Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, Dominic Nitiwul wants Parliament should show more interest in reports of acts of corruption in public institutions.

Dominic Nitiwul remarked that as representative of the people, Members of Parliament (MPs) must build consensus in tackling the issue.

Speaking to Citi News on the motorbike contract for Subah Infosolutions for the street naming exercise, Mr. Nitiwul said MPs must take keen interest in such issues.

He noted that the general public “is complaining on a daily basis that Parliament is not doing much about it.”

He called for a bi-partisan approach by MPs in addressing the matter saying, “we don’t want the situation whereby it tends to be NPP [New Patriotic Party], NDC [National Democratic Congress] and we will be playing football with it; no.”

Nitiwul suggested that if four MPs from both sides of the House come together to file a motion, the matter can be discussed and a solution could be found.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) says government had no business awarding Subah Infosolutions a contract in the National Street Naming exercise.

Programmes and Research Officer at the Mary Awelana Addah told Citi News, government should not have dealt with Subah particularly when the company was an I.T company.

“What we all know is that Subah is into IT and for that matter, they did not qualify for the said tendering we are talking about,” she said.

The Ministry of Local Government has been criticized for contracting Subah to purchase motorbikes for the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to undertake the street naming exercise.

Prior to this, Subah had been under investigations for being paid GHC 74 million for an alleged no work done by the Ghana Revenue Authority.

The committee which was mandated to carry out the investigation has also come under fire as some Civil Society Organizations and some social commentators have described the report as a sham.

But the Ministry has however defended its decision award Subah Infosolutions the contract saying, the company satisfied the requirement and due process was followed to the latter in the awarding of the Contract.

citifmonline.com

In an effort to discourage the youth of Juansa Community in Asante Akim North constituency, from engaging in immoral behaviours during the Easter festivities, the Member of Parliament Kwadwo Baah Agyeman, organised a quiz competition for Junior High Schools in the community.

He expressed gratitude to the chief for providing accommodation for teachers and instituting such an excellent measure banning all sorts of entertainment such as record dance, video shows, concerts and any form of entertainment that would not allow children to study in the night.

Speaking to ghanamps.gov.gh, Hon. Baah Agyeman emphasised that in the new era we find ourselves the only way children can aspire reach greater heights is through education and urged parents to always ensure that their wards not only go to school but also study hard.

The MP urged parents and teachers alike to work hand in hand for the progress and development of the children and the community.

As a way of rewarding best performing schools, Hon Kwadwo Baah Agyeman donated a laptop to Juansa Presby JHS who took first position in the competitions, a set of Jerseys and football to Juansa R/C JHS and Juansa Methodist JHS for the second and third position respectively.

Ghanamps.com/Afia Yeboah

The Local Government minister is expected to appear before Parliament to explain why Accra and the major cities across the country have been engulfed in filth.

“We seek to bring the Local Government Minister to Parliament to answer questions about the garbage situation in the country. It is not only about Accra. Last week we heard reports about the filthy situation in Sekondi Takoradi, in Tema, in Kumasi and almost all the big cities in the country.

“So we will bring the minister to answer questions as to why the situation is so terrible and his outfit seems to be doing so little or making no effort at all to see that the situation is remedied,” a member of the Local Government Committee of Parliament Mr Ameyaw Kyeremeh told Joy News.

The media has been inundated with stories about major capitals choking with filth.

The situation has become so devastating that the Chief Executives from all ten assemblies in Accra and Tema decided to meet the deputy local government minister, Emmanuel Agyekum to find a solution to refuse management crisis facing the city.

Waste management companies are unable to collect rubbish in many areas in Accra because they have either not been paid for previous collections or cannot find a final disposal site for the garbage.

The only landfill site located at Kpone is under severe pressure.

The Accra compost plant which recycles a bulk of the city’s waste was shut down yesterday with more than hundred workers laid-off.

The fate of two hundred others hangs in the balance unless they receive some 25 million cedis owed them for two years.

Mr Ameyaw Kyeremeh said the minister, Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu has questions to answer.

He argued all the district assemblies are under the control of the minister. “So if the district assemblies are failing it means the minister is also failing,” he indicated.

He chided government for failing to release monies on time to the district assemblies in order for them to do their jobs.

