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Month: October 2017

Ghanaians want good laws not rush laws – Minority leader

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu has revealed that Ghanaians want good laws that will stand the test of time and not rushed laws.
He made this remarks on the floor of Parliament where it became clear that the Committee on Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs had to travel to learn from best practices as they work on the Special Prosecutor Bill 2017.
According to the Tamale South legislator, Parliament as an institution should properly resource its committees and give it the needed attention more especially, when the Constitutional Committee needs to travel to Canada, Singapore and South Africa to under study how their Special Prosecutor system works.
“Let us not leave this to Civil Society groups, only to hear later that MPs’ took envelopes and have been compromised”.
Again let us hold the Ministry of Finance responsible for this and as a House take responsibility over the workings of our various committees, he lamented.
Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill 2017 is expected to be passed before the House goes on Christmas break and captured in next year’s budget which is expected to be presented to the House next month.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Speaker warns of delays in submission of committee reports

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Speaker of Parliament Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye has indicated to Members of Parliament that the House will not tolerate delays in the submission of committee reports and budget estimates in the third siting of the first session.
He made this remarks on Tuesday 3rd October 2017, when he welcomed MPs back to the House after two months break.
According to the former Dome/Kwabenya legislator, over the year’s third meetings do have a tall order and usually budgets are presented during such meeting, hence putting pressure on the plenary.
Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye, adviced the Finance Ministry to ensure that there is early submission of budget estimates by the various Ministries, Agencies and Departments, for early submission to the House.
He charged Ministers who have been selected to answer questions on the floor of the House to endeavor to do so timeously.
“We can only make Ghana and Ghanaians proud when we attend to duties of the House urgently”, he said.
The Speaker further added that, whiles on recess, the Public Account Committee had a sittings most part of the recess to consider the report of the Auditor General, whiles the committee on health visited health facilities and personnel in the Northern,Brong Ahafo and Ashanti Regions.
Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee held stakeholders meeting to deliberate on, the creation of the Officer of the Special Prosecutor, he said.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Zongo Development Bill to be withdrawn and re-laid–Chairman

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Chairman of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development Kennedy Nyarko Osei said his committee and the Finance Committee has adviced, the Local Government Ministry to withdrawn the old Zongo Development Fund Bill 2017 that was submitted to the House before it went on recess and relay a new one in an interview.
Joint committee on Finance and Local Government yesterday met to go through the Bill clause by clause.
The Committees went through 36 clauses and are done with the Bill, waiting for the Clerks to the Committee to effect the necessary corrections and present the committees report this week the chairman said.
In addition, joint Ministries of Attorney General and Local Government made 97 Amendments of the Zongo Development Fund Bill.
“The old Zongo Development Fund Bill, we used it working hand in hand with the new Bill” the chairman reveal.
According to the Akim Swedru legislator, going through the Bill, the joint committee on Finance and Local Government and Rural Development, noticed that the old Bill had some issues that will generate controversies, so the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry was adviced to withdraw the Bill and relay a new one which will take a day.
If that is not done and we want to depend on the old one there is going to be a lot of tension on the floor of the House and will delay passage of the Bill, he said.
And noted that, the development is not a big deal as the withdrawal and relay of the Bill will be done on the same day.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

I heard resumption of Parliament through friend Yilo Krobo MP

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Member of Parliament for Yilo Krobo Magnus Kofi Amoatey is lamenting over the breach of 14 days usually given to MPs’ before the House reconvene from recess in an interview.
He pointed out that he got notice of the House reconvening from friends, “ordinarily by our rules we supposed to be given 14 days’ notice. I got to know just last week when I was attending a workshop at Koforidua that we are resuming today”.
According to the Yilo Krobo lawmaker, when committees want to meet messages are sent on various platforms and immediately we get them.
“Why can’t Parliament put up such a notice through our various caucuses we would have gotten it, you see the world is developing and we must develop with the world”
Maybe they left the notice in our pegging holes it is not enough, because MPs are scatted all over Ghana we are all not in Accra, some of us operate outside Accra.
So if I am unable to visit my pegging hole I will not have the notice, I was expecting it on the Television radio and newspaper, he said.
When ghanamps.com pointed out to him, according to the Majority leader it was in the papers he responded, “well I did not see it in the papers”.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Election of MMDCEs not possible next year O.B. Amoah

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The much touted election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs), would not take place within the 24 months as promised by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration.
Ghanaians are awaiting election of MMDCEs as promised by the, then opposition NPP in the lead up to the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
The necessary procedures involved in making election of the MMDCEs has not been triggered yet.
According to a Local Government Minister, O.B Amoah, for the MMDCE elections to be possible, there is a need for a referendum to be held or Article 55 (3) of the Constitution amended to make the position a partisan one.
O.B Amoah, while speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, stated emphatically that, the election of MMDCEs will certainly not take place in 2018.
“It is not 2018; I don’t know why this thing keeps coming up and indeed if we want to go the full hog and make the election partisan, it means we should even do a referendum to amend article 55 (3) so that we can get MMDCEs elected on multi-party basis. So we are working towards that, but certainly, it is not 2018.”
“The next assembly election is September 2019, and we should be able to work towards that date. Most probably, by September 2019, we can let the referendum coincide with the assembly election so that by that time Ghanaians are voting for their assembly members, they will also be deciding that after 2019 MMDCEs should be elected on multi-party basis,” he added.
Article 55 (3) of Ghana’s constitution states that:
Subject to the provisions of this article, a political party is free to participate in shaping the political will of the people, to disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programme of a national character, and sponsor candidates for elections to any public office other than to District Assemblies or lower local government units.
The issue of election of MMDCEs had in time past taken center stage in major discussions in the country with some Ghanaians demanding for it.
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Five major Bills to be presented to the House-Majority leader

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Majority leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has indicated that all is set to the House to start sitting on Tuesday 3rd October 2017, after the House went on recess for almost two months in an interview.
Referrals has been made to various committees of the House, Northern Development Authority Bills, Middle Belt Development Authority Bill, Costal Belt Development Authority Bill.
And made known that he was with the joint committee on Finance Employment and Social Welfare over the weekend as they have gotten far with the Bill.
The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs in addition indicated that he visited the committee on Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, working on the Office of Special Prosecutor Bill. “Essential parts of the Bill have been dealt with and will be presented to the House this week”, he noted.
Committee on Local Government, over the weekend met outside Accra to look at the Zongo Development Fund Bill and will be presented to the House this week leader of the House revealed.
Also instruments which are urgent and needs ratification will be done on the floor of the House and we are expecting that members to attend to the business of the House in their numbers.

By: KwakuSakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Technocrats responsible for public sector financial malfeasance- Kade MP

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

The honorable Member of Parliament for the Kade constituency in the Eastern region and a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament and, Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinyase has stated that technocrats are responsible for majority of the recurrent financial malfeasance in the public sector causing the state to lose several millions of Ghana cedis.

According to him it is only 10% of the financial irregularities that are caused by political heads and blamed the chunk of the causes on technical people within the public who he said  better appreciates the system and manipulates it to their advantage.

‘’There are a lot of things that are administrative lapses, and the technocrats play a greater role.
The political contribution might be just be between 5-10 %, a greater part of the malpractices, malfeasance that’s going on is more with the technocrats, and they tend to understand the system better, especially for politicians who are not administrators, and who don’t have the accounting backgrounds, the technocrats manipulate the system to  their disadvantage so that, where even they (politicians) are involved, you see that by the ignorant of the system, they are outwitted and the technocrats have their way’’ he alleged.

The Kade MP who is a Chartered Accountant/ Consultant disclosed these in an exclusive interview with ghanamps.com to review the just ended Public Accounts Committee of Parliament’s sittings.
The Committee sittings considered the 2015 Auditor General’s report on Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

Hon Tinyase advocates a comprehensive moral training for technocrats within the public sector to ensure honesty and help prevent the annual financial irregularities that have caused the state several millions of Ghana cedis.

He also called for improvement in the public sector financial management system through the quality of personnel recruited and service delivery to end the incessant abuse of public funds that could have been used for the provision of needed public goods.

The regular trends of financial irregularities reported by the Auditor General includes the payment of unearned salaries, payment for works done or items purchased without VAT receipts and the failure by managements to follow laid down procurement processes to ensure value for money.

Another major irregularity is the delay releases of funds to statutory institutions by the central government to enable them perform their assigned roles effectively.

These delays results the in payments of salaries to workers without being productive.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

Let customer service reflect in your actions- 1st Dep. Speaker

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

First First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu has charged front desk officers in public institutions to let the acquisition of certificates in Customer Care reflect in their daily activities.

He observed that often times, practitioners exhibit the direct opposite of what actually their work requirements entails hence the need for a paradigm shift for the benefit of the entire populace.

Mr Osei Owusu who is a lawyer urged front liners to avoid discrimination against their clients but help facilitate the objectives of which they visit stating that that will enable them become good ambassadors of the institution.

Addressing participants at the end of a four- day training programme on Customer Care by the Parliamentary Training Institute, Mr Osei Owusu who is also the Member of Parliament for Bekwai in the Ashanti region urged front desk officers to keep their environments clean at all times as an essential element of good customer relations.

According to him a clean environment speaks volumes about an organization therefore the need for them to keep their environments clean.

‘’The first encounter of everybody apart from you the person is your environment, if you are the front office person, make sure your environment is clean and welcoming and that would speak volumes about your organisation’’ he revealed.

The Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament also charged customer service personnel become conversant with what called the three As (Available, Affable and Ability) to help provide adequate and satisfactory service to their customers.

He urged them to make themselves available to their customers always whiles being affable to their clients to cultivate their confidence and trust in their services.

The tendency to avail oneself and be friendly to one’s client he said often times overshadow the client’s focus on the ability of the service provider to deliver on their mandate.

The cultivation of these traits he said will help them attract and maintain customers at all times.
Participants drawn several public institutions including, immigration service, fire service, Registrar Generals Department,

By Christian Kpesese/ghanamps.com