Month: February 2011

The Member of Parliament for Mfantseman West Aquinas Quansah has been appointed as the Deputy minister-designate for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

President John Evans Attah Mills appointed him in his latest reshuffle which was released on Tuesday 15th February 2011.

Hon. Aquinas Quansah is regarded as a grass roots person who is very good at mobilization and his appointment to the Local Government ministry is seen by political pundits, as a strategic move especially as 2012 election beckons, since that ministry plays a vital role during electioneering campaigns.

Hon. Quansah who is serving his first term of office came to Parliament after beating the then Minister of Information and National Orientation, Stephen Asamoah Boateng at the 2008 parliamentary polls.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem, Dr. Joseph Annan, has condemned the recent demonstration by a group of fishermen in Elmina, saying it was uncalled for.

At a meeting with fishermen at Komenda Dr. Annan, who the Deputy Minister of Education, urged them to channel any grievances they had to the appropriate quarters for redress instead of engaging in demonstrations.

The Komenda fishermen disassociated themselves from the demonstration and expressed disappointment at the turn of events on that fateful day.

According to Opanyin Kwesi Akwa, the acting Apofohen of Komenda, fishermen from the area together with those from Elmina and Abandze organized a press conference at Elmina to air their grievances.

These were the ban on the use of flash light in fishing and also the fact that some fishing vessels were still engaging in pair trawling even though it had been banned.

He told the MP that the meeting ended peacefully and the fishermen departed to their destinations and were therefore surprised to hear that some youth took to the streets and mounted road blocks.

The fishermen have decided to send a petition to the government through the MP on why the Police should arrest two of their leaders for questioning when they were not part of that demonstration.

Source: GNA

Former deputy Finance Minister, Professor George Gyan-Baffour has denied ever authorizing the release of Gh¢1.5 million from the Tema Oil Refinery Debt recovery levy for the Information Ministry for propaganda purposes.

The allegation has been widely circulated by the ruling NDC administration, who say Prof Gyan-Baffour’s alleged actions contributed in part to the non-payment of the TOR debt which stands at about Gh¢1.5 billion as of now, according to government officials.

Similar allegations were made against former Minister of State at the same Ministry, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei. There were even reports that the two were arrested at a point in time over the allegations.

However, Professor Gyan-Baffour, at a press conference Tuesday morning, threatened legal action against any person or media house that publishes false documents as evidence to support the allegation against him.

“Let me categorically state that I have never signed any letter authorizing the transfer of any money from the TOR debt recovery account for payment to the Ministry of Information and National Orientation. Any person who claims that I have signed such a letter should produce the letter and publish it in the newspaper for all of us to see”.

“I am however aware that mischief makers could forge letter heads and even signatures to implicate otherwise innocent people. I will therefore warn that anyone who out of mischief forges my signature under any letter and publishes it or uses any deceptive strategy intended to create any disaffection against me, that individual or group of individuals and Editor of the media house should be prepared to meet in court,” he dared.

Meanwhile, an aide at the Presidency, Stan Dogbe has told Citi News that the ruling government has never accused Professor Gyan-Baffour of personally misappropriating funds but rather the erstwhile Kufour administration is being accused by the incumbent government.

“Nobody as far as I know in government has accused Professor Gyan-Baffour of diverting funds from the TOR funds to the Ministry of Information. What has been said and still remains the fact is that the Kufour administration having taxed the people of this country and collected funds from them anytime they buy fuel, instead of paying those funds into the TOR debt fund used a huge quantum of that amount, Gh¢1.5 million for purposes of what they claim was a communication strategy document”.

“The government of former President Kufuor has been blamed for that and there are documentations to support that”.

The Member of Parliament for Bosomtwi, Simon Osei Mensah is asking the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) to step up its work of educating the public on their civic responsibilities.

The MP is of the view that the Commission over the years has not efficiently discharge its duties, a situation which is becoming increasingly worrying.

Hon. Simon Osei Mensah expressed these concerns when contributing to a panel discussion on the new minimum wage pegged at GH¢3.73 from the previous GH¢3.11 on Oman FM’s National Agenda show on Tuesday 15th February 2011.

He noted that a lot of employers especially in the informal sector continue to exploit and cheat their workers even after the minimum wage has been increased due to the fact that the workers are ignorant about issues relating to the minimum wage, and it is important that the National Commission on Civic Education enlighten them on what is due them.

‘’This is what I will love to see the NCCE doing, educating the public on such matters is the responsibility of the Commission and it is essential that they step up their work to ensure this is done” he said.

Hon. Simon Osei – Mensah who wondered why successive governments have never increased the minimum wage above 20% called on government to implement pragmatic economic policies that will ensure that the living conditions of the ordinary Ghanaian is improved.

