Month: March 2012

Parliament on Thursday proceeded on recess after for the Easter break during which MPs are expected to actively take part in the Voters Registration exercise which starts on Saturday 24th March 2012.

Parliament in its eight weeks of sitting ensured the passage of lots of Bills and approved loans for national development.

Some of the Bills passed include Collages of Education Bill, Mental Health Bill and Presidential Transitional Bill. Loans such as the US$110,000,000.00 to finance the development of a 60,000 cubic meter a day capacity Seawater Desalination Plant to produce potable water for Teshie, Nungua and their environs was approved.

A €48,148,370.02 COFACE Buyer Credit Agreement between Ghana Grid Company Limited and Societe General to finance the Tumu- Han-Wa Transmission Project was also approved.

The Majority Leader Cletus Avoka announcing the business of the House for the next sitting which starts on the 22nd May 2012, alley the fears of the public and assured that Bills such as the Rights to Information Bill and Property Rights of Spouse Bill will duly be passed.

Ministers of Environment, Local Government and Rural Development, Education, Finance and Roads and Highways will appear in the first week of the next sitting to answer certain urgent questions.

Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Parliament has unanimously approved the nomination of the Member of Parliament for Juaboso, Sampson Ahi to replace Dominic Azimbe Azumah who has been appointed as a Minister of State, as a representative of the Parliament of Ghana at the ECOWAS Parliament.

Under article 5 of the Protocol relating to the Community Parliament of ECOWAS, a total of eight seats have been allotted to the Parliament of Ghana out of a total of one hundred and twenty seats for the entire sixteen Member ECOWAS Community.

Under sub-clause (ii) of clause 1 of article 7 of the said Protocol, elected Representatives to the Community Parliament of ECOWAS shall be drawn from the National Assemblies of Member States or their Equivalent institutions.

Hon. Smpson Ahi’s nomination has further become necessary since Hon. Azumah by his appointment as a minister has to resign as Member of the ECOWAS Parliament to satisfy the Protocol and the Rules and Procedure of the ECOWAS Parliament which requires that a Member appointed to carry out executive function in a member State has to resign as a member.

Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Parliament has approved the nomination of the Member of Parliament for Asawase, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak to replace Hon. Moses Asaga, who has been appointed Minister of State, as a representative of the Parliament of Ghana at the Pan – African Parliament.

Under Article 4(2) of the Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community relating to the Pan-African Parliament by (5) five Parliaments, at least one of whom shall be a woman.

Under Rule8(4) of the Rules and Procedure of the Pan-African Parliament, a Member loses his/her seat when he/she is appointed to executive or judicial position.

Hon. Mohammed Muntaka who is to replace Moses Asaga is a second term MP who contributed efficiently to the business of the floor of the House.

He currently Chairs the Health Committee of the Parliament, a position he has occupied very effectively.

Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh

Members of Parliament on Thursday made a strong case for their security to be beefed up especially at Parliament House and its environs.

This follows an incident at the lobby of Parliament House on Thursday morning in which a self-styled journalist accosted and nearly physically assaulted the MP for Abirem, Esther Obeng- Dapaah, when the latter declined to grant an interview to the ‘journalist’.

Other MPs, who tried to intervene in order to bring some sanity to the place, were verbally assaulted by the journalist and threatened to harm them.

The issue was brought to light by the Minority Chief Whip, and MP for Suhum, Frederick Opare Ansah when he reported the issue to the Speaker of Parliament on the Floor of the House.

The MP who was an eyewitness of the bizarre incident urged leadership of the House to take the issue of security for parliamentarians very seriously and take measures to ensure their safety.

The MP for Efigya-Sekyere West, Kan-Dapaah also recounted a recent incident at Parliament House when a stranger attacked a Member of the Public Accounts Committee, Isaac Assiamah after he questioned the Minister of Finance and Economic planning on a contentious issue.

He described the recent incident as very worrying and also added his voice to the call for enhanced security for parliamentarians.

The speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Joyce Bamford-Addo referred the issue to the privileges committee to take the matter up for necessary action.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, has impressed upon Parliament to fast track the passage of the Affirmative Bill into law.

She is convinced that the Bill’s early passage will empower the nation’s women to assume their rightful positions in every sector of the economy.

She said Ghana by now should have had the Affirmative Action Law needed to make women become more productive.

She was addressing female students of the Akuafo Hall at the University of Ghana, Legon alongside the NDC’s Mantse Agbona rally which she and her husband boycotted.

Mrs. Rawlings who has been championing women’s development through her Non-Governmental Organization, the 31st December Women’s Movement, noted with deep concern that women have been marginalised in many Ghanaian societies.

This situation she observed has hindered their rapid transformation over the years, despite attempts made to bridge the gender disparities.

She thus challenged the nation’s young women to fight for their rights to be able to move away from stigmatisation.

Commenting on the internal bickering within the party her husband Jerry Rawlings formed, the former first lady attributed it to fallouts from the Sunyani Congress where she was badly defeated.

According to her, the National Democratic Congress risked disintegrating due to the leadership paralysis that has characterised the party lately.

She maintained that the Sunyani congress was rigged in favour of her arch-rival President John Mills who is leading the NDC to contest the December elections.

In her own words, “Even though we went to Sunyani, I did not want to break up the party so there were a lot of things that I did not want to talk about.”

She said: “People who were not delegates were voting as delegates and I know all the delegates; more than a thousand were not delegates, they voted so I let it be because if I wanted to deal with it, I will take the whole bunch to court, but I just decided no, it’s not worth it, let them steal it, if that makes them happy, let them steal it”.

Source: citifmonline.com

Parliament on Monday vetted two Presidential nominees, Mr Henry Ford Kamel, NDC Member of Parliament for Buem, Volta Regional Minister-designate and Mr Victor Emmanuel Smith, a Presidential Adviser, Eastern Regional Minister-designate.

Mr. Kamel assured the Appointments Committee to use “good, strong” social support systems in the Volta Region to ensure that Election 2012 would be held in a peaceful atmosphere in the Region.
He pledged to engage Members of Parliament and District Chief Executives, traditional authorities and the clergy in the Region to guarantee integrity of the electoral process in that Region.

Mr. Kamel said he would ensure that the Region’s economic potential was enhanced, prescribing the need to review the law on bushfires, which was having a significant toll on ecotourism potentials in the area.

However, he said addressing the issue should be a collective effort instead of depending on the responsibility of State institutions to curb the menace of bushfires, advocating the need to involve the traditional set up and the people to address the situation.

Mr. Victor Smith assured political parties that he would ensure objectivity in all security matters and would collaborate effectively with other institutions to ensure peaceful Election 2012 in the Region.

He pledged commitment to the development of the Region, its people and would ensure sustainable development for the people to feel the government’s “Better Ghana” agenda.

Mr. Smith said he would ensure that activities that degraded the environment in the Region were curtailed, arguing that the law on small scale mining should be upheld and operations of galamsey operators properly supervised and monitored.

He said when given the nod as Eastern Regional Minister, he would ensure that all bottlenecks and bureaucratic process that frustrated policy implementation would be reduced.

Source: peacefmonline.com