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Month: October 2019

NADMO has open account since 2017 to deal with disasters-Minister

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Minister of Interior Ambrose Dery has told the House that the Governing Council of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has since 2017 opened an account in accordance with section 41(2) of Act 927 to receive funds to deal with disaster related issues.

According to the Interior Minister the account was opened with UniBank now Consolidated Bank to receive monies coming into the fund.

This came to light when Member of Parliament for Builsa North, James Agalga wanted to know if the government would set up a disaster fund, under Act 2016 (Act 927).

The Minister answering questions on the floor of the House noted that moneys appropriated for the organization by parliament would go into the fund, while other monies that may in any manner become lawfully payable to the organisation will also go into the fund.

He further noted that advances from the contingency fund referred to in Article 177 of the Constitution would go into the fund, whiles three percent of the share of the District Assemblies Common Fund for each District subject to the formula approved by parliament in accordance with Article 252 of the constitution.

And Fees and charges accruing to the organisation in the performance of its functions under the Act would as well go into the fund.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Media needs to be engaged in successful implementation of AFCFTA—NGO

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Mr Yaw Afful, Country Director for African Continental Free Trade Area – AFCFTA, Policy Network Ghana and Diaspora, an international non-governmental organisation said there is no way the Continental Free Trade Area agreement would thrive without the media.

According to him, the African Union has made it clear that the media is going to be key in the implementation of the Continental Free Trade Area agreement, “the media is our partner”.

“We need one voice so that we can get back to the AU, what you say is what we would put together as a communiqué”.

He made this remarks at a day’s symposium for the media in Accra to educate and train them ahead of signing the phase two of the Continental Free Trade Area agreement next year.

In addition, he emphasised the need for the ordinary Ghanaian to be provided with information as there would be free movement of people, “so that when people get to some territories people do not think there is influx of people where xenophobia and other things would set in”.

Again, competition is setting in, and people need to know they can export their skills, they should know most visas had been waived through the agreement, and that you can go to another African country without a visa, people might not know they need to know through the media.

World Bank has given about forty million dollars to Ghana in the tourism sector, but we are not taping into it, why, because the tourism Ministry does not have many technical experts to draft serious tourism models.

“Our network has one hundred and forty-eight members over the globe, we are prepared to provide policy documents to them”.

He noted that phase two of the agreement has to do with international property rights and investments. This, has to be negotiated with the involvement of the private sector, but that is not to be, instead government is going to do the negociation.

“It is a problem, because the voices of the people would not be put out there as to what they want”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

 

Ministry secretly recruiting personnel into security agencies—Minority

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Ranking Member on Defence and Interior, James Agalga has said the Interior Ministry is secretly recruiting personnel into the Prisons and Police Service and the Ghana Immigration Service, in total disregard for established procedure.

According to the ranking member last year the President Akufo-Addo announced that financial clearance had been given to the police service to recruit four thousand personnel into the service.

As in the first instance, two thousand prospective recruits applied through the e-recruitment model, with an academic requirement of six credits in Maths and English.

At a press conference addressed by the ranking member just after Wednesday adjournment noted that the current government ordered the former Inspector General of Police Asante Apeatu to suspend the recruitment exercise until further notice.

After the police administration had compiled list and provided it to government, but the process was truncated at the tail end and taken over directly by the NPP government contrary to its own communications to stamp out fraud and cronyism.

Several qualified applicants who had been short listed and were only waiting to be invited for medical screening have been denied the opportunity to serve their country.

“Only those connected to the NPP government in one way or the other were selected and trained”, he lamented.

The story is not different with the Prison and Immigration Services. Both services like the police have not advertised for recruitment in 2019, with Immigration Service secret invitation to cronies of the NPP have been taken through screening and medical examination at the prisons training schools.

In all the Immigration Service is hoping to secretly recruit seven hundred junior officers and one hundred and fifty senior officers.

The Minority demand the immediate cancellation of the secrete recruitment exercise embarked upon by the police, prisons and immigration services in 2019.

