Month: June 2011

Papa Owusu Ankomah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Sekondi, has urged the Leadership of Parliament to let the Executive handle the business of the House with a sense of urgency.

He said the issue about ministers of state appearing before the House to answer questions has been a contentious matter, since the coming into force of the 1992 Constitution.

Papa Ankomah was speaking after the business statement was presented by Mr Rashid Pelpuo, Deputy Majority Leader, after which Mr John Agyabeng, MP for Agona East complained that questions he intended to ask on the floor of the House have not been listed.

Papa Ankomah noted that the business statement should reflect the agenda of the House, adding that there should not be any instinctive reaction to suit the Executive.

Mr Pelpuo said the Leadership would communicate with ministers and insist that they appear before members to answer questions.

Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, MP for Aburi-Nsawam, said there should be synchronisation of the time questions were asked and the time they were answered in order not to loose their relevance.

Meanwhile on the order paper for Friday June 17, there was no question to be asked.

Members only dealt with the Law Reform Commission Bill, 2010 which is at the consideration stage.

GNA

Captain George Nfodjo (Rtd), Member of Parliament for Ho Central, has expressed optimism that the Constituency would become a major cocoa growing area by 2016.

He said this when he distributed 14,000 cocoa seedlings to some farmers in the area for cultivation.

“We will regain our status as a major cocoa growing area,” he assured, pledging to commit about GHC20, 000 yearly from his common fund and HIPC fund to the project.

Capt. Nfodjo earlier gave wellington boots and cutlasses to hundreds of farmers in the Constituency and organized special seminars for them on the cultivation of cocoa.

He recounted that the Constituency used to be a major cocoa growing area until the early 80s, when a bushfire swept through the farms, making the people to loose in cocoa farming.

Capt. Nfodjo said the scheme was to help fight poverty.

“My hope is that after some five years, children of these poor farmers can also benefit from the Cocoa Board Scholarship and give some financial relief to their parents,” he told the GNA.

Capt. Nfodjo said for the start, the project was targeting farmers in 245 communities.

Some farmers, who were waiting for the seedlings at their farm gates, welcomed the long vehicle conveying the seedlings with enthusiasm.

source: GNA

The Member of Parliament for Ketu South, Albert Kwasi Zigah has accused the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Fifi Kwetey of adopting unconventional means to unseat him.

He said the Minister of Finance has employed crude tactics to increasingly cause disaffection between him and his constituents who otherwise have been solidly behind him in executing his job as the MP for the area.

This follows a publication that the Minister may vie for the Ketu South.

Speaking to Joy FM, the Hon. Albert Kwasi Zigah who is in his second term as the Member of Parliament stated that, Hon. Fifi Kwetey has mounted a sustained attack on his person describing him as a failed MP who cannot read and write and cannot bring any meaningful development to the constituency.

He was confident of retaining his seat during the party’s primaries and eventually winning the constituency seat in the impending 2012 parliamentary elections, adding that he welcomes the challenge from the deputy minister.

However in a sharp denial Fifi Kwetey stated that the MP’s assertions are baseless and should be treated with the utmost contempt that it deserves.

He described the MP as a person who is afraid of his own shadows probably because he fears competition especially since he has failed as an MP.

“He’s been panicking all over the place, psychologically he feels very much insecure, even afraid of the District Chief Executive for the area’’ this is obviously the ranting a man who knows his end is due’’ he said.

Hon. Fifi Kwetey added that the actions of the MP even when the contest had not begun could best be described as a defeatist attitude.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Former Minister of Roads and Highways under the erstwhile NPP administration, Dr Richard Anane is urging government to explore the possibility of using internally generated funds to ensure the completion of stalled road construction projects across the country.

According to him, Ghana now as a middle income country should be able to look within its economy to source adequate funds to finish the major road which have not seen a major works in recent times.

Government has given itself up to the end of this year, to complete construction works on four major roads in the country.

Some major artery roads including the Achimota-Ofankor and the Nsawam-Apedwa stretches of the Accra-Kumasi Highway, the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange-Adenta section of the Accra-Aburi road, have had construction works stopped over several months due to the fact that government could not pay contractors.

The nature of the roads have become a major source of worry for many motorists who have complained over the poor nature of the roads which invariably damages their vehicles and have called on government to provide enough funds to complete the projects.

