Ranking member on the committee of Education and Member of Parliament for Akatsi North, Peter Nortsu-Kotoe has said the phenomenon of people obtaining fake academic certificate is tarnishing the image of the Nation.

According to the Akatsi North lawmaker making a statement on the floor of Parliament, there is the need to establish a National Qualifications Board (NQB) to fight the canker.

He further noted that education received by our grandparents in the castle and mission schools years back prepare them for life.

This legacy is being eroded by the emergence of fake certificates being awarded at various levels and added that quite a number of people are not prepared to study to obtain certificates, but prepare to pay people to write for them or either buy fake certificates, he lamented.

Mr. Peter Nortsu-Kotoe recounted that few years back, verification exercise carried out by the Ghana Education Service revealed that a large number of people got employed with fake certificates.

The Ministry of Education is severally being requested by employers and institutions abroad to verify certificates that are emanating from Ghana for authentication.

“Political parties to avoid embarrassment should take steps to verify certificates of persons seeking political office in their names, before any embarrassment befall them as a party”, he lamented.

“Mr. Speaker, the Board if established should vigorously verify certificates, so that the embarrassment that the nation is facing in the academic world is eliminated”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament for Pusiga Laadi Ayamba have said the much trumpeted Ghana beyond aid if it is to manifest then Ghana must look within and take advantage of all resources first and add value to them.

According to the Pusiga legislator, Ghanaians must crave for what is produced locally, than always wanting goods produced outside the country.

Again as African countries we need to remove the artificial boundaries and trade among ourselves, African leaders should unit and put off the boundaries for business to boom, this would help Africa a lot.

She further noted that, there are so many questions than answers when it comes to Ghana beyond aid, “when go to the market today the goods that are most petronise are goods imported like vegetables than those grown in our back yard, we rather prefer these foreign vegetables at malls”, she lamented.

If in our own country we do not appreciate the food that we grow, how would we be talking about Ghana beyond aid, we need to up left our economy if we are able to feed ourselves, she remarked.

Miss Ayamba lamented over government borrowing twenty-seven billion (GHc 27,000,000, 000) Ghana cedis within 2017 and 2018, “we cannot go around borrowing within this short period so much and wondering how we can run away from debt.”

“We were told the money is in this country during the 2016 Presidential and parliamentary election which is true and a fact, if we have gold diamond why do we go borrow within this two years up to 27billion Ghana cedis borrowing continues to pull Ghana down”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minister of communications Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has given clear indications that she is not interested in any confrontation with the Telco’s but rather enforcing the laws in all respect.

According to the Minister, she would do everything to ensure that the Telco’s have their peace of mind but was quick to point out that the Telco’s must come to terms that the privileges given them to do their work, and whatever issue there are, she would facilitate for their resolution.

“Working in the country has some responsibilities attached to it and they have the responsibility to pay the right taxes to the government of Ghana.”

“We would assess all the taxes due and collect every penny, we are thinking and talking about a Ghana beyond aid I am a firm believer in the fact that, if we all do what we have to do and work in accordance with the law and everybody does his or her bit we would be able to generate majority of the resources we need locally to finance our developmental agenda locally”, she said.

Mrs. Owusu-Ekuful further said, Ghana would not have to have cup in hand begging or seeking interesting financial arrangements to finance its development, if it looks within and get its own resources for its developmental agenda.

“It is doable if everybody is to pay the requests taxes on the income that they generate genuinely,  we would be able to get the resources we need for our development that is why the Minister of Finance is so keen in ensuring that this arrangement we entire with Kelvin-GVG works”.

We need to verify the revenues that the Telco’s are generating from all their activities; we have to ensure the confidentiality of all communications carried out on the mobile networks, she said.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

As debate rages on, on the method use by investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Member of Parliament for Effutu Alexander Afenyo-Markin is calling for his methods to pass through legal scrutiny.

According to the Effutu lawmaker, this would clear the air on the method use by the Journalist in his work to expose corruption in the country.

He made this remarks on Joyfm’s weekend current affairs programme, Newsfile when he said the method used by the investigative journalist is a breach of privacy.“You don’t lead somebody on into something and turn around and pronounce the person ‘guilty’, where you first show  evidence  to the public and let radio stations play the audio, what are you doing?” he questioned.

Again it is unfair to whoever the victim is adding “we should not celebrate that leg of the methodology by Anas.

The methodology employed by the ace journalist has come under heavy criticisms following his latest documentary, “Number 12”, which has so far implicated President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA).

Following the private viewing of excerpts of the video by President Akufo-Addo and some top officials of the Presidency, it emerged that Mr Nyantakyi was allegedly negotiating for an amount of money using the name of the President and his Vice, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minister of State in charge of Special Development, Mavis Hawa Koomson is to appear on the floor of Parliament this week to answer question that was step down because of her absence on the floor of the House.

According to the Minority Chief Whip, Mohamed Muntaka Mubarak, the Minister who is a Member of Parliament is not taking the House serious, because the question bill for her to answer has taken more than six months.

He further noted that on Friday the 1st of June, 2018 when the Minister was supposed to answer question on the floor of the House she did not show up or given prior notice she would not be able to come to the floor of the House.

“Mr. Speaker, again her answers did not even find space on the order paper for the day and the Majority Leader is saying this week”, he lamented.

Leader of Government Business and Majority Leader, Kyei Mensah-Bonsu informed the House that the Minister traveled outside the country and working on the answers to the question and would be able to come to the House to do justice to the question either Wednesday or Thursday, since there would be a cabinet meeting on  Tuesday.

“As a matter of record she takes the House seriously and would respond to the House fully this week”, he said.

Mr. Muntaka Mubarak Mohamed pointed out that if the Minister takes the House seriously she does not work alone, her outfit should have written to the House earlier and not wait till Friday morning.

“Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection is on record for writing to the House ahead of time when she should not make it to the House and not call the Majority Leader very late”.

He reiterated that the question has been on the burner for the past six months and putting answers together last week was not the best and hope that this week she would not disappoint the House.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament for South Dayi has said it is wrong for the National Identification Authority (NIA) to be demanding birth certificate from elderly Ghanaians, as part of the registration process to obtain a National Ghana card.

According to the Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor in time past there were no systems that prevail to have registration centers for child birth.

He noted that is not every community that people gave birth that they are able to register them, “we have advocated strongly that apart from passport and birth certificate there should be a statutory declaration forms affidavit and NHIA card.”

Again the registration would have to cover children under ten (10), no body expect a child to have a driving licenses, it is unlawful, he said.

“We need to expand the option for Ghanaians, that is why we are saying we should have someone who would vouch for someone, that XYZ leaves here he or she is a Ghanaian “.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Second Deputy Speaker Alban Bagbin told Members of Parliament (MPs) on Friday 30th of November 2018 that he is clean with regards to his HIV status.

According to the Second Deputy Speaker at a committee meeting in Koforidua when he decided to lead by example he got tested; when he looked back there was no body behind him, later on some MPs came around to be tested for HIV.

“I can assure you we were not up to five, the others were so afraid that they resisted the temptation, but it is good we encourage people to do so, it is in their own interest”.

He told the House not to doubt that their Speaker is cleared, “I conduct HIV test annually, a comprehensive examination of myself; I have nothing to hide, I am clean”.

The Second Deputy Speaker made this remarks when the MP for Aowin Matthias Ntow posed a question if the second Deputy Speaker knows his HIV status.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Thirty-five (35) students of the Central University studying Public Administration visited the legislative arm of government on Friday to familiarize themselves with workings of the House when they observed proceedings in the House.

In an interview, Nadia Bennin noted that they have decided as Public Administration students to visit the three arms of government, the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary.

“On Thursday the 29th of November 2018 we visited the Presidency to observe for ourselves, how the working of that arm of government is like”.

She further noted that the group is yet to visit the Judiciary arm of government and plans to do so to get a clear understanding of the workings of the three arms of government.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minister for communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has given the telecommunications networks working in the country 11th June, 2018 to join the physical common platform on the floor of Parliament.

She noted that Vodafone and Glo are currently in the process of connecting physically to the Common Platform (CMP) and added that she expects others (MTN, Airtel & Tigo) to do so shortly.

“Their deadline for final connection is 11th June, 2018 and failure or refusal to do so will result in imposition of the specified sanctions” she said.

The Common Platform is necessary for monitoring International and domestic voice and data traffic, volumes, revenue and mobile money transactions in an independent way.

Among the benefits that will be derived from CMP, the Minister stated includes; the Common Platform will also conduct Mobile Money Monitoring in addition to Traffic Monitoring and Fraud Management. All the previous platforms did not have the capability of monitoring Mobile Money transactions.

This will enable government to have more visibility on the actual volumes and values of Mobile Money transactions not just for revenue assurance but also for anti-money laundering and anti-crime and terrorist financing.

If the previous platforms were to provide this additional service, it would have come at additional cost, meaning that the payments would have exceeded the $2.6 million previously paid monthly.

The platform will also have the capability to do SIM-box fraud tracking with a Geo-location system to pinpoint the exact location of fraudsters using SIM-box locators to enable their arrest and confiscation of equipment with the support of the operators and law enforcement officers.

The common platform will provide services to both the NCA and the GRA as envisaged by the Communication Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864. When the Common Platform starts full operations, the cost of providing accurate data to both the NCA and GRA will be reduced significantly.

The cost savings will result in the NCA paying less than half of the amount it previously paid to Afriwave while GRA will also be paying approximately 60% of the average amount previously paid to Subah even with the addition of Mobile Money Monitoring. The cumulative savings on the monthly recurring cost to both the GRA and NCA is about 55% compared to what the two government agencies were previously paying.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com