Month: January 2014

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament Tema East, Titus Glover has condemned the continuous pitching of the Asante and Akyem tribes against each other by some politicians and other political analyst for political gains.

According to him, this dangerous act mostly perpetuated by detractors of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has the potential of creating unnecessary animosity among the two Akan groups some of who may not even be politicians.

Hon. Titus Glover was speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem programme on Thursday in reaction to Pollster Ben Ephson who on the same platform asserted that the NPP’s bane that has denied the party electoral victory in the last two general elections is the sharp divisions in the party among the Ashante and Akyem factions.

The pollster averred that once the two tribes see themselves as the most powerful bloc in the party, the NPP’s political fortunes will continue to dwindle and prevent them from winning political power.

However, Hon. Titus Glover down played the perceived factions within the party saying it remains a perception, as the facts on the ground does not support the assertion made by the party’s opponents.

He stated that on the contrary, Ashante’s have shown 2012 NPP Presidential candidate, Nana Akufo Addo who is perceived to be the leader of the Akyem bloc, a lot of support over the years and they continue to do so even untill now.

Hon. Titus Glover added that the NPP is a national party which has support across the country and would continue to open its doors to all Ghanaians irrespective of their tribes.

GhanaMPs.gov.gh

Some queen-mothers in the Volta region have accused Members of Parliament, DCEs and Assembly Members in the region for neglecting the development of the area.

“They [MPs, DCEs] are not trying to help the region to develop; what are they doing to direct the region into development, there is no development going on in the region.’’

According to the concerned Queen mothers of the Volta region the MPs, DCEs and Assembly Members have failed to lead the region to develop.

Spokesperson for the group Mama-ga Amertor told Citi News that the MPs, DCES and Assembly Members lack the initiative to bring developmental projects to the region.

‘’Our MPs are not talking in Parliament; we are not hearing from them,’’ She added.

She explained that the citizens of the Volta region are losing out on development and hence the youth of the area will suffer most. ‘’If you compare other regions to the Volta, [we are lacking]; we want them to do something. ‘’

Mama-ga Amertor further asked the MPs to come together and do something for the region, she also questioned the impact and contribution of the Volta MPs on the floor of Parliament.

‘’Let me ask this question, How many times have you heard any Volta MP in Parliament talking about the problems of the region; how many times have you heard the MPs speak about the development of the region.’’

Meanwhile, the Volta Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo has accused Mama-ga for conducting propaganda for the opposition, New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“She is doing propaganda work for the NPP though she is a queen-mother.\’\’

According to him the queen-mother is accusing the MPs because the NPP does not have a representation from the region in Parliament.

“She is doing this for her political gain,\’\’ the Minister suggested.

The Rent Control Department has revealed that a new Rent Draft Bill would soon be placed before Parliament for approval.

Mr Addo Soin Dombo, Chief Rent Controller, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said Ghana’s Rent Act of 1963 (Act 220), which regulated the relationship between landlords and tenants, was outmoded and needed to be reviewed.

He said the new Draft Bill 2010 was in line with international standards, adding that the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, in drafting the bill, involved experts from the United States, United Kingdom, India, South Africa and United Arab Emirates.

He said the Ministry would be organising stakeholders’ conference to deliberate on the draft bill before it is forwarded to Parliament for consideration and approval.

Mr Dombo expressed the hope that by the middle of this year Parliament should be in a position to pass the bill for Presidential assent.

He said under the current rent law, it was an offence for landlords to take rent advance in excess of six months, which was being flouted by many landlords adding that in the new draft bill this had been extended to one year.

Mr Dombo cautioned estate developers and landlords to stop charging rents in dollars as it constituted a criminal offence under the laws of Ghana.

He said the law required that landlords paid eight per cent of their annual rent income tax to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and appealed to the GRA to collaborate with the Department to know the exact amount of money each landlord was supposed to pay as some landlords understated their rent income.

Mr Dombo said under section 25:1(c) of the Rent Act, agents were entitle to take five per cent of the rent paid from the landlord and not tenants, declaring that agents were only entitled to charge for services they rendered to tenants.

