red arm bands in the House to draw members’ attention to this issue” he said.

Asked whether he was not only embarking on a populist move for his selfish parochial interest, the MP said he was only serving the interest of the masses whose living conditions are no better.

But the MP failed to answer in the affirmative when he was asked whether he would accept the new salary if the proposal is approved.

Source: citifm

The Member of Parliament for Jaman South, Yaw Maama Afful has called for the immediate prosecution of persons found to have misappropriated state funds by the Auditor General’s report.

He said the lack of prosecution over the years have resulted in some public officers being encouraged to continually embezzle state funds that have been accrued from the sweat of the ordinary Ghanaian.

The MP’s sentiments stem from the findings of the 2009 Auditor- Generals report which made damning revelations of malfeasance in the public service.

The report among others revealed several maladministration including a payroll overpayment from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs amounting to about GH¢2.49 billion, as a result of payroll irregularities in some of the Embassies where there were failures to promptly delete the names of staff who no longer worked with these Missions. This represented 90.3 per cent of irregularities in the public sector.

It also revealed losses totaling GH¢11,993,035 within the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

The Ministry had no clear policy guidelines to regulate the payment of allowances to officials working with Ministers of the Ministry, arguing that these officials worked overtime and on some weekends and were granted monthly allowances pegged at the dollar rate, which amounted to more than their gross monthly salaries.

Contributing to a discussion of the report on e.tv Ghana’s Breakfast TV Show on Friday, the Member of Parliament for Jaman South, Yaw Maama Afful, called on the government to have the political will to bring those culpable to book, as these criminal acts have persisted over the years.

“It is totally unacceptable to have public official recklessly misuse such huge state funds, when monies are required to execute developmental projects to improve the lives of the masses’’ he said.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Mr Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, Minority Leader in Parliament on Thursday said though the Majority Leader repeatedly said he was Leader of Government Business, he becomes a back bencher during cabinet meetings and a mere passenger.

In response, Mr Cletus Avoka, said that he was Leader of government business in Parliament but at Cabinet the President was Leader. The controversy arose when Majority Leader was accused by the Minority Leader for the absence of members of the Health Committee who claimed they had requested to be out of parliament on official business.

Mr Cletus Avoka said the group’s request, tabled by Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, NDC Member for Asawase and Chairman of the Committee, was not granted before they left the house on Tuesday January 25 and Wednesday January 26, 2011.

The issue was argued as if the two (Muntaka and Avoka) already had a case to trash out because they did not agree with each other’s explanations as Alhaji Mubarak insisted he had informed Mr Avoka, who also maintained that he was not aware of their departure. Mr Avoka said he was the Leader and he did not ask the Committee members to go, adding that just by filling a request did not mean the request had been granted.

Mr Hackman Owusu Agyeman, member for New Juaben North told the Majority leader that the tradition had been that after filling a request, it simply meant that the request was granted.He said Mr Avoka had never laid a bill in parliament and yet he continued to say he was Leader of government business.

The Minority Leader again said permission must be granted by the Speaker and not the Majority Leader since he had no such powers.Mrs Adeline Bamford Addo, Speaker, said: “I wonder if I will allow 20 members to leave the house for the two days. “We have to follow the rules,” she added, but stated that she never saw any request.

Mr Avoka insisted that as a Leader he has to make recommendation to the Speaker because when the house sat and his members were not present he the Leader was always questioned as to their whereabouts. At this point the Speaker ruled that members should ask permission and make sure they got it before they left the House.

Source: GNA

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Gomoa East, Mr Kow Panyin Okyere has called on Ghanaians to rally behind the government to execute its better Ghana agenda to improve their living standard.

Mr Panyin Okyere made the call at a durbar to climax the annual Akwambo Festival of the Chiefs and people of Gomoa-Oguaakrom in the Central Region.

The Festival, which was under the theme “Together we can build”, was also marked with activities including clean-up exercises and Youth socialization.

The MP said plans were far advanced to extend electricity to every part of the area under the government’s Rural Electrification Project, and urged those at new sites to wire their buildings in readiness for the programme.

The Okyere later donated 50 bags of cement to the people towards the construction of a public toilet and promised to construct a permanent podium for the chiefs as their meeting place.

In his welcoming address Nana Obende Abor, Mankrado of the area who deputized for the Odikro, advised the youth to be mindful of the deadly disease AIDS.

He appealed to them to refrain from indiscriminate sex so as to avoid contracting the disease.

Mr Isaac Kinsley Ahun-Armah, District Chief Executive for Gomoa East who was a special guest of honour at the function, appealed to the people to invest in their children’s education to enable them to become useful citizens in future.

The former MP for the area, Mr Sam Quarm, donated an amount of 500.00 Ghana Cedis to the Traditional Council as his contribution towards the festival.

Source: GNA

In a dramatic and comical twist to what was evidently a charged demonstration against the Mills government over standards of living, the Member of Parliament for Asokwa Maxwell Kofi Jumah said the protesters were in search for a mythical Tawiah to convey the messages of hardship to an Atta.

“I hear there is somebody called Tawiah and I am looking for that Tawiah because I hear that he can reach Atta, even if Atta is asleep, he can wake Atta up so that he can tell Atta my story.

“… Every Atta I hear has a Tawiah. So I am looking for Tawiah and when I walked down the street of Accra I saw so many people also looking for Tawiah,” he said, sarcastically in an interview with Joy News’ Fiifi Koomson.

He was part of hundreds of protesters of the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) who hit the streets Wednesday in protest over worsening living standards.

In Akan tradition, a twin is called Atta and a male child who immediately follows the twin is named Tawiah.

Kofi Jumah insists John Atta Mills, a twin, has reneged on his campaign promise and needs to be reminded of his promises by a Tawiah.

The MP’s comments were culled from a famous Ghanaian musician, Lucky Mensah, whose recent album titled ‘Nkratuo’ or message seems to be making waves in the political arena.

Mensah in ‘nkratuo’ sends a message to a mythical Tawiah to tell an Atta that Ghanaians are suffering.

The Asokwa MP, Maxwell Kofi Jumah obviously dazzled by the lyrics of the song did not hesitate in drumming home what he claims to be broken promises of the Atta Mills government and its attendant hardships.

Asked what he wanted Tawiah to tell Atta, the MP said: “First of all he promised me that my life is going to be better but what I see is the reverse the direct opposite of what he promised.

“I went to buy rice they told me the price of rice has gone up. So I say well if I can’t buy rice at least let me drink water, the price of water has gone up. I got so angry and frustrated and said let me drink beer, the price of beer has gone up. Then when I went home the electricity price has gone up…” he pontificated.

Member of Parliament for Weija Shirley Ayorkor Botchway who was also part of the demonstrators said the attendance is enough testimony to the worsening living standards in the country.

The Minority in Parliament were also reported to have donned red arm bands in solidarity to the demonstrators.

Source: Joy fm