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Month: April 2017

I will shoot Mahama’s aides if…Jirapa MP

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

The National Democratic Congress Member of Parliament for Jirapa, Dr. Francis Dakura Bawaana has stated that he will shoot some former presidential staffers and aides of former President John Mahama if given the opportunity.

According to Dr. Bawaana, the disrespectful and arrogant posturing of some former aides of the ex-president including Stan Dogbe immensely contributed to the humiliating defeat of the NDC in last year’s elections.

In an interview with Starr News, Dr. Bawaana explained that Mr. Dogbe and some of his colleagues completely alienated Mr. Mahama from the structures and the grassroots of the party and treated party members with disdain.

“My brother some of those handlers if I get I will shoot them. I’m being very honest. When you go to that area they are not correct. The way some of them treated people, and I’m one of them, I’m one of those that felt really badly treated by them.

“And I don’t care, I can even call some names, they were too arrogant around the president. I mean…Stan Dogbe was one of them. You go to see the president, they will ask you to go through somebody like Stan Dogbe, and he will block you. For what reason? Do you know why the President asked the person to [come] see him? And there were instances where, his attitude to every party members was like it doesn’t matter who you are, who matters is the President.”

He continued: “They caused disenchantment between the president and people that could have been bringing in the right information from the ground. Party leaders had problems, where did this Stan Dogbe man come from? Where did he come from? Where did he come from?”

Minority NDC MPs boycott vetting of deputy minister

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

The Minority NDC MPs serving on the Appointments Committee, have boycotted the vetting of deputy ministers which is currently ongoing at the New Block of the Parliament of Ghana.

The NDC MPs led by their leader, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, Friday, March 31, 2017, served notice that they will not sit beyond Tuesday’s vetting as well as Wednesday’s sitting in the Chamber.

It was also originally advertised that the Appointments Committee will break the vetting of deputy ministers on Tuesday, April 4, 2017, and continue when the House is in recess.

MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okujeto Ablakwa told journalists of the Parliamentary Press Corps that the Majority Side of the House wants to rush things by forcing them to vet all the 54 ministers of state and deputy ministers.

According to him, because they want to do due diligence in the vetting process, they have decided not to be part of the exercise until the return to the original schedule.

“We don’t want to be part of the rush and don’t want to be part in doing shoddy work,” he noted.

Bribery saga: Defend yourself in court – Group urges Ayariga

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

A group calling itself the Coalition for Defence of Equal Citizenship(CODEC) has urged the Bawku Central MP, Mahama Ayariga to proceed to court to purge himself of charges of contempt likely to be made against him by the state.

Ayariga following the release of the Joe Ghartey report has questioned the manner in which the evidence was evaluated in the process of investigations, saying criminal standards were used and that ought not to have been the case. According to him, he wasn’t given the opportunity to be cross-examined.

He was compelled by the committee’s report to render an unqualified apology to purge himself of contempt, with ruling on the matter deferred to a later date.

But Mr. Ayariga, who appeared dissatisfied with the work of the committee, reluctantly rendered the apology, saying “Mr. Speaker, if you say I should apologize, I have apologized.”

In a reaction Saturday, Ayariga said he will hold himself in abeyance pending the ruling of the Speaker on the matter.

“When you go before a lower court, and it takes a decision, if the judge evaluates the evidence and says I’ve come to this conclusion but says I will determine the ruling next week, so come next week and come and hear the sentence, you have to wait next week before you decide whether you have to appeal or not to appeal. So while Speaker did not conclude that day but said he will rule on it, I have to wait for the Speaker’s ruling and then the issue of whether the legal challenge to the process or some of the processes will be effected, will then be decided on. So at this stage strictly speaking we all have to wait. ”

But Ali Dawud, Director of Operations(CODEC) in an interview with Fiifi Banson on Anopa Kasapa on Kasapa 102.5 FM said the opague report churned out by the Joe Ghartey committee is disappointing and leaves much to be desired, hence Ayariga must defend himself in court.

“If this were to be a civil issue, we can even institute an action to protect the interest of the constitution on behalf of the people of Ghana, but this is purely criminal issue-Contempt, and when it comes to criminal issues the accused person ought to fight for his rights. Nobody can do that for him. We would have wished we do that for him, but we are barred from doing so because it is a criminal matter.

“His apology will expose him to face criminal action which can be taken on behalf of the state by the Attorney General(AG), pursuant to Article 123 of the 1992 constitution because contempt is a semi-criminal offence. So if you have lied in parliament the state has the power to press criminal charges against you and he can risk losing his seat. Meanwhile he didn’t peddle untruth. The committee fell short of finding the fact so why should Ayariga, a volunteer of information, turn out to be a convict.”

