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Month: September 2018

Deputy defense Minister backs call to relocate remains of late Mills

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Deputy Minister of Defense, Rt. Major Derrick Oduro is backing calls by her former colleague Member of Parliament for North Dayi Akua Sena Dansua that the remains of the former President should be relocated from the Asomdwee Park to the military cemetery.

He however pointed out that at the time of the death of the former President the place was befitting because it was close to the seat of government, the place was decorated to the best of their ability by state protocol.

Now the seat of government is no more there and the current President Nana Akufo-Addo Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces has authorized that VVIPs now be buried there, former Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur has been buried there.

Major Derrick Oduro said in an interview that he supports the exhumation of the late former President John Mills because where his remains is now is isolated as the place is no longer the seat of government sooner the place would be forgotten.

He added that the call is in the right direction as a former late President it would be a step well taken when that is done.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Late Dr. Nkrumah’s remains should not be relocated—Deputy Defense

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Deputy Defense Minister Rt Major Derrick Oduro has said the remains of Ghana’s first President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah should not be relocated to the military cemetery.

According to the Deputy Defense Minister the current location of the remains of Ghana’s first President is befitting, “he has a park attach to it”.

He pointed out in an interview with ghanamps.com that when the remains of Ghana’s first President was moved from the Western Region to the capital he was by then a military officer and was part of the contingent that relocated the remains of the late former President.

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is one important person who ensure that we attain independence, a whole memorial park has been created for him, his statue pointing to the former Parliament House  is very significant and where his remains is now is the best for him, he said.

By:  Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Divergent opinion do not matter focus on committees view—Dr Akoto

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Minster for Monitoring and Evaluation and a member of the Finance Committee, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei has urged the media to focus on the views of the Finance Committee, as they gather information leading to the collapse of the seven indigenous banks.

According to the Minister divergent views expressed by some members of the Finance Committee should not be the main focus but rather the collective views of the Finance Committee.

He made this remarks when the former Deputy Minaister of Energy and a Member of the Finance Committee, John Jinapor in an earlier interview with Journalists said the governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) was evasive with the questions that were pose to him.

Dr. Akoto Osei pointed out that John Jinapor was late to the Committee meeting and issue that he raised had already been answered by the Governor, Dr. Anderson.

“The committee was satisfied with the answers provided by the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, we would call people back when we need more information that is how the committee operates all the time what we are doing is not new”, he lamented.

Chairman of the Finance Committee also added that if the need be that going forward there should be a full scale public hearing, they must be prepared to attend same, he said.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minority had not decided to return collapse banks to owners —Fifi Fiavi Kwetey

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The Minority has hot reached any decision to return collapsed banks to their owners when the opposition National Democratic Congress comes back to power, Fifi Fiavi Kwetey told Journalists at the Finance Committee’s in-camera information gathering meeting.

According to the Ketu South lawmaker, the Minority on the Finance Committee had not come to that conclusion.

He further added that the views expressed by the Bolgatanga Central legislator are his personal views and should not be taken as the views of the Minority caucus neither the views of the Minority on the Finance Committee.

Earlier before the probe, it was reported in the media that the Bolgatanga Central MP had shown solidarity with shareholders of collapsed banks, explaining that the attempt to describe them as thieves was uncalled for and amounts to “adding salt to injury”.

He said at a forum on the banking crisis that although the challenges facing banks were encompassing, the government and the Bank of Ghana had decided to vilify directors and shareholders in order to escape blame.

This posture, he said was unfortunate and amounts to stifling Ghanaian entrepreneurship.

As a result, he said a National Democratic Congress (NDC) government will not hesitate to return assets of the collapsed banks to their owners “unless they are found to have committed some tangible illegalities.”

As a result, he said shareholders of the seven collapsed banks – UT and Capital banks in August 2017 and BEIGE, Royal, Construction, Sovereign and uniBank banks in August 2018 – all persons affected by the action should be assured of fair treatment when the party comes to power.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Agitation for public hearing: Media Finance Committee has a responsibility—Suhum MP

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
As pressure mounts from civil society, for the Finance Committee to hold public hearing on the collapsed of the seven indigenous banks, Member of Parliament for Suhum, Fredrick Opare Ansah defended the in-camera hearing.

According to the Suhum legislator both media and members of the Finance Committee have the responsibility to the citizenry of Ghana as the matter being looked at is very sensitive.

He further added that unlike the Public Account that knew way ahead of time questions to ask from the report of the Auditor General’s report, issue of the collapse of the banks the committee did not know where they were going as said by the chairman of the committee.

And lamented over the practice where the media was constantly fueling the crusade for public hearing for the work of the Finance Committee.

Mr. Fredrick Opare Ansah emphasised that some of the issues that could have arisen from the information gathering process, could potentially be injurious to the banking sector, “we need to protect the entire sector not because we want to hide something”, he lamented.

“Can you imagine we hold public hearing and during and during the hearing it emerges that, there is weakly supervision and regulations and that depositors’ funds are not saved in any bank, do you know what would happened?”

The Suhum lawmaker and a member of the Finance committee said, the next day there would be panic withdrawals of fund all across the country, meanwhile if we have had in-camera sitting we would have tighten legislation to protect depositors funds.

Chairman of the Finance Committee Dr. Mark Asibey Yeboah, questioned Journalist who were not invited to cover the in-camera information gathering of the Committee, “why are you not questioning workings of Economic and Organised Crime (ECOCO), why they are not having public hearing”.

