Month: February 2011

The incumbent National Democratic Congress appears to have taken advantage of the NPP’s ‘expensive’ filing fee of Gh¢16,000 for aspiring parliamentary candidates, by pegging its fee at Gh¢2,000.

Although the NDC also appears to have copied the idea of giving special concessions to female aspirants which was initiated by the NPP, the amount for NDC’s women is far below that of NPP’s female contestants who are paying Gh¢8,000 compared to the NDC’s Gh¢1,000.

The NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia who disclosed this to Citi News said the decision was taken at a National Executive Committee meeting held on Wednesday February 2.

The aspirants, prior to paying the nomination fee will pick up a form for Gh¢200. “Yesterday there was a meeting of the National Executive Committee and the meeting approved guidelines for the running of the primaries for orphan constituencies. And it was decided that Gh¢2,000 will be charged as filing fee and the cost of the form which is different from the filing fee will be Gh¢200.

“We recognize also that as a social democratic party we need to provide facilities for more women into Government and play their roles in Parliament and the executive so we have decided that female aspirants will pay half the filing fee, that is Gh¢1,000”, he noted.

The main opposition NPP is charging GH¢16, 000 as nomination fee, with women aspirants paying half that amount, Gh¢8,000. There have been growing calls for a reduction in the amount.

For instance, the University of Education (Kumasi) Branch of the NPP’s Tertiary Education Students Confederacy Network (TESCON), is up in arms against the party’s National Executive Committee.

The students believe the move may scuttle the ambition of many otherwise marketable candidates who cannot afford to raise the amount.

Some executives of the party have warned that if the fee is not reduced, it would affect the party’s chances in the 2012 elections. But the General Secretary of the party, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie insists if an aspiring MP cannot raise Gh¢16, 000 from friends and well wishers then perhaps he has no business contesting the election in the first place.

There was intense debate and maneuvering in Parliament Thursday over proposed amendments for 10 per cent of oil revenues to be allocated for the development of the Western Region.

The proposal, moved mainly by opposition MPs, two of which hail from the Western Region followed another proposal filed by the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Mr James Avedzi.

Mr James Avedzi’s proposal was seeking an amendment to the Petroleum Revenues Management Bill to block the allocation of petroleum revenue for any exceptional purpose apart from Budgetary activities and statutory earmarking.

But the Minority MPs pushing for the allocation of the 10 per cent to the Western Region in tandem with the demands of chiefs from the region, opposed Mr Avedzi’s proposal, arguing that if passed, the amendment will render their proposal redundant.

Making an intervention, the Speaker of the House, reminded the proponents of the 10 per cent allocation to Western Region that their proposal could contravene Article 108 of the 1992 Constitution which provides that Parliament shall not make provisions for “the imposition of a charge on the Consolidated Fund or other public funds of Ghana or the alteration of any such charge otherwise than by reduction; or (iii) the payment, issue or withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund or other public funds of Ghana of any moneys not charged on the Consolidated Fund or any increase in the amount of that payment, issue or withdrawal; or (iv) the composition or remission of any debt due to the Government of Ghana; or (b) proceed upon a motion, including an amendment to a motion, the effect of which, in the opinion of the person presiding, would be to make provision for any of the purpose specified in paragraph (a) of this article.”

The Majority seized upon the argument, maintaining that the Western Region MPs’ proposal was illegal.

But the Minority MPs disagreed. They argued that contrary to the Speaker’s observation, their proposal was not seeking to impose any tax on the consolidated fund, as contemplated by the constitution but merely seeking to establish a fund.

In any case, this is not the first time, they argued, that Parliament is amending a bill which will impose a charge on the consolidated fund. They said precedence had been set citing the Communications Service Tax bill which was amended to allow for a portion of the revenues to be used to pay personnel of the National Youth Employment Programme.

The Speaker has deferred his ruling on the matter saying he needed to consult.

The speaker’s ruling will determine whether the merits of the proposal will be debated by the House.

The Korean Parliament on Tuesday presented 18 computers to the Parliament of Ghana to enhance its operations.

Mr Lee Sang-Hak, Korean Ambassador to Ghana, who presented the computers, said Ghana was the hope of democracy for Africa considering the leadership crises on the Africa continent.

