Month: October 2013

The Minority in Parliament has hinted of dragging the Finance Minister to the floor of Parliament to explain the circumstances surrounding the alleged financial impropriety involving IT firm, Subah InfoSolutions Ltd.

Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, said he was a bit confused about the mandate of the firm and needed clarity from the minister

He was speaking to Joy News’ Francisca Kakra Forson on Monday.

Subah Info Solutions has been accused of receiving some four million Ghana cedis monthly, totaling Ghc144 million over a period of two and half years for no work done.

They were contracted in 2010 by the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to monitor and verify the volume of calls generated by telecom companies for tax purposes but failed to carry out their mandate.

The Commissioner General of the GRA, Mr George Blankson, in an interview with Joy FM said Subah Infosolutions Ltd. was not known to have any previous experience in monitoring and verifying volumes of phone calls for the purpose of calculating the Communication Service Tax.

He, however, said the company, which was selected without going through competitive bidding, has IT experts from India and other parts of the world.

Government has begun investigations into the alleged impropriety.

Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei said the Minority has little details on the whole deal and must be briefed.

He found it a bit intriguing that Subah was contracted to begin work at a time when the ACT of Parliament, which legalizes their operations, had not been passed.

He also questioned how the IT company was doing the monitoring when the telecom companies had not been informed about its operations.

He said the Finance Minister must come to Parliament to address the concerns of the minority.

Parliament resumes sitting on Tuesday after about three months recess.

During the recess, the MPs were recalled to undertake some urgent government business.

Key among the Agenda for the Third Meeting of the First Session of the Sixth Parliament is the presentation of the 2014 budget to the House by the finance minister.

The MPs are also expected to work on some unfinished public businesses tabled in the last meeting and begin new ones.

A number of bills, papers, instruments and agreements will be handled before the House goes on the Christmas recess.

The Member of Parliament for Obuasi Akrofuom, Kwabena Appiah Pinkrah says prostitution is a major source of employment and as long as people earn some form of income from practising it, the vice should be regulated so that government can generate revenue from it.

“Prostitution is a main stream job and those who engage in it are earning money so they should be taxed by the state and the practice should be regularized so that the professionals among the prostitutes will be registered,” he said on Adom FM’s Burning Issues programme on Monday October 28.

Appiah Pinkrah was speaking in relation to a swoop carried out by Takoradi police during which they arrested 23 prostitutes in an area close to the popular night hangout Vienna City.

He added that if the practice is regularized, those who engage in it will undergo regular health checks in order to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections.

Appiah Pinkrah pointed out that instead of concentrating on the moral and emotional sentiments, the state should rather focus on the revenue that can be derived from the sex trade.

“My pastors can say what they want to say but I still maintain that the practice should be regularized so that the state can tax those who engage in it.”

“We should not rob those who engage in prostitution and the state the opportunity to earn money,” he reiterated

Asked if he would allow his children to engage in prostitution, Appiah Pinkrah said those who engaged in the act don’t tell their parents and;

“My children will not either ask for my permission if they want to engage in prostitution but they should be old enough to do that and if they did, they would earn income and hence should be taxed”.

He concluded that taxing prostitutes will help the state financially and it will control the movements of those who engage in it.

Adom News

The Police have increased their presence in some public areas across the country after the recent Westgate Mall attacks in Kenya.

The British government Ghana reportedly warned its citizens in the country of a possible terror attacks about a month ago citing the presence of Ghanaian troops as the possible trigger.

Parliament resumed sitting on Tuesday after three months on recess and Citi News understands all visitors to the House were thoroughly searched before they were allowed to enter the building.

Citi FM’s Parliamentary correspondent, Richard Sky reporting live from the House said: “if you are coming to Parliament now, the hitherto situation where people could walk in any how has been addressed. If you are coming here, you must be coming here to do some business with a Member of Parliament [MP].”

“If you get to the main gate, you will be thoroughly searched before you are given access and there should be a confirmation from within the Legislature that indeed, you are coming to transact one business or the other,” he added.

According to Richard Sky, four new checkpoints have been set up at the Parliament House being manned by security personnel.

He noted that the response of the MPs have so far been positive because “many people come to Parliament to harass Members of Parliament for cash. Sometimes, we’ve heard from Members of Parliament complain about the fact that people have broken into their vehicles and stolen valuables…and speaking to Members of Parliament, this is a relief.”

The Deputy Majority leader in Parliament, Alfred Agbesi in an interview on the new development lauded the initiative adding that “Parliament is not a market place where you can just go and look at tomatoes. If you have business doing in Parliament like if you are coming to see your MP, fine, that is a business…”

He advised persons who have genuine reasons for visiting the Parliament House to do so but adhere to the new security regulations which have been put in place.

Citifmonline.com

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament would soon summon institutions that have been cited for misappropriating public funds, to reappear before the Committee at a special sitting to provide feedback on actions taken on it’s recommendations.

Chairman of PAC, Kwaku Agyemang Manu told Joy News this that “innovation” was among several steps being adopted by the Committee to ensure that public institutions and office holders were made accountable to the state.

“We have suggested that we are going to do what we called implementation hearing. So two or three months after our recommendations, we will call agencies who have been cited to tell us what they have done about the recommendations that came up”, PAC chairman intimated.

He was reacting to a UN report which indicated that the Committee may lose the support of donors for its work because it has not been able to carry through its recommendations.

The PAC is mandated by Parliament to investigate findings raised by the Auditor General’s auditing of public institutions.

A global parliamentary report released by the United Nations Development Programme, however, revealed that PAC in many African countries have failed to see through the prosecution of public officials found culpable during their sittings.

This, it noted, has largely reduced the committee’s work to a name and shame exercise.

Country director at the Canadian Parliamentary Center, Dr. Rasheed Draman says the development, if not checked would erode public confidence in the legislature.

He further explained that naturally, donors would want to see the best out of resources they invest on institutions.

“If you take the PAC as an example, they make recommendations, they sit in public, talk about the issue and yet you don’t hear anything afterwards. If you are the one putting in resources you will begin to question whether that is proper investment”, Dr. Draman indicated, stressing, “the results have not been impressive to put it bluntly.”

He has therefore charged the PAC to move from doing the public and media talk show and prosecute civil servants, who are found to have misappropriated public funds.

But Mr. Agyemang Manu said he was not “very surprised” about the assertions because people, including the civil society, “don’t listen” to explanations offered by those in authority.

He also disagreed that report would affect PAC’s sources of funding.

Mr. Agyemang Manu conceded that PAC “has a lot of restraints”, which do not allow it to implement its recommendations, blaming the restrains on Ghana’s system of governance – separation of powers

The Executive, precisely the Attorney General, is mandated by law to prosecute people indicted by the PAC, which said explains why committee’s hands were tied to some extent.

He further clarified that Parliament would have to adopt whatever recommendations or action plans the PAC comes up with before they could be implemented.

But Dr. Rasheed Draman thinks PAC could do more than it had explained.

According to him, even if the executive is dragging its feet, Parliament has the power to coerce the Executive to act in order to ensure that resources were used judiciously.

Myjoyonline.com