Month: July 2018

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Leader of Government Business, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has set the records straight that Parliament has not concluded on discussion to build a hotel complex on its lands outside Parliament.
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According to leader of the House, Parliament has almost nine lands outside the premises of the legislature and still considerations are within the incubation stage.

He further added that private people have come to see Parliament to partner it with proposals, and justifies the consideration of the proposal by saying many at times when fresh Members of Parliament come they have no place to stay.

Again they enter into other hotel facilities, “so if a group comes to partner Parliament to develop a facility in which immediately they can rest, it portend good for us, if we are able to get such facility for those who come fresh until they get a permanent place”, he said.

His comments come in the wake of a newspaper publication that, Speaker Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye had sold lands belonging to Parliament. “That cannot be the truth”, he lamented in an interview with a group of Journalist in Parliament.

Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu pointed out that most often than not, committees are heading to Koforidua and Adda over the weekend to have meetings, because those facilities have conference rooms that would accommodate MPs.

“So why not if we can have some group partners Parliament to get a facility that would be at a cheaper cost to Parliament, again Parliament is not going to invest money in this facility, the amount would be source by those coming in”.

We have not concluded on this discussion yet, if it is going to be Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) or whether we shall be equity shareholders, he said.

“Our own consultants would look at the various options they would be involve in the process and advise us on the matter”, he pointed out.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu on Friday the 13th of July 2018 differed a vote on a loan agreement which approval would have given the Bunso campus of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development some boost and facelift.

A loan agreement of ninety million dollars, which witnessed the Minority calling for the rejection of the approval because, the law establishing the University of Environment and Sustainable Development Act 898 does not back it.

According to the Minority the Act has said there would be a campus at Somanya and a satellite campus at Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains, which shall be determine by the Governing council and it shall determine any other place.

The Minority Leader demanded a head count when he wrap-up the debate on behalf of the Minority.

First Deputy Speaker ruled that, according to the standing orders of the House for approval of loan agreement the House needs half of the entire membership of the House out of the 275 which would stand at 138.

Minority Members of Parliament could be seen deliberately moving out of the chamber in other not to make up the numbers, as the Majority Leader could be seen complaining and drawing the Speakers attention to.

The agreement was between the Government of Ghana and the export import Bank of Korea for a ninety million dollars to finance the establishment of University of Environment and Sustainable Development, Bunso Campus.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale South has given indications that the seventh Parliament of the four Republic would not play a subservient role in the fight against corruption.

According to the Minority Leader the Legislature would not play a subservient role to the Executive arm of government or any other institution, rather, “the legislature would be at the fore front in the crusade against corruption”.

He further pointed out that as a country we need to redefine our strategy in the fight against corruption, “we need to increase the benefit for being honest and increase the cost for being corrupt”.

Ghana Anti-Corruption coalition should be interested in what Parliament does in allocation of resources to anti-corruption institutions and agencies under the anti-corruption agency plan, let us have analysis to see as a country if we are dedicating more resources to it or not he said.

Again the Ghana anti-corruption coalition must be interested in the budget process in Ghana, how transparent and accountable is the process and what role does Parliament play, and be assured that the two sides in the House are supportive of the Speaker in his reform agenda.

“Do not let the focus of corruption fight be on only political office holders, there is grand corruption in Ghana and political corruption let us go after the actors”, the Minority Leader said.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu said Ghana would benefit with the creation of the Office of the Special Prosecutor and coming into force the Right to Information Law, if people who engage in corruption are not shielded.

He made this remarks when Ghana anti-corruption coalition called on the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye and urge them to see Parliament as a friend in fighting corruption.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has said the ability of Members of Parliament and Parliament as an institution to fight corruption has to do with its competence.

According to the Majority Leader to that extent, there is the need to interrogate the process that MPs go through to get themselves elected.

He further urged Ghana’s anti-corruption coalition to take particular interest in the selection process of the various political parties activities that leads to MPs getting elected to represent the various constituencies.

“Every four years we keep peeling off Members of Parliament, how are we able to position MPs to play their core functions as legislators, out of the one hundred and sixty-nine Majority side MPs eighty-nine are fresher’s”, he said.

Again in the sixth Parliament, the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) has hundred and twenty-two, we had seventy members who were fresher’s, he lamented.

“Parliament is not like a palm wine, when you test it and throw it off, rather the longer you stay the better it is for the institution and the better you place Parliament and the MPs to fight corruption yet we pretend everything is normal with us”.

I said at our party congress to elect national officers that, Article 59 of the 1992 constitutions said from all the Regions of the Country we shall elect party officers, to what extend are we satisfying this constitutional provision?

Yet we pretend everything is alright with our democracy, there is no one who goes into politics to become a father Christmas, they sow today they want to reap tomorrow. Unlike a church song which says cast your bread onto the waters and in the future you would reap, he said.

Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu told the visiting Ghana anti-corruption coalition they know what is involved in the various primaries of all the political parties and the coalition need to get involve for them to take introspection reflections.

Minister of Parliamentary Affairs noted that Parliament can exchange and compare notes with (GACC), because, “we are working in the interest of Ghanaian citizens and again with the kind of system of government we are running let us ask ourselves how do we protect the public purse, he questioned.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minority Leader and Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu has said President Nana Akufo-Addo led government can’t redefine who a Ghanaian citizen is as the Minority would resist any attempts at doing that.

According to the Minority Leader, the President should rather take steps to respond to technical legal issues and the huge figure of one point two billion United States dollars cost of producing the Ghana Card.

“Where in the world has this happened, a government which says sole sourcing is not possible, this is the single sole sourcing turnkey project in the history of Ghana, it was not competitive and it was not open”, he said.

He further pointed out that, the current government is double standard, “same government says requirement for Ghana Card is birth certificate and passport at the same time denying Ghanaian citizens legitimate opportunity to get birth certificates”, he lamented.

His remark comes at the back drop of the Volta Caucus, raising issues with the transfer of two persons in charge of birth and death in the Volta Region, Mr. Richard Womega and Miss Peace Agbenyo.

Mr. Haruna passed through the Volta Caucus press conference to show solidarity when they raised issues with the unfair and strange transfers at the birth and death registry in the Volta Region.

“The President is in the Volta Region, they are citizens of Ghana, this is why he is there, I encourage him to encourage people to register as free citizens of Ghana”, he said.

Again the media should be interested in this, “was it not the same voters ID card which produced Nana Akufo-Addo as President of the Republic, are we then questioning the credibility of his Presidency?”

He further back his point by quoting Article 42 of the 1992 Republican constitution, “Every citizen of Ghana of eighteen years of age or above and of sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purpose of public elections and referenda”.

“President Nana Akufo-Addo should respond to the questions on the process of acquiring the Ghana Card, cost and technical legal questions and stop chastising the Minority”, he said.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament of South Dayi, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor has taken a swipe at the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, led by President Nana Akufo-Addo for patrolling on the border towns in the Volta Region.

He questioned why this development is only happening in Volta Region among the ten Regions the country has.

According to the South Dayi legislator, the police are dropped off early in the morning and picked up at night along the border towns in the Volta Region.

This development is conducted only to intimidate people who engage in cross border business in the Volta Region, he said.

Mr. Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor intimated that if the Minority insist and assert that this whole exercise is feeding into a grand plan to work against the people of the Volta Region, “we have a foundation we are basing our argument on”, he lamented.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com