“Government is supposed to pay district assemblies monies from the common fund but Government fails to release the monies on time. The assemblies also engage waste management contractors to provide the service. They are supposed to pay them according to the terms of their contract but because government fails to pay the assemblies on time they are also unable to pay the contractors. That has led to the contractors withdrawing their services.

Ameyaw Kyeremeh wondered why government would pump money elsewhere when the country is being suffocated by filth.

“Cleanliness is next to godliness” he reminded government, saying monies must be made available to remedy the situation.

A 21-member Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, led by Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Member of Parliament for Wa West, has paid a day’s working visit to the Bonsaaso Millennium Village project in the Amansie West District to assess the progress of work since its inception eight years ago.

The project team leader, Mr. Samuel Danquah, briefed members of the Committee on Telemedicine, by which clinics in the cluster easily communicate with a Medical Doctor at the Saint Martin Catholic Hospital at Agroyesum, to give first aid treatment to patients at the cluster.

Welcoming the Parliamentary Committee, Mr. Samuel Danquah said during a durbar of chiefs and people of Bonsaaso that the MVP is an integrated rural development programme, designed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 in low income rural communities in Africa. He said the MVP operates in more than a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including major clusters of villages in 10 countries.

The Millennium Villages strategy is based on simultaneous, integrated investments in five key sectors – Agriculture and Environment, Health, Education, Infrastructure, Institutional Development, and Business Development -in order to raise household incomes, reduce disease burden, and cut food insecurity and chronic hunger. He said the Bonsaaso Millennium Villages project site was launched in Ghana in January 2006, and named after the Bonsaaso community, located in the Amansie West District.

The cluster encompasses 30 contiguous rural communities in and around Bonsaaso, with a total population of 30,000 people, covering three out of 13 area councils, and including about 22% of the district’s population . He said before the project began, the area had seen poverty in all of its forms, low food crop productivity, poor infrastructure, poor health and education, etc., the health system was not functioning adequately.

The population of 30,000 had no medical doctor, only two midwives, one community health nurse and one health assistant.
He said not a single community in the cluster had access to electricity, even though the electricity grid was 5 kilometres away, and that safe drinking water, sanitation, the road network between communities, and information and communication technology coverage were all insufficient.

The team manager said the education system had declined, and that the government of Ghana is providing implementation and resource support to the Bonsaaso MVP. At Manso-Datano, the team inspected a clinic and CHEW Programme.
The District Chief Executive for Amansie West, Mr. Alex Kwame Bonsu, said the Millennium Villages Health Project component has helped Amansie West a great deal in the area of child immunisation, care and support for people living with HIV (PLHIV), control of Malaria, infrastructure provision and others, in line with the government’s interventions for quality healthcare.

According to him, the MVP, in collaboration with the Novartis Foundation, is rolling out one of its successful health interventions dubbed “Telemedicine in April, 2014, where several diagnosis of diseases and ailments, as well as drug dispensation would be done via internet and telephone, for which two ambulances would be launched in April 2014 to augment the healthcare delivery system in the District.

Mr. Bonsu gave the assurance that as the Millennium Villages Project prepares to fold up in 2015, the District Assembly would be committed to ensure continuity of this all-important development programme in the District, especially in the health sector, within its mandate and resources for which a District Assembly/Millennium Villages’ Project Technical Committee to facilitate the process and ensure a smooth takeover of the project interventions at the district wide level has been formed.

The leader of the Parliamentary Committee, Mr. Yieleh Chireh, commended the team leader and management, as well as the Amansie West District Assembly, for a good work done to improve the living standard of the people in the cluster, and assured them that a report would be submitted to the Local Government Minister and Parliament for immediate consideration of the scale up of the laudable project to cover the entire Amansie West District.

The Member of Parliament for Manso-Nkwanta, Grace Addo, thanked the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health for the visit and inspection, and appealed to them to convey their experiences, with regards to the road network in the district, to the President.

The Member of Parliament for Tema East, Titus Glover has called for a probe to find out who was behind the public circulation of the picture of the mortal remains of the Pictures of former Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission and Senior Presidential Adviser, Mr Paul Victor Obeng.

He described the unfortunate act as very despicable and condemnable which violatates the respect and privacy of the bereaved family and the right to dignity of Mr P. V. Obeng.

Pictures of one of Ghana’s experienced politicians lying at the morgue went virile first on social media platforms such as Whatsapp and Facebook on Sunday, a day after he died.