He further urged institutions and organizations whose daily minimum wage is below the new figure which takes effect from today Tuesday 15th February 2011, to adjust their wages upward accordingly as failure to do so contravene the laws of Ghana.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

President J. E. A. Mills is expected in Parliament on Thursday to present his State of the Nation Address and ahead of that day, Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, Ambrose Dery, expects the President to tell Ghanaians what steps he has taken to make 2011 a “Year of Action.”

Speaking in an interview with the Times last Friday, Mr Dery, Member of Parliament for Lawra/ Nandom, said “increasingly the President is becoming a man of words rather than action.

“We hope that the President’s sectional address will spell out action plans and hopefully, the one directed at improving the lot of Ghanaians because petroleum products had gone up and had the tendency to fuel inflation and, thereby, increase the suffering of the ordinary Ghanaian,” the former Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General’s Department, said.

Asked whether the government had not made good its promise to make year 2011, an action year with the cutting of sod for the commencement of work for two more public universities in the Volta and Brong-Ahafo Regions, Mr Dery said the President did not say in his manifesto that he was coming to cut sods.

“He made definite pronouncement regarding the provision of additional universities to improve access to tertiary education.

“He should make good his campaign promises by opening the schools,” he said, adding “this sod cutting is not what you promised and must not come with pomp and pageantry; these are all populist and propaganda tactics.”

Mr Dery said as a country, “we should go beyond the pomp and pageantry of sod cutting to provide for the basic needs of the people,” explaining that he was worried of the tendency where “we go to cut the sod and nothing appears to work after all, “citing the example of the Wa Regional Hospital that the Vice-President went to cut the sod for work to commence and eight months later no work had started.

The Deputy Minority Leader urged the government that while cutting sods for works to commence on additional universities, it should try to solve the infrastructural problems of the University for Development Studies (UDS).

Mr Dery said the UDS had a population of about 12,000 and that the university might not be able to give admission to the envisaged 4,000 students because of the serious infrastructure challenges.

“We may see lots of qualified applicants being denied the opportunity to access tertiary education because of lack of accommodation; I wonder what will be the future of such applicants,” the Deputy Minority Leader said.

He said the government should work to open separate universities in the Upper East and Upper West Regions to improve access to tertiary education, rather than distributing the UDS campuses to the three regions of the north.

Meanwhile, the TESCON UDS branch at Wa has denied reports attributed to the Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, in some sections of the media that he is opposed to the opening of two universities in the Volta and Brong-Ahafo Regions.

The TESCON UDS Wa branch said the statement carried out in the “Informer” was a twist of facts carried by the paper ostensibly to “tarnish the good image of the hardworking, patriotic and nationalistic Deputy minority leader.”

The president of the Wa branch, Nambe Rahaman Sumaila, in a statement issued to the press, said Mr Dery stated emphatically that “President Mills should ensure that the singular golden venture of establishing universities in the Volta and Brong-Ahafo Regions never became a farce.

“He urged the President to marshal all the necessary resources for a smooth commencement of teaching and learning in these universities within the shortest possible time,” the statement said.

It also said the Deputy Minority Leader urged the government to ensure that the right infrastructure was provided for the Wa campus of the UDS.

“We take solace in the fact that the “INFORMER” newspaper has the penchant for maligning and discrediting personalities who worked hard to distinguish themselves in their various careers and professions,” the statement added.

Source:Ghanaian Times

The Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, Ambrose Dery, has stated among other things that the government’s policy to set up two new state universities is more of a political gimmick than a developmental project.

He likens the act to what he says Vice President John Mahama did July 31st last year, when he broke the ground to ostensibly commence the construction of the Wa Regional hospital but seven months on, he said no visible structure has been erected on the ground.

Expressing his views on Status Quo on Multi TV hosted by Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah on the new government policy of putting up two new state universities in the Brong Ahafo and Volta regions, Ambrose Derry further stated that, even though he was part of those who debated the issue on the floor of parliament, he supported the principle of opening the universities but the need to build them now is premature because of the inadequate logistics in most existing state universities especially the University for Development Studies (UDS).

On his part, Kofi Bentil a policy analyst at IMANI Ghana said that design and implementation are the major necessities to set up universities but these two are nonexistent in the government policy on this subject.

He also reiterated that sod-cutting for the construction does not amount to the establishment of the universities since there are a number of things to be done. He said starting a university is more difficult than solving the numerous problems the economy is bedeviled with.

Mr. Bentil said it would be impossible to put up a respectable public university by the end of September even if we had the necessary resources in place. In addition, the 2011 budget has no allocation for these two state universities which may cost about $50 million each.

Prof. Binka, chairman for the sub-committee on health and allied sciences said, there would be an endowment fund of about GH¢500 million and other donor funds with partnership from the ministry of local government to bring these projects to life.

He said for the College of Biomedical Sciences, they would set up about 20 faculties where the first phase would involve faculties such as: School of Nursing, School of Dentistry, School of Public Health among others. He revealed that the School of Allied Sciences has a bigger challenge compared to the School of Energy and Natural Resource.