Bear with us, you know we are not here to cover up for any ones rot, Member of Parliament for Suhum said, when ghanamps.com wanted to know if there would be public hearing going into the future.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Expedite severance package to workers – Dr Assibey-Yeboah to BoG

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah has urged the Central bank to expedite action on the severance package for workers of the defunct UT and Capital Banks.

According to him Parliament will meet with the BoG to ensure adequate compensation package for the over 1,200 retrenched workers of the two defunct banks.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah disclosed these to the media after a closed door meeting with Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), receivers of the collapsed Banks as the Committee gathers facts into the Banks collapse.

The receiver, Pricewaterhouse Coopers he said explained to the Committee how they computed the packages for various staff.

The chairman who ostensibly was not pleased with the delay of the compensation said the committee will engage the BoG to fast track the payments to the affected workers.

KPMG suit does not affect Parliament’s work- Majority leader

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has stated that the suit by KMPG against the founder and former directors of the defunct Unibank could not have stopped the Finance Committee of Parliament from going ahead with its information gathering mission.

He explained that since the Committee’s work is basically information gathering and not investigation, it does not affect the issues pending before the court.

The Suame Member of Parliament was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Finance Committee’s closed door meeting with stakeholders related to collapse of seven indigenous banks in the country recently.

KPMG has contracted Labour Expert, Austin Gamey to meet various labour unions to decide on the take-home packages for the sacked workers of the collapsed banks.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com.

Parliament to meet BoG over severance packages

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The Finance Committee of Parliament is expected to engage official of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) over the determination of when exit packages for about 3,000 affected workers of the seven collapsed indigenous would be paid.

Chairman of the Committee, Dr.Mark Assibey-Yeboah who stated this to the media after the Committee’s in-camera meeting with some stakeholders on the Bank collapse emphasized the need for the Bank of Ghana to expedite the processes of severance packages.

“If you go into the law, it will take some more time before these severance packages will be paid, but we have an opportunity to engage Bank of Ghana and some of these will be fast-tracked.

It has been a year since some of these workers were laid off and I think it is about time those severance packages are given them” Dr. Assibey-Yeboah said.

PwC are the joint receivers for UT and Capital Bank, whiles KPMG are receivers for the five banks comprising Biege, Unibank, Construction, Royal, and Sovereign.

By the law, Act 930 of the Banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions Act, the receivers are accountable to the Bank of Ghana in its functions, Dr.Assibey-Yeboah noted.

“They don’t report to us, but because matters like employee severance, those who work with these banks, is involved here, we wanted to know when former workers of UT and Capital Bank will get their severance package, as a matter of fact, they give us the details, how they have arrived at the packages they are going to pay them” Dr explained.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

Assure collapsed bank workers- Minority leader to Govt

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu has challenged government to provide a firm assurance to the Nation that the interest of Ghanaian workers affected by the collapse of seven local Banks would be protected.

The Tamale South Member of Parliament expressed concern about the loss of jobs and whether these collapsed banks have capacity to pay severance awards to affected persons and wondered why the state could not intervene to save the Banks as it is done elsewhere.

“what happens to the children and wards of affected persons as school reopens, what is it that the government of Ghana can do to find new life to those institutions as possible, don’t forget that the US did it when they had the financial crisis, the state came in, let’s see when the state of Ghana will come in, I generally do not think that we have handled this matter properly” he added.

The Finance Committee of Parliament ended a three-day in-camera hearing into the banking crisis where it met with the Bank of Ghana, Ministry of Finance, KPMG, PwC and Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited, the National Insurance Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to Chairman of the Committee, a comprehensive report on the facts gathered would be presented to plenary.

The Committee is likely to invite other stakeholders especially the founders, board of Directors and shareholders of the defunct Banks for their version of the facts.

The BoG On August 1st, 2018 announced the revocation of the licences of five indigenous banks including Unibank, Sovereign, Construction, Beige and Royal Banks for various offences.

It subsequently transferred all deposits, selected assets and liabilities of those banks to a newly-created entity: Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

Discipline is my secret- Clerk to Parliament

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The Clerk to Ghana’s Parliament, Mr Emmanuel Anyimadu has identified discipline as the secret to his success in life.

According to him, it is because of his disciplined nature that is why he is able to plan his life and work schedules giving priority to the things that matter and working by laid down procedure.

Mr Anyimadu has therefore urged Ghanaian workers to exercise a great zeal of discipline to enable them manage their time effectively in order to overcome the negative effects of stress for greater productivity at the workplace.

Addressing participants made up of heads of departments and agencies drawn from selected public institutions at the end of a four day training session on effective time and stress management by the Parliamentary Training Institute in Parliament House, Accra, Mr Animadu said a well disciplined staff at various places of work especially the public sector are necessary assets for the development of the country.

“If you are discipline, you will concentrate on your work and finish on time, if you are discipline, you be able to overcome stress. Be discipline in what you eat and drink. Discipline is the secret of my life” he said.

Sharing his personal experience on how he effectively manage his time and the stress associated with the conduct of his work in a political environment, the Clerk emphasis the need for managers at all levels to follow laid down rules and regulations.

He also charged heads of institutions to develop administrative structures where they are lacking to help manage stress and time in the conduct of their work.

This he said will help them overcome the challenge of cutting corners that may end up piling up unnecessary stress on them.

“Obedience to rules helps a lot, If you want to be successful, obey rules” he stated.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com