Monday May 19, 2014 edition of the Daily Guide newspaper also published a picture of the deceased in the morgue, which was greeted with a lot of condemnation from the National Media Commission and a section of the public alike.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo show on Tuesday, Hon. Titus Glover extolled the virtues of Mr P.V Obeng who he described as a political colossus whose over thirty years of political experience contributed to ensuring the growth of Ghana.

He re-countered how the development of Tema which was where he resided was dear to his heart and the efforts he contributed to seeing the advancement of the Metropolis.

“I suggest that we name a street in Tema after Mr P.V Obeng who is an illustrious son of the soil, or further more one of the state awards could be named after him in his memory for his tremendous efforts, and I think this will not amount to me asking for too much” Mr Titus Glover said.

Kwadwo Anim/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The acute water problem that confronted the Pokukrom Health Centre in the Ahafo Ano South District for more than a year has been resolved.

This follows the release of part of the share of the Health Fund for the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Francis Manu Adabo to fix the faulty motor and pump of the centre’s mechanized borehole which brought about the water problem.

Last year, the only borehole that served the Pokukrom Health Centre broke down and following this, the staff at the centre had to queue with the town folks for over 30 minutes before they could get water to serve their patients.

The problem compelled the personnel at the facility to issue a threat to shut down the centre, since they could not always go and “fight with their own town folks, some of whom insult them”.
Following a publication in the Daily Graphic last year about the closure of the Pokukrom Health Centre due to shortage of water, the MP for the Ahafo Ano Constituency, therefore, decided to come to the aid of the people and the health centre.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic at Pokukrom after inspecting the water system, the District Director of Health Service, Mr Reuben Bedzrah, commended the MP for responding to the call of the health personnel to save the situation.

The health director also commended this paper for the publication which informed the general public about the water situation and other challenges that confronted the health centre.

He urged the health personnel at the centre to take good care of the water system to enable it to last long to serve  the people.

Mr Bedzrah assured the personnel that everything possible would be done to ensure that they were able to provide quality healthcare services to the people.

He appealed to people in communities to support health personnel posted to their areas to enable them to deliver the right service to them.

The Medical Assistant at the facility, Mr Castro Adu Obeng, was full of praise for the MP and all those who played various roles to help fix the water problem.

He said the fixing of the problem had reduced the amount of time wasted as far as the use of water in the provision of quality healthcare was concerned,  as the health workers there no longer have to wait for water before attending to patients.

Daily Graphic

 The Member of Parliament for Upper West Akyem Constituency, Mr Joseph Sam Amankwanor, has identified extending electricity to cover the whole of his constituency as his key project.

He said this would not only open up his constituency but help bring a number of small-scale industries into the constituency.

The MP, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, was interacting with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday.

Development projects
Mr Amankwanor said currently, 60 communities within his constituency had been provided with electricity in addition to the existing 14 communities.

He said it was his target to reach 100 per cent coverage by extending electricity to all communities in the constituency.

Already, he said, a bridge at Krodua, at a cost of GH¢120, 000 had been inaugurated while  five HIPC social gathering centres were at various stages of completion.

Furthermore, Mr Amankwanor said a land at Kwesi Nyarko had been acquired for the construction of a police post estimated at GH¢75,000.

He said a market to be built at Asokow, estimated at GH¢40,000, was also in the pipeline.

The MP disclosed that through his initiative, 120 spraying machines and other farming inputs such as wellington boots had been distributed to farmers while 25 brilliant  needy students were being supported with scholarships.

He, however, called for patience as efforts were being made to bring accelerated development to the constituency, saying “since the job of an MP is mostly bureaucratic, patience is required to achieve the better Ghana agenda for all.”

He said though the Common Fund MPs received  was not enough, he was determined to  work towards the betterment of his constituency and uplift living standards there.

Key challenges
On key challenges facing the constituency, he said the lack of educational facilities, roads and good drinking water was a bane.

He expressed the hope to get grants to overcome the challenge and construct more boreholes in addition to five  already constructed by PURC he said he was encouraging  farmers to form co-operatives to expand their farms and possibly venture into some cottage industries.

The constituency covers Ayesuano, Obom, Asamankese, Lower West Akyem, among other areas.

graphic.com.gh