He advised landlords to investigate the background of their would-be tenants in order to avoid renting rooms to people with questionable lifestyles adding that tenants must also check the background of their landlords before hiring their facilities.

Mr Dombo urged landlords to issue tenants with rent cards within a week of occupying the facility and urged tenants to thoroughly inspect the premises to make sure it was their taste and not located in a flood prone area.

The Department, in 2013, was able to settle 30,456 out of 64,456 cases it received from landlords and tenants while 15,345 cases were referred to the courts for redress with 18,655 pending.

The number of cases recorded last year saw an increase of 32 per cent over 2012, which Dr Dombo attributed to the extensive publicity the Department embarked upon to educate landlords and tenants of their rights and responsibilities.

GNA

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, the Deputy Minister of Education, has appealed to leaders to provide platforms to raise the standard of education in their communities.

He said the Government of Ghana would continue to make education a priority because it was the key to unlock the potential of the people, eradicate poverty, ignorance and disease.

The Deputy Minister, who is the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, said the standard of education was falling in the area and promised to team up with other stakeholders to raise pupils’ performance at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to a 100 per cent pass by 2016.

Mr Ablakwa said this on Monday at the launch of the first ever North Tongu Mobile Library and Teacher Training Program for English Language at Battor in the North Tongu District.

He initiated the three-month project which runs from January 2014, with 1400 books stocked in a mobile bus.

The British Government, through the British High Commission, is supporting with a grant package of 10,000 pounds. Other collaborators are the Ghana Library Authority, EPP Book Services, the North Tongu District of the Ghana Education Service and the North Tongu District Assembly.

The Mobile Community Library Project is to enable teachers, pupils and students and people of the North Tongu to attain high proficiency in the English Language, help students and teachers in other subjects as well as see an improvement in pupils grades at the BECE.

The mobile library visit schools in the area for pupils and teachers to borrow books. There will be staff of the District Ghana Education Service and teachers of each school to guide the pupils and teachers.

Statistics shown to the Deputy Minister showed that only 20 per cent of 22,000 candidates who wrote the BECE in 2012 passed, and this rose to 32 per cent in 2013.

He said the performance rating of the district at the BECE had fallen from the 100th district to the 160th.

Mr Ablakwa said some interventions were being pursued to reverse the trend, with a target of 100 per cent pass by 2016. Adequate textbooks and syllabi had been distributed to all schools s in the area and trained teachers were being re-deployed and redistributed to schools without trained teachers.

There is also an on-going programme for effective monitoring of teaching and learning as well as both local and international refresher and capacity building workshops for teachers.

Mr Ablakwa said the District Education Office, which some time ago did not have vehicle, had been provided with a pick up.

Mr Peter Jones, the British High Commissioner in Accra, in message read on his behalf by Madam Patricia Adu-Twum, Project Support Officer, pledged continued support for projects aimed at developing education in Ghana.

“It is our aim that at the end of this project, schools within North Tongu will be among the best performing schools in the SHS and BECE results.

Professor Emmanuel Netsey-Afedo, the Project Manager, called on parents, teachers, chiefs and other leaders in the area to ensure that the project succeeds.

Mr Francis Ganyaglo, the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, unveiled the bus with the books.

Source: GNA

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Lower West Akim, Madam Gifty Klenam, has said she would table a motion in Parliament for a debate on the high expenditure of National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG).

She said the financial strength of any organization like NALAG depended on efficient acquisition and management of its resources.

Mad Klenam said there were six metropolitan, 49 municipal and 161 district assemblies in the country, whose ultimate goal was to fast track socio-economic development under the decentralization programme.

“It goes without saying that cutting down general expenses to the minimum will help NALAG achieve its noble objectives,” she said.

Madam Klenam said this at the West Akim Municipal Assembly’s last session for 2013, at Asamankese in the Eastern Region, during a heated debate on NALAG’s funds and its high spending.

Mr. Moses Timpo Ofori, Presiding Member (PM) of the assembly, had delivered a report on NALAG’s Conference held in November 2013 at Sunyani.