Ms Samia Nkrumah, the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) Member of Parliament for Jomoro at the weekend challenged gender advocates to join the Elections 2012 contest as they seek to empower other women to contest for elective positions.

“Empowering women through capacity building workshops are good but more importantly we need all gender advocates to join in the contest for political position especially parliamentary seats in Elections 2012.

“Most gender advocates have leverage in the social-political environment, which must translate into assuming leadership positions to influence national policies,” Ms Nkrumah told the Ghana News Agency in an interview on the sidelines of the workshop to develop a women’s manual at Aburi. The workshop on the theme: A Woman’s Manual Towards Increased Women’s Parliamentary Representation”, was organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) for representatives of four political parties with representation in Parliament.

Sharing her experience at the workshop, Ms Nkrumah who is seeking for a second term bid for the Jomoro seat, said the path to gender equality must start from the local level, through the political grass root structures to the national levels into governance.

She noted that the only way for achieving gender parity is through legislation, without which it is not going to work, as the terrain is becoming more and more difficult for women”.

Ms Nkrumah who is also contesting for the CPP National Chairmanship slot, encouraged women aspirants never to be discouraged by negative tags, name calling and personality attacks “You must develop the stamina to go through the rough campaign terrain you need to be bold, firm and courageous and develop strong mental aptitude that the impossible is possible.

“Your private life would be hit, but its important to focus on your strong famine qualities to move on never engage in personality attacks” .. Ms Nkrumah also advised aspiring women parliamentary candidates to form a strong team involving opinion leaders, traditional and religious leaders in their networking for the constituency.

Mrs Beatrice Boateng, New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for New Juaben South, appealed to the media to support women aspirants, 93we are your sisters, wives, mothers and colleagues, we need encouragement rather than the constant personal attacks”.

She also urged gender advocacy groups to offer financial support to women aspirants as we need the cash to move around”. Mrs Boateng encouraged women aspirants especially those who failed at their first attempt never to be discouraged but mobilize and fight on, engage in social services to help your communities among other things.

Source:GNA

The Member of Parliament for Adenta Constituency Kojo Adu – Asare has said members of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) are being haunted by their own past misdeeds that characterized the 2008 general elections.

According to the MP, the NPP who are the worst culprits, surprisingly are shamefully “shouting wolf where obviously there is none”.

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) wants the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to assure Ghanaians it will not resort to violence and intimidation in the 2012 elections.

The NPP national chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, claims the NDC plans to win the polls by adopting various illegal tactics including the use of violence.

He says this is what informed the flag bearer’s “all die be die” remarks. He said there were enough grounds for the opposition party to come to that conclusion.

“They (NDC) used it (violence) in Chereponi, they used it in Akwatia, they used it again in Atiwa by bringing people all the way from Tamale,” he said.

However, contributing to a panel discussion on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo this morning, the Member of Parliament for Adenta, Kojo Adu Asare, described the NPP as hypocrites who do not have any moral authority to accuse other political groupings of engaging in electoral violence.

He said the NDC which is a peaceful organization is committed to democratic governance and will not do anything untoward that will undermine the democratic gains the country has chalked over the years.

“After all we the NDC came to serve Ghanaians, if they decide to vote us out of power we will humbly accept their verdict, there is no point in shedding blood of a single Ghanaians to win power” he said.

Hon. Kojo Adu –Asare added that the National Democratic Congress will not be distracted by such frivolities by the NPP, but it is rather working hard to win the up-coming 2012 elections.

Story by :Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa, Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, has bemoaned the poor state of the Suhum to Apedwa segment of the Accra –Kumasi stretch of road.

According to the MP, the dusty and bumpy nature of the road has made driving an unpleasant exercise as drivers have to contend with driving at a cautiously slow pace to avoid damages to their vehicles.

Many commercial drivers have repeatedly changed their broken springs and shock absorbers, exhaust systems and other damage done to motor vehicles because of the poor state of that road.

He wondered why the construction of such an important road that connects the two largest cities in the country and the road that brings Accra most of its foodstuffs should be delayed as such.

The road which is being constructed by a Chinese construction firm has been under construction for the past five years, a situation which has resulted in incessant complaints from motorist who use the road since they reckon that is a long enough time for most roads to be completed.

Contributing to a discussion on Peace FM’s morning show on Monday 14th February 2011, the Member of Parliament for Fanteakwa, Hon. Kwabena Amankwa Asiamah, stated that the nature of the road could worsen the health conditions of motorist particularly those who suffer chronic rheumatic pains, especially in the waist and hips.

He wondered why the Ministry of Roads and Highways cannot quickly service the less than 70 kilometer strectch of road to improve its motorability.

Hon. Amankwa Asiamah, urged the government to give the contractors whatever funds needed to ensure they speedily complete the all imortant road.

Story by: Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh