Month: May 2018

Minister of the Interior Ambrose Dery and the Defense Minister, Dominic Nitiwul have been summoned by Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye to appear before the House on Tuesday to brief the House over the clashes between the military and police in Tamale.

The attack on the police officers occurred after officials of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the police service arrested a soldier who had brutally assaulted his wife.

In the process of arresting the soldier, his colleagues got wind of the situation and quickly went to his rescue. The soldier was freed by his colleagues in the process.

The angry soldiers then attacked the police officer and other officials who had gone to arrest the soldier.The soldiers subsequently attacked any other police officer they came across in the Tamale metropolis.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu drew the House’s attention to the development and noted that the people of Tamale and Ghanaians would need to be assured of security and that these occurrence of clashes between the military and police which is not the first time would not occur again.

He came under order 72 “By the indulgence of the House and the leave of Mr. Speaker a Member may, at the time appointed for statements under Order 53(Order of Business) explain a matter of personal nature or make a statement on a matter of urgent public importance. Any statement other than personal statement may be commented upon by other Members for a limited duration of time not exceeding one hour. The terms of any such proposed statement shall first be submitted to Mr. Speaker”.

Deputy Majority leader Sarah Adowa Safo on her part noted that its disappointing that security personnel who should be protecting Ghanaians would engage themselves in such act and it is appropriate that the sector Ministers come to the House to brief the House on how this issue would be resolved.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Speaker of Parliament Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye had served notice through the Deputy Majority Leader, Sarah Adwoa Safo to inform President Nana Akufo-Addo’s Ministers that Parliament is back from recess and they would be needed on the floor of the House.

He made this remarks on Thursday when the Minister of Food and Agriculture Dr. Akoto Afriyie failed to appear before the House to answer an urgent question from the MP for Juaboso Kwabena Mintah Akandoh.

Minority MPs were unhappy with the development and indicated that they would want the sector Minister to take Parliament serious as he was not visible in the House to take questions in the last meeting in his name and rather sent his Deputies.

The Deputy Majority Leader and MP for Dome/Kwabenya Sarah Adowa Safo sort permission from the Speaker to allow the Food and Agriculture Minister come to the House on Friday to answer the urgent question.

And added that the Minister had brought a letter to that regard that some very important engagement has taken him away and would want to answer the urgent question on his own.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Leader of Government Business, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has cautioned against poor attendance to proceedings in the chamber this season.

Mr Mensah-Bonsu who attributed the situation to what he described as Members of Parliament engaged in “galamsey”, noted that instead of coming to the House to transact business some MPs rather prefer going to engage in “galamsey”.

Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu had to clarify what he meant by “galamsey” as members on the Minority side asked that he contextualize the word for better understanding.

“I am talking of members who do not come to the chamber but rather, go out there to pursue personal business outside this House that is the context in which I am placing the galamsey”, he explained.

“Mr. Speaker, there are very important issues before us as a House; Bills to be worked on, we need the full engagement of members on the various committees that have the appropriate referrals. Members would have to diligently attend to business in the House to allow us do as much as we can, that is the reason why we have been elected”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Speaker of Parliament Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye had indicated on the floor of the House that none of the 275 Members of Parliament fear the media because without engaging the media none of the MPs would be on the floor of the House.

He further added that MPs communicated with people before they got elected to represent their constituency and cautioned against a recent practice where some MPs want to substitute debating in the chamber to debating in the media.

“We must be careful with matters pending before the House being taken to the media, we can’t have pre trial of matters in the media instead of dealing with them in the House and again this are matters of the state”, he said.

If we do that we will only be lowering our dignity; let us know the thin line between matters that can be discussed in the media and those that can be dealt with in the House, he lamented.

His remarks comes in the wake of some disagreement on the floor in the last meeting that found space in the media and the issue of “double salaries” being paid former appointees who server as Ministers and MPs.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Minority Chief Whip, Mubarak Muntaka Mohamed has assured the House that he would ensure that MPs from his side of the House are punctual to attend to business on the floor of the House.

He welcomed, Members of Parliament (MPs) back from recess and assured the Speaker of the Minority’s cooperation.

As the rules of the House are concerned, he called for consensus building to solidify works to be done by the House at the various committee level.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye has called upon committees having referrals before them to fast truck their work for the plenary to deal with their report and noted that the House has a record of rising to the occasion in many cases.

He noted that the Committee on Lands and Forestry held a stakeholders meeting on Land Bill 2018 at Cape Cost, same applies to the joint committee on Communications, Constitution, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs on the RTI Bill 2018 in Accra

Again he commended members for availing themselves for committee work and engaging their constituent during the recess.

He called on MPs to show same enthusiasm in this second meeting as they expressed during recess and continue to be punctual, also improve cordiality that exist between members in the House.

He was however quick to point out that members should be cautious and decorous during the course of debate and  refrain from using unpalatable languages on the floor of the House.

Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye further hinted that MPs should get involve with the galamsey menace, as it  is on Parliaments agenda this year when it has interaction with the people. And added that he is prepared together with leadership to make the work of MPs easy.

On the RTI Bill 2018 the Speaker noted that a lot of work has been done on it over the years and should fast truck its report, so that Ghanaians will find MPs worthy of their hire at the end of the session.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Minority in Parliament is calling on the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta to priorities his time and make it a habit to be on the floor of the House to do business in the chamber.

Finance Minister and his Deputies were not on the floor of the House on Tuesday to lay papers on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital gains.

These agreements are between the Republic of Ghana and Mauritius, Kingdom of Morocco, Czech and Singapore.

Minister of Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Antony Akoto Osei was allowed by the Speaker to lay the papers on behalf of the Finance Minister, which was referred to the Finance committee.

According to the Minority Chief Whip, Mubarak Muntaka Mohamed, it was wrong to start the second meeting of the second session of the seventh Parliament for the fourth Republic without the Finance Minister being present on the floor.

“We witness a similar occurrence in the first meeting, what is involve here is double taxation this is a very important tax Minister and his Deputies are not here, hope the Majority Leader will send out sentiment to the Minister”.

“He should priorities his time”, and pointed out that the Minister of State in charge of Monitoring and Evaluation has been doing this too many times on behalf of the Finance Minister.

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, in response said the Minister and his Deputies were attending to an important business hence the absence.

The Commission of Inquiry on the creation of New Regions in the country has planned to brief Members of Parliament from the four Regions that would be affected on Friday May 18, 2018 midday.

MPs from the Brong Ahafo, Northern, Volta and the Western Regions are supposed to meet the Committee of Inquiry to be briefed at Job 600 D. F. Annan conference room.

Member of Parliament for Yagaba/Kubori Abdul-Rauf Tanko Ibrahim had pleaded with the Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu to reconsider the midday time for the briefing.

In an interview with ghanamps.com, the Yagaba/Kubori law maker revealed that he is in touch with the Majority Leader and by Thursday they should resolve the time issue as most of the MPs from the North are Muslims and will be going for prayers around that time.

The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs on his part said the Regions would not be taken concurrently, MPs from the North who are Muslims could go for their Friday prayers and come back to the House for the briefing.

“Mr. Speaker we will find an appropriate way around the issues that he had raise but we could start with MPs from the Volta Region”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Five Ministers would appear before Parliament to answer questions on the floor of the House this week, as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah -Bonsu presented business statement on the floor of the House on Tuesday 15th May 2018.

The five Ministers would take five questions with one being urgent and four being oral. The Ministers are supposed to come before the House on Thursday and Friday respectively.

Minister of Food and Agriculture is to take an urgent question on Thursday; other Minister to come before the House are Minister of Railways Development, Special Development Initiative, Business Development and Minister of Public Procurement.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com