He said the relationship between the two countries would continue to grow deeper to the mutual benefit of the two countries.

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Doe Adjaho, said the two countries must learn from each other especially in the spirit of South-South Cooperation.

This cooperation, according to him, would bring about mutual development.

Mr Cletus Avoka, Majority Leader, said the computers would enhance the work of Parliament as the computers would serve as a conduit of accessing information across the world.

He commended the ambassador and Koreans in general for recognizing the democratic credentials of Ghana.

Mr Abrose Dery, Deputy Minority Leader, thanked the people of Korea and the Ambassador for the donation.

He said Parliament was the weakest among the organs of governance and as such the donation could not have come at a better time.

Source: GNA

Parliament’s Vetting Committee will later today begin vetting new nominees for ministerial positions.

The ministers expected to appear before the committee are those who were nominated by President Mills in his recent cabinet reshuffle.

They include MP for Anlo Kofi Humado who heads to the Sports Ministry and the Ashanti Regional Minister designate Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Mensah.

Ministers who have been reassigned will not be vetted.

The New Patriotic Party Minority in Parliament has revived the controversy over the indebtedness of the Tema Oil Refinery.

The group has just issued figures indicating that the Kufuor administration left a debt of just 9.27 million Ghana cedis.

The current government has often said that its predecessor left TOR debts totaling about 1.44 billion Ghana cedis.

But minority spokesman on Energy, KT Hammond says the “government of the NDC has been telling the good people of Ghana a lot of untruths, malicious untruths.”

He said the previous NDC government left a huge debt in 2001. Mr Hammond explained the NPP government accumulated the debt because of under recovery.

The Mills government has always argued that the NPP government collected money – TOR Recovery Levy – in the name of paying the debt but misapplied the money.

However Mr Hammond has rejected that claim, saying fuel prices were artificially kept low to cushion Ghanaians thereby accumulating more debt.

The MP for Adansi Asokwa said the government is looking at the documents pertaining to TOR debt “with jaundiced eyes. I don’t know what they are looking at, these are the figures, let someone come up and challenge us with the papers.”

Source: Joy News

The Minister of Information and Member of Parliament for Talensi, Hon. John Akologo Tia has warned staff of the Ministry to stop leaking official information to the media, or face his wrath.

Speaking at a Durbar held at the Information Ministry for the staff, including Information Services Department, to outline his vision for the year 2011, the Minister said he was worried that the previous year witnessed unprecedented leakages of official information to the media from the Ministry. “There were so much leakages of official information to the media”, he said. He hinted that he (The Minister) and his deputies had a clue of those officials behind the leakages, but had decided to ignore them for the sake of peace.

He explained that the type of information that were leaked to the media pointed to certain officers who could be responsible for such irresponsible acts, but he maintained that they decided to deal with consequence, as a result of those leakages, rather than apprehending them, but warned that this year would be different.

Source: Chronicle

Over 500 operators of Motorbikes popularly known as ‘Okada’, on Tuesday February 1 stormed Ghana’s Legislature asking parliament to legitimize their operations.

The use of Okada as a means of transport is known in Nigeria and is fast gaining popularity in Ghana.

The Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) has outlawed their operations and has vowed to arrest anyone who operates with a motorbike for commercial purposes.

Citi News Parliamentary Correspondent, Richard Sky reported that the over 500 ‘Okada’ operators presented a petition to the Majority Leader of Parliament, Hon Cletus Avoka for the law that bans the use of Motorbikes for commercial purposes to be amended.

The group led by its President Albert .K. Acolatse told Citi News Parliament must do everything possible to ensure that Motorbikes are used for commercial purposes.

In an interview with Citi News, the Secretary of the aggrieved motorbike operators, Godwin Akpalatse said they want Parliament to grant them a temporal permit so they can operate with the motorbikes as commercial means of transportation.

“We are here because we hear that there is law that motorbikes should not be used for commercial purposes so we want Parliament to do something about it…we want Parliament to give us a temporal permit so that our youth can operate”.

Mr. Godwin Akpalatse stated that they would be left with no choice than to petition the President if Parliament fails to grant them their wish.

“We believe that parliament can do something about our plea but if parliament does not do anything about our plea we will go to the father himself”.

Source: citifmonline.