AMERI saga: NDC MPs dismiss alleged fraud in Addison Committee report

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

NDC Members of Parliament serving on the Mines and Energy Committee have dismissed allegations of fraud in the Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) contract agreement between the Government of Ghana and Africa & Middle East Resources Investment (AMERI) Group LLC.

According to the group, the Addison Committee’s report does not truly reflect the details of the said agreement, stressing that the validity of the Committee’s report is even questionable.

MP for Pru, Dr. Kwabena Donkor under whose care as Minister for Power, the AMERI deal was sealed, told journalists, Monday, that deal was the best ever the country has contracted looking at the urgency of which the power plant was supplied and the cheapest tariff (tariff for AMERI is levelized at US$0.1146 per kilowatt hour) Ghanaians are enjoying under the deal.

The Philip Addison Committee had claimed in its report (page 15(h) that there was no legal opinion from the Attorney General’s Department and further recommended in page 16 that “In the event that AMERI Energy refuses to come to the negotiations table, Government of Ghana should repudiate the Agreement on the grounds of fraud.”

That notwithstanding, the Committee on page 13 of its report alleged that AMERI Energy is making a profit in excess of US$1.5million, and therefore wondered whether a value for money audit was conducted before the agreement was sealed.

However, Dr. Donkor in rebuttal said the report clearly shows that the Addison Committee did understand the issues of the said contract.

According to him, the Attorney General’s Department was strongly represented at all times during the negotiations whith the Deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice witnessing the final agreement.

The agreement, he added, also received Cabinet approval before it was sent to Parliament for consideration and subsequent approval.

“It is important to ask this question – who should bear the allegation of fraud? The Agreement went through Cabinet. The Committee on Mines and Energy recommended by consensus to the Plenary and was passed by Parliament. Was Parliament party to this fraud? Is the plant not running and operational? Does it not have the cheapest tariff of all the thermal plants in the country? So, there was no fraud. The Committee cannot use relationship between the developer and its contractors – it is none of the business of the government,” he asserted.

Addison Committee was fed in Dubai by AMERI – NDC MPs alleged

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

The Minority NDC MPs are daring the Philip Addison Committee to disclose their source of funding into the Dubai trip they made in relation to their probe into the AMERI deal.

According to them, they have evidence that the 17-member Committee was allegedly sponsored by AMERI Energy.

Included in the said sponsorship, the NDC MPs allege, are Hotel accommodation; air fare, food among others.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, Monday, to set the records straight over the AMERI deal, Dr. Kwabena Donkor under whose care as Minister for Power, the deal was brokered, questioned the credibility of the Committee’s findings.

He expressed worry over why the Committee allowed itself to be sponsored by the very principal act (AMERI ENERGY) they were tasked to probe.

The MP for Pru, commenting further articulated doubt over the credibility of the report, arguing that the Members of the Committee might have been compromised through the alleged sponsorship of their trip to Dubai for the probing.

He said if the Committee were truly committed to doing a very good job for their pay masters, they would have invited him and or the former Deputy Minister for Power to provide relevant information that would help their work.

Parliament passes 2017 Appropriation Bill

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Parliament has approved almost GHS 65 billion for government expenditure this year.

The green light for expenditure was given when the House passed the Appropriation Bill late in the evening Friday.

The amount which will be issued from the Consolidated Fund and withdrawals from other funds will cover expenditure allocation for all MDAs and other government institutions.

Speaking before the passage of the bill, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrissu lashed out at government for reducing budgetary allocations to some state institutions.

“Mr. Speaker, this government justifiably can be in a hurry, but not overspeeding. With this comments, Mr. Speaker, they can proceed more cautiously particularly in the era of earmark and capping of funds. That if distressed hospitals, Universities and educational institutions like Pantang and Psychiatric hospitals begin to yell in tears, we’ll ask the Minister to provide a handkerchief for us to wipe the tears.”

Responding to the criticisms of the minority leader, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, explained that the move was to provide more resources to government to prioritize programmes.

“Mr. Speaker, the motivation and object of the re-alignment and capping is to primarily reduce Budget rigidities and provide government the opportunity to channel resources to priority programmes and activities as part of measures to meet broad government development objectives. In doing so we have ensured, through the earmarked funds, capping and re-alignment Act, the allocations, amounts, shares to earmarked funds stipulated in the constitution are protected.”