The 47-member assembly wanted Mr. Ofori to describe in detail policies, procedures, rules and regulations in business correspondence, personnel and financial administration of NALAG.

These include NALAG’s supply of dairies, calendars and feeding fees for the MMDA chief executives who attended the conference.

The Assembly described NALAG’s purchase of motorbikes for the assemblies as “cut throat” prices and the cost would deducted from the Assemblies’ Common Fund.

The assembly members said they were not happy with the “unsatisfactory report” on NALAG’s uncontrolled expenditure and registered their dissatisfaction with the performance of the budgetary operations of the Association.

Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, says government\’s reasons for overspending by 2.8 billion cedis in 2012 are not cogent enough to displace his accusations that the money was appropriated to prop up the president\’s flagging campaign.

He said calls on him by the government to apologise for his claim that the money was embezzled are therefore unfounded.

He told Joy FM’s Top Story Friday that his use of embezzlement in an interview with Myjoyonline.com on Thursday was even a “milder” word.

The Member of Parliament for Suame constituency had said: “Now the country knows that 2.8 billion of hard currency was utilised to project the cause of John Mahama; monies that were not given to him by Parliament. Clearly embezzlement of state finances to reposition himself. That is what happened.”

But in a statement, government vehemently denied the Minority Leader’s claim, accusing him of peddling total falsehood and dabbling in “anti-government propaganda of the most undesirable kind”.

“The 2013 Budget which was debated and passed by the Parliament of Ghana clearly outlined and quantified the causes of the fiscal slippage in 2012,” Deputy Minister of Information Felix Kwakye Ofosu noted in the statement.

Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu however, defended his claim on Joy FM\’s Top Story, saying the kind of expenditure made by government outside the budgetary allocation was “unprecedented” in the history of the country.

According to him, if government goes borrow from banks as well as dip its hands into the consolidated fund without parliamentary approval, it would be “charitable” for one to accuse it of “stealing”.

When pushed to substantiate his claim, the Minority Leader said even though he was not saying that President Mahama necessarily used the money to erect billboards, he insisted it was curious that the government stated in its financial report on 2012 to Parliament that huge expenses were made by the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO). “What disaster happened in 2012, in the last three months?” he asked.

Responding to him, Mr. Kwakye Ofosu said the allegations by Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu were “unfounded and malicious” and calculated at making President Mahama and his government look bad.

He found it difficult to appreciate why the Minority Leader would make such claims when he sat in Parliament when the Finance Minister accounted for government expenditure for 2012.

He said the Minority Leader had gained notoriety for accusing the president without a basis.

He, therefore, demanded an apology from Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.

“I believe strongly that it was just an attempt to attack President Mahama unjustifiably, and he should acknowledge that he erred and apologise to the president and government so we move on. I don’t believe that the explanation he is giving right now really suffices.”

But the Minority Leader said he would fully study the government’s statement to advise himself. He however noted that he was not convinced that he erred to warrant the apology the deputy minister was demanding.

“Given what you have read to me (portions of government’s statement), I do not think that at this stage it calls for an apology at all. And I told you if you don’t own something and you go and take that property and say to yourself that \’I was in some difficulties so I had to use it\’; if you have to be charitable, you will say that it is even stealing. So what do I have to apologise for?” he told host of Top Story, Evans Mensah.

“You don’t have the right to do that…you have to come for parliamentary approval before doing it…” says Mrs Ursula Ekuful.

The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West was reacting to a decision by management of the University of Ghana to charge road tolls on all vehicles that ply the roads within the University.

She said on ‘Kokrokoo’ programme Thursday that the University is a public institution; hence nothing can be done without approval from Parliament.

According to her before there will even be a parliamentary debate and approval, the issue would have to be discussed with the Ministry of Education as well as the Finance Ministry and then forwarded to Parliament.

“Under the Fees and Charges Act 2009, you don’t have the power to impose charges on anything without parliamentary approval. The University is a public institution and not private…it was established by an act of parliament. Don’t start with an illegality,” she advised.

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