“We also call upon President Akufo-Addo to institute measures to root out, cronyism and nepotism with respect to the recruitment into the security agencies”,

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

ECOWAS gender mainstreaming in energy featured highly at third ESIF forum

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
The third Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Sustainable Energy Forum held in Ghana featured highly investment opportunities in women-led energy business in the sub-region.

Mr. Mike Salawou, Divisional Manger, Infrastructure and Partnership Division of the African Development Bank (AfDB) moderated the well attended session in Accra.

Ms. Monica Maduekwe, Coordinator of ECOWAS Gender Mainstreaming in Energy Access,   in an interview noted that the session is for women led business opportunity tied to the ECOWAS policy on gender mainstreaming and energy access, a policy adopted by ECOWAS heads of states in June 2017.

One of the aim of the policy is to increase the number of women in the private sector running energy policy tied to the regional policy because the sector is male dominated. “We know there are women who are interested in participating in the sectors business and investments.

Women need the requisite technical capacity and understanding of the sector. Somehow it does not favor women that is why we came out with this policy to recognise the challenges and close the gap; create an opportunity for men and women who are interested in the sector.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Mion MP contemplating revisiting petition against CJ removal

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Member of Parliament for Mion, Abdul-Aziz Mohamed has said he is contemplating re-filing a question that had expired after one session, on whether the Attorney General is aware of a petition to remove the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship Sophia Akufo.

According to the Mion lawmaker, when he raised the issue on the floor of the House on Friday, the Majority Leader used technicality to dismiss it and directed that since the question was filed a year ago, it has expired and the Mion MP should re-file his question.

In an interview with journalists in Parliament after adjournment on Friday, Abdul-Aziz pointed out that in the case of the former Electoral Commission chair Shallot Osei, “We were told that the President was only a conveyer belt, he had no option than to referrer the petition to the necessary authority to look into it. I want to know if the President is still conveyer belt?”

“And the CJ would be retiring in December, I do not understand why I have filed a question for a year and it has not been programmed for answering. Time is of relevance to our questions we ask”.

When you file a question and it takes more than a year to answer, it would affect the relevance of the question, he indicated.

Mr. Abdul-Aziz lamented over the practice where Parliament is not playing by its own rules and regulations; Ministers have to answer questions with twenty-one days.

As to whether he thinks what had happened is deliberate, he said; “sometimes that is what they do, they ignore your questions for it to die a natural death, it is not good for our parliamentary and its oversight role it plays, leadership of the House should assist us to use question time to hold the Executive arm of government accountable”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

 

AfDB pushes for women to tap into investment opportunities in energy Sector

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

 

As part of measures to bridge the dominance of male in the energy sector in West Africa, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is giving opportunity to six Women to participate in the African investment forum in South Africa next month.

According to the Coordinator of ECOWAS on Gender Mainstreaming in the energy sector with ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), Monica Maduekwe, last year was a huge success.

She said in an interview that Women in the West African sub-region who would want to venture in energy business on a larger scale, would be taken to where the capital is so that they can tap into it.

In addition, ahead of March 2020 energy forum being organized by the United Arab Emirate (UAE) to gather investors and prepare them to pump funds into the energy sector in West Africa, Monica Maduekwe pointed out that women would be taken along to get investors ready to sponsor projects in the sector.

“Since ECREEE started its program, a lot of women had gone into more ambitious business in the energy sector. Formerly you turn to see women in smaller business in the sector what their own money can do for them”.

The Coordinator at ECREEE noted that the process has been a learning one for them to understand why women hold back from going for a large scale projects in the energy sector, “we are helping them to break that barrier, that kind of fear not wanting to commit themselves to projects that require huge amount of investment and getting access to capital”.

She underscored the need for more women to run more ambitious business but noted that there are some kind of restrain since the sector is new to women. “You need a good amount of equity, we have had women who are shy to branch to more capital businesses”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

 

KNUST SRC should be held directly responsible for the rumpus—Muntaka

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs
Member of Parliament for Asawase and Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak has said the leadership of the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology (KNUST) should be held responsible for the rumpus on campus.

