Month: October 2018

Member of Parliament for Suhum, Fredrick Opare-Ansah has dismissed assertion by the Minority on the Finance Committee that due diligence is not done with loan agreement that comes before the committee.

According to most Minority members on the finance committee before the end of the second meeting of the second session and the emergency recall complained of they being rushed to pass loan agreement, and there is not adequate time to go through the agreement.

In an interview, the Suhum lawmaker who has been a long serving member of the House and the committee indicated that he disagree with the Minority’s assertion.

“We do due diligence even with loan agreement that are of urgent nature that needs to be passed with two or three days, again we look at terms of loan agreement that the constitution mandate us to look at. We should not concern ourselves with extraneous matters”, he said.

When we concern ourselves with extraneous matters, we want to know the underlining factors which the loan being sought, which is not within our remit, that is no reason to say we need so much time to look at documents which are not necessarily before us, Opare-Ansah opinioned.

He pointed out further that when the committee is being pressured, they raise issues and the chairman of the committee and leadership of the House do listen to “us”.

His comments come in the wake of male and female halls in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology being turned into mixed halls and the students resistance.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Member of the Finance Committee and Member of Parliament (MP) for Suhum, Fredrick Opare-Ansah has said the current government then in opposition had basis to complain of the unbridle borrowing of the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration.

According to the Suhum legislator when the President Nana Akufo-Addo administration assumed office, the debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was hovering around seventy three (73) to seventy-four (74) percent.

“This was clearly above the redline, as you would have seen from the 2018 budget, but the time the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta came back we have managed to bring it down to sixty-eight (68) percent”, he pointed out in an interview.

He further added that this allows the current government room for borrowing and also added that any time the Finance committee considers borrowing, the sector Minister is questioned if  Ghana would not go above the threshold  and his answer is in the negative.

“The statistics would be seen when the Finance Minister presents the budget for 2019”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Former President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) and Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzato Ablakwa has said students should be given the choice of choosing whether to belong to mixed or single sex halls.

Accord to the former NUGS President there is absolutely no need to abolish the latter.

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa further pointed out that single sex halls in the Universities are just like single sex secondary schools and have served Ghanaians well with their rich traditions over the decades.

“They are not problematic in anyway, they pose not the minutest of threats to contemporary enlightenment and more importantly, we should focus on weightier matters”, he said on his facebook wall.

He commended Commonwealth Hall “Vandal Hunam” who seems to have kept quite an impressive archive; “long live the Vandal city, Katanga, Conti, Casford, Africa and Adehye halls”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Minority Chief Whip and Deputy ranking of the Appointment Committee, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak is calling for training of members of the committee to ensure that effective work is done.

Deputy ranking of the committee who has served for fourteen years on the committee pointed out in an interview that he has taken upon himself to learn how to perform his duties effectively since there had never been an occasion of training.

He further pointed out that he learns from the United States experience, “especially how the Supreme Court Judges are vetted in the US; I try to get records of the way they go about their vetting”.

His comments come in the wake of criticism by section of Ghanaians who are unhappy with the way and manner the Appointment Committee just pass nominees that come before it.

“I have argued over the years that we need to have a format and a well defined way of doing it, former Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho when he was the first Deputy Speaker attempted to get a guideline”

Again we just assume you are an MP so you have the specialty and you can ask whatever question you think is right, in the US they have a well defined format.

In Ghana the security give you some background of the nominee and the rest is for you to use your own initiative, “it is not the best” , despite putting senior members on the committee, it is best to have some form of training he lamented.

Mr. Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak complained of  large membership of the committee and hoped for the number to be down-sized to not more than eleven for members to have ample time to do proper questioning.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Government Assurance Committee, Yaw Frimpong Addo has said the committee would embark on verification tour to see for themselves how the one million dollars for each constituency had been put to use.

According to the Manso Adubia legislator the committee would want to understand the whole process because there is confusion about the fund.

He further pointed out that the three development authorities, Middle Belt, South Belt and Northern Belt work with the Special Initiative Development Ministry and “monies we said were going through the constituencies would go through them respectively to the districts”.

Mr. Yaw Frimpong Addo said “as lawmakers we have done needs assessments in all the constituencies, we are going to pay verification visit, ascertain what is being talked about is actually on the ground”.

