Month: July 2013

Parliament on Friday went into recess after nine weeks of sitting, with the House approving a trade finance facility of 1.2 billion dollars for the purchase of cocoa beans for the 2013/2014 season.

The credit facility is an arrangement between the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and a consortium of several international and local banks to enable COCOBOD raise adequate funds to purchase 830,000 tonnes of cocoa from farmers for the crop season.

The lenders include the bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Credit Agricole Corporation and Investment Bank, First Rand Bank Limited, Nedbank Limited and Societe General.

The syndicated trade-backed facility will cost COCOBOD an amount of 14.08 million dollars.

But the Minority side of the House was livid when the finance ministry presented the paper on the trade facility to the House. The side wondered why the ministry chose to lay such an important financial agreement on the day the legislature was going on recess.

They argued that when such occurrences took place, members did not have enough time to scrutinize such arrangements properly because of the haste and urgency with which those agreements are approved.

The House also approved a request to waive stamp duty on the facility to ensure that the full value of credit is available to COCOBOD for the cocoa purchases.

The recess ends the Second Meeting of the First Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic. The House is expected to reconvene in October, 25, 2013.

During this sitting the House approved several important bills government considered very important to economic improvement and to raise money to augment this year’s budget.

The bills included the controversial Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Bill, the National Fiscal Stabilization Levy Bill, Special Import Levy Bill and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Bill.

The House course of the sitting also gave approval for government to access the international capital market to issue a second sovereign bond of up to one billion dollars.

Even though the usual partisan disagreements characterized the second meeting of the sixth parliament, both sides of the House forged consensus to ensure the fluidity of its processes.

Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, the Speaker of Parliament who performed the closing ceremony, commended members for their prompt response to duty and their commitment to discharge their constitutional mandate effectively.

He urged members to use the recess period to reflect on peace and what they can contribute to make nation better.

GNA

Parliament on Friday 19th July adjourned sine die to end the second meeting of the sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

The recess ends the Second Meeting of the First Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic. The House is expected to reconvene in October, 25, 2013.

During this sitting, the House approved several bills government considered very important to economic improvement and to raise money to augment this year’s budget.

The bills included the controversial Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Bill, the National Fiscal Stabilization Levy Bill, Special Import Levy Bill and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Bill.

The House in the course of the sitting also cleared government to access the international capital market to issue a second sovereign bond of up to one billion dollars.

Prior to the House adjourning, the Majority Leader Hon. Benjamin Kunbour presenting the Business Statement for the first week of the third meeting ending Friday 25th October 2013, stated that the committee had programmed ministers to respond to questions asked of them during the week.

The ministers include, Health, Energy and Petroleum, Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts. The rest are Food and Agriculture and Roads and Highways.

The committee also urged all committees with referrals to take advantage of the recess period to deliberate on them and report same for consideration by the House during the Third Meeting.

He noted that contingent upon consultations, the Standing Orders Committee is expected to hold meeting during the recess to make proposals for amendment of the Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana, adding that Members of the Standing Orders Committee would be communicated to in due course.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Parliament has ratified an agreement between Ghana and the African Capacity Building Foundation for the establishment of an ACBF Regional Office in Ghana

The foundation spearheads the building of sustainable human and institutional capacity for poverty reduction in Africa.

Presenting the report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the ratification of the agreement between Ghana and the ACBF for the establishment of a Regional Office in Ghana, the Chairman Hon. Kwasi Bandua stated that the decision to site the office here in Ghana was in recognition of the country’s pedigree within the Foundation and the place the country occupies in the democratic world.

The committee observed that this was also consistent with the diplomatic efforts made by the country over the years to become the destination of major international institutions and organizations which enhance the profile of the country and thereby set in motion a spiral of increasing global attention and its related benefits.

Besides, the committee observed that the continues increase in international visitors to the country would not only create avenues for increasing exports of the country’s products but would also generate employment as the economic base of the country widens as a result.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

Frank Annor-Dompreh, Member of Parliament (MP) for Nsawam-Adoagyiri in the Eastern Region, has warned President John Mahama against manipulating a documented report on alleged widespread financial malfeasance at the Ghana Youth Employment Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).

The 5-member committee on Tuesday July 16 presented its report to the President at the Flagstaff House. The GYEEDA investigative report indicts Zoomlion, and calls for prosecution of other persons.

The six officials of GYEEDA cited for corruption and fraud are Alhassan Tabsoba, Second National Deputy Coordinator in charge of operations; Omar Ibrahim, the Ashanti Regional Coordinator as well as Joseph Osborn Djeni, a former National Deputy Coordinator who has resigned from GYEEDA to take up a new post as the Community Relations Manager of the Ghana Gas Company Limited.

The President has promised that the recommendations contained in the report will be studied carefully and a review of GYEEDA’s operations immediately undertaken.

Pressure is also mounting on government as Chief Policy Analyst at the Ghana Institute of Public Policy Options, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby also known as Tarzan has challenged government to make GYEEDA report public.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story, Frank Annor-Dompreh warned the President not to attempt to manipulate the report.

“If they think they can adulterate or manipulate this report they are joking”, he cautioned.

He also counseled government against “picking and choosing” politically convenient aspects of the report for implementation. In his assessment, government is not taking the report seriously.

An “uneasy and increasingly worried” MP said the GYEEDA program is the “heartbeat of the youth” in Ghana.

The opposition New Patriotic Party(NPP) MP questioned the basis for government’s promise to restructure GYEEDA when it is reluctant to publish the report.

The MP who is also a member of the Special Budget committee in parliament, complained of “unguarded unfettered plunge into state coffers” to make suspicious payments into the program.

It was his hope that the report would not hit a dead-end on the desk of the Attorney-General under the claim that it was studying it.

The proposed tax on condom is not exclusive, but formed part of the items and commodities that Government is roping into the tax net, Mr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, Deputy Minister for Information and Media Relations, has stated.

He said it was unfair for a section of the Ghanaian media to highlight on one commodity out of the lot that Government wants to be captured in the tax net.

Mr Mohammed, who was speaking during the daily media briefings at the Flagstaff House, Kanda on Friday, said government has not concluded on any decision to impose taxes but it was making tax proposal to Parliament for debate and consideration.

“The tax if approved will not cover even all the condoms as has been put out there by the media, but will tax only ‘luxurious and expensive condoms’, he said.

The Deputy Minister wondered why the media should single out only condoms among the range of commodities Government had listed for taxation.

Mr Mohammed said: “I will prefer that the media conduct their investigations thoroughly before coming out with some of these stories.”

He said that the tax proposal was currently being handled by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance, which had not yet received parliamentary approval and called on Ghanaians to ignore the alarming and distorted information that was put out.

On Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur’s visit to Abuja, the Deputy Minister said his meeting gave Ghana the opportunity to explain to other African leaders, measures Government had taken to reduce the incidence of HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

Mr Mohammed explained that while HIV and AIDS were reducing drastically, tuberculosis on the other hand was increasing and pledged Government’s commitment to fight the incidence.

On investigations on the recent fire out breaks in some major markets in the country, the Deputy Minister said that the Committee and the investigations team tasked to look into the matter would soon present a report to the President for the next line of action.

Daily Graphic