Government has given itself the end of this year to complete construction works on these four major roads. This follows a $400 million loan facility brokered by the Vice President John Mahama with the World Bank to finance the projects.

However speaking to Citi FM, Dr Richard Anane who is also the Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso calls on the NDC government to prioritize the completion of such major roads as stalled projects incur a great cost for the country.

“ If these roads were a priority for government, it would have found the necessary means to secure funds to complete these projects, we were able to do it, they can also do same if they are committed’’ he said.

Dr Anane adds that he is at great pains to understand why the government would cause the delay of such major programmes which will immensely bring a lot of benefits to the country.

Story by : Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Evalue Gwiura Catherine Afeku has made a passionate call on the government to as a matter of urgency make the child right bill more functional in the various institutions that oversee the welfare of the child.

She also called on parents to be more proactive in ensuring that children do not fall prey to hostile world of social vices that leaves in its wake children with a bleak and uncertain future.

Children at a very tender age are left to their fate in many homes making them vulnerable to all dangers, she added.

Hon. Afeku was reacting to a statement on the floor of the house made by Akua Sene Dansua on behalf of the Minister for Women and Child Affairs Juliana Azumah Mensah to mark the United Nation (UN) International Day of the African Child which falls today.

The Evalue Gwiura MP regretted the situation where state institutions tasked to ensuring the welfare of the child does very little or at best nothing at all to better the lot of children.

According to her, the two main stakeholders in the child’s welfare, the parents and government have most of the time neglected their basic duty of bringing up the child the moral way.
She reminded the various governments that whatever they have built today can only be improved upon in the future of the child is prepared well enough to take up the reigns of governance to continue from where their processors left off.
For his part, the MP for Sekondi Papa Owusu Ankomah reminded parents children are Gifts from God who ought to be nurtured to make them beneficiaries to the society.
He called on parents to devote quality time to their wards so as to get the best from them in future, suggesting that the law should descend heavily on any parent who neglects the child.

He further called for pragmatic policies to get all street children off the street into the classroom to learn a trade.

Arojah Amadi-Ferguson/Ghanadistricts.

The Minister of Transport, Alhaji Collins Dauda, has said he has set up a committee to look into the legislation that established the Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA).

He said there was the need for review of the law to ensure effective and efficient management of the Ghana Railway Company (GRC).

Alhaji Dauda said this during a workers’ durbar held at a popular site known as ‘Bottom Tree’ in Ketan on Wednesday to discuss pertinent issues affecting railway workers and the railway sector.

”The promulgation of the law has limited the GRC because the GRDA is the regulator whiles the GRC is the operator thus making decision-taking towards the revitalization of the sector difficult,” he said adding that as the law stands now the GRC has to apply to the GRDA for license to operate.

Alhaji Dauda said if the law is reviewed, it would help the restructuring of the railway sector faster and more efficient.

Alhaji Dauda who is also the MP for Asutifi South said his outfit would work towards the payment of workers’ arrears as well as promotion and collective bargaining agreement issues.

The Acting Managing Director of the GRC, Mr K. B Amofa, said freight traffic remained the mainstay of the company accounting for 90 percent of the revenue generated.

He said much of the freight traffic are primary commodities such as manganese, bauxite and cocoa meant for export through the Takoradi Port.

Mr Amofa said successive governments failed to use the revenues generated from the export to maintain the infrastructure and assets thus leading to their current deplorable state.

He called for a major infusion of capital into the railway sector to ensure the realization of its full potential.

“As at now, about 45 percent of locomotives and wagons required to run and achieve set freight targets have broken down and are being repaired, but lack of spare parts has delayed their service since some of them are over 50 years old and needed to be replaced”, he said.

The General Secretary of the Railway Workers Union, Mr. Daniel Kingsford Esso, reiterated the call for major capital investment into the sector in order to ensure the realization of its full potentials.

He said as a result of poor remuneration of railway workers, their wives had deserted them thus making them even more miserable.

Mr. Esso alleged that for over 15 years, no railway worker had been promoted or received any upward salary adjustment.

He appealed to the government to pay their salary arrears as well as consider the collective bargaining agreement issue critically.

The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Ms Emelia Arthur, said the railway sector was crucial to the economy therefore the government would do its possible best to source for funds to rejuvenate the sector.

GNA