“People still have their doubt about projects talked about with the one million dollars for each constituency, we want to find out to which extent they have been implemented. When we know the extent they have gotten to we can then call the Minister to come and meet with our committee to answer some questions”, he said.

In Northern Ghana dams are their priorities so they would be channeling this one million dollars to each constituency, money through the development authority to the dam infrastructure, “ in my constituency, it we do not need a dam our needs are different from one region to one constituency” .

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Ghana-Chinese Friendship Parliamentary Association, Joseph Yieleh Chireh has urged Ghanaians travelers to China, United Kingdom and America and other foreign countries to endeavor to get genuine documents for their visas.

According to the chairman, the issue of forged documents is not only limited to Chinese but other developed countries like the United Kingdom, United States of America and others.

He made this remarks in an interview when in an early remarks the Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu complained of Ghanaian women who travel to China for the purposes of trade were being denied visa.

The new Chinese Ambassador in his response when he visited the Speaker earlier complained of forged documents to the embassy hence the visa denial and called for collaboration between the security forces of both countries to deal with the issue.

Mr. Joseph Yieleh Chireh further pointed out that anyone who does not follow procedure would run into problems, “those complaining if they have a good case they should bring it to the notice of Ghanaian and Chinese authorities”.

“Our people need to be discipline and again we need to educate Ghanaians against unnecessary hate for the Chinese British and others, that would not solve the problem, if you do not follow the procedure you cannot blame the embassies”, he lamented.

He also added that Ghana’s mission abroad face similar situation people want to come to Ghana do not want to present the correct documents, “we should not create the impression that the Chinese  are at war with Ghanaians”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

According to the Adaklu lawmaker, he was initially for YES vote in the referendum but listening to the experts he does not think majority of the country are ready for it and it appears they have a good point.

He further argued that in the future when Ghana’s democracy is well entrenched as well as institutions, the election of MMDCEs might happened in the future.

The current local Assemblies system is not perfect, it cannot be made perfect by entrenching partisanship, my feeling is that people of Ghana feel the two political parties would entrench their dirty politics I am voting “no”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Former Minister for Energy and Petroleum, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has challenged government to as a matter priority refocus attention to the welfare of elder citizens in the country.

To this end, the Ellembele Member of Parliament has proposed that the time has come for the government of Ghana to refocus attention by instituting a housing scheme for older citizens whiles taken care of their personal needs and their home assistance.

“It is time for the government of Ghana to institute a Housing Scheme for old people. It is time for government of Ghana working with the private sector to come up with a program to support old people’s care, their personal needs, and home assistants. If we are going to be blessed by God, these are basics that God requires from us a country to take care of the vulnerable before anything else” Mr Buah emphasized.

Referring to the 2010 population and Housing Census figures, the MP disclosed that out of the 6% of nation’s population which is elderly, 71% of the elderly in society are settlers at wherever they call their homes since they do not have a house for themselves.

Mr Armah-Kofi Buah made the call when he interacted and fettered senior citizens within his constituency and beyond as part of activities to mark the International Day for the elderly at the Aya Community Center near Essiama.

The Aya Community Center which was established by the MP and named after his octogenarian mother is dedicated to the welfare of elder citizens as a non- profit organization.

The Aya center, the first of its kind on the country since its inception some 3 years ago provides care for 80 elderly on daily basis and has since then catered for 49,000 elderly citizens.

The Center provides counselling, healthcare and other support services to the elderly in the community on rotational basis with free feeding and transportation to and fro the center daily.

Mr Buah urged Government to replicate the adult care center in all districts across the country and stated that all that the elderly needs is the show of affection.

The MP recounted the sad story of his own unfortunate poor background but due to the toil of his mother who was very poor, he and his siblings have cone this far.

He urged the public to desist from branding elder citizens as witches and wizards but rather show love and affection to them in order to benefit from their wise counsels.

The 2018 international day for the elderly celebration in the constituency which coincided with the third anniversary of the Aya Community Community was on the theme: “Celebrating Older Human Rights Champions”.

Individuals and various organisations operating in the constituency donated various sums of cash to compliment efforts aimed at providing care for the elderly.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com.