According to the Asawase legislator, when students started converging and were holding sticks, what were they going to do with that, “in a peaceful demonstration”?

He recounted that during his days as a student at KNUST when they were embarking on a demonstration, the tall ones among them were ask to guide the demonstration so that no one goes away from the designated route.

“If anyone was going to stop vehicles, those guiding would say master stop that, we corrected those who wanted to go wayward. What did they do there are video footages any single student whose face is shown holding anything, the car smashing should be made to face the law”, he lamented.

Mr. Mubarak in an interview pointed out that the rumpus by the students is criminal and called for a stop to politicking with the whole incident and going ahead to say the Vice chancellor was appointed by former President John Mahama.

Again the dissolved council was not chaired by the Vice chancellor, he was implementing decisions by the council, “you had the SRC representatives there as well as the post graduate representative”.

In a democracy you do not always get things go your way, you can speak against things you disagree with and hold peaceful demonstration to show your displeasure but not to run riot and destroy properties, he said.

And lamented, “if care is not taken, as a nation we would grow some “monsters and set bad precedence’ that might come to hunt us in the future.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

No report, no foreign travel for MPs and clerks-Speaker Oquaye warns

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Professor Aaron Michael Oquaye has given serious indications to deny any committee in Parliament future traveling opportunities if they do not present reports on their previous travels.

According to Speaker Oquaye, no committee of the House has served the House with any report on conferences attended since the beginning of the year.

Addressing Members of Parliament after the House resumed sitting Tuesday for the third meeting of the third session of the seventh Parliament of the fourth Republic, he said it is mandatory for committees to present a detailed report of events that took place at all conferences for evaluation.

“Delegations are reminded that reports are required of them after participation in these trips,” he said.
The reports, which he described as the property of Parliament is to be presented to the House before a deadline of December 2019.

“We require both hard and soft copies are presented to the house”, he said.

The Speaker revealed that his office has not been served with any such report since January 2017.
”I must add that this is also the responsibility of the chairmen of committees,” he stated.

Professor Oquaye stated that all committees who fail to comply with the directive would face a sanction of not having other possible future travel opportunities.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

 

Six Ministers to take 16 questions on the floor of the House

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu in presenting business statement on the floor of the House on Friday 25th of October, 2019 indicated to the House that six Ministers would have to answer sixteen questions this week.

Minister for Roads and Highways would take five questions; Energy Minister four questions whiles the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development would take three questions.

Others like the Interior Minister would take two questions; with Minister for Special Development Initiative and Attorney General and Minister for Justice, a question each.

Committees with referrals have been urged to identify those that are urgent and deal with them speedily as the third meeting would be devoted to consideration of the Financial Policy of Government and related business.

The House is supposed to receive the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta to present next year’s budget second week in November.

Business committee has urged the Standing Order Committee to endeavor to round up its work on the review of the standing orders by the close of the week under consideration and present a report for determination by the House as soon as possible.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

 

Abuja to host 4th edition of ESEF 2020 – ECREEE

Posted on by Fred GhanaMPs

The Executive Director for ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) Mahama Kappiah, at the just ended third edition of the forum in Ghana announced that Nigeria is the next country to host the fourth edition.

The ECOWAS Sustainable Energy Forum, an annual event hosted by ECREEE is used to address the challenges facing renewable energy in West Africa and celebrate successes chalked within the industry.

In an interview with the Executive Director of Rural Electrification Fund Nigeria, Dr. Sanusi Ohiare pointed out that preparations start the very day Nigeria was selected to host the 4th edition, adding it is a world class event that needed all the seriousness it deserves.

“You know Nigeria when we do things we do things big, the Executive Director of ECREEE would be in my country next month to meet with the sector Minister and other people for preparation of the event; we welcome you all to Abuja next year”, he added.

As to what Nigeria would be doing differently, as it was announcement that Nigeria should not do worse than what Senegal and Ghana has already done, he said, “I would live that as a surprise so that when Ghanamps.com attends you would tell the world”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com