Month: March 2021

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has called on the President Nana Akufo-Addo led Government not to blame the huge debt they have accumulated on the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, after a poor performance on the economy within the past four years.

According to him the Minority is of the firm believe that mismanagement and non-controlling expenditure of government, and share lack of prudence is accounting for the poor performance on the economy.

At a press conference on Thursday, March 18, 2021 address by the Tamale South lawmaker, he pointed out that the budget statement presented to the House seeks to introduce some new taxes like, COVID-19 health levy, one percent increase; one percent increase in national health insurance, VAT, gaming and betting levy, increase in road tolls; sanitation and pollution levy; and the financial sector clean up levy.

Additionally, stakeholders like investors who have interest in the Ghanaian economy would not be happy with misreporting, classification which are deliberately done to project an economy that is doing well when in fact it is an economy growing with debt.

 “We have always cautioned against reporting below the line, it has a way of giving wrong impression of good work on fiscal consolidation, when the fact does not support that, this economic dishonesty we find unacceptable”.

He went on further to point out that, the current government reported a fiscal deficit of four point eight percent (4.8%), but when they reported to the IMF in its report on April 2020, it was seven point five percent (7.5%) of fiscal deficit.

“How can this happen and what would be the justification for it for not wanting to report correctly on performance of the economy? One set of information given to the IMF is different from what was given to the Parliament of Ghana”.

The Minority at the press conference pointed out that within four years of their administration, they have contributed not less than one hundred and sixty four billion Ghana cedis to the country’s debt stock.

“We are not seeing how the money is being spent for it to address the unemployment in our country’s sustainability of national debt, we call for some form of honesty on the part of this government”, he added.

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Minister of Communications and Digitisation Ursula Owusu Ekuful has said the recent Badu Nkansah’s controversial unapproved publications must be withdrawn from the market with immediate effect.

Mrs Ekuful made the statement at the plenary on Wednesday, March 17, 2021 when the Volta Caucus in Parliament expressed their displeasure on the effect of the publication of Badu Nkansah’s books on the people of the Volta Region.

She further noted that no ethnic group in Ghana should be stigmatized and our text books must accurately depict our culture as is being used to educate the youth and not corrupt them, and also train them on the beautiful diversity of our country to every child for us to appreciate what makes us uniquely Ghanaians.

The Minister further noted that she is happy the publisher has indicated that they are withdrawing the text books to take away the offending publications and have apologies for this unfortunate occurrence.

She was contributing to a statement by Member of Parliament for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who, quoted sections of the book which makes derogatory remarks about some tribes.

He noted that, if this is not dealt with and continues to be in publication, one day someone would pick it up and insist it is the truth, and speaking against it alone on the floor of the House is not enough and the Education Committee should follow up on this to ensure that every bit of it anywhere is withdrawn from circulation.

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The United States Ambassador to Ghana Her Excellency Stephanie Sullivan on Wednesday, March 17, 2021 congratulated Ghana’s Parliament Appointment Committee of the 8^th Parliament for its work in vetting appointees of Nana Akufo-Addo.

Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin and the Ambassador spoke on key issues pertaining to development of their respective countries, which were centered on health, agriculture and the environment.

According to the Speaker when he had the US Ambassador visit noted that Ghanaians are no longer interested in partisan politics and expect that the two main political parties put the interest of the country first and to collaborate more for the ultimate good of the country.

He also emphasised the fact that accountability is a key ingredient for Ghana’s progress and urged the political class to be mindful of this, and called for strengthening of institutional capacity of the legislative branch of government.

“We need for Members of Parliament to be given offices and personnel in their constituencies for ease of consultation and work in the constituencies”.

The US Ambassador pointed out for the need to have a strong trade relation, referring to an earlier statement made by the Majority Leader Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu which stressed the need to strengthen the private sector since it is the engine of growth.

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu noted that the indicators used for measuring child labour and child trafficking which shows Ghana in a bad light, he urged the US to posit the phenomenon in its proper context.

“In the Ghanaian culture children do assist their parents and relatives in their economic endeavors and this by no means has anything to do with child labour”.

In a statement issued by the Director of Public Affairs, Kate Addo noted that, the Minority leader further, spoke about the menace of money laundry and called on the US to help state institutions to block illicit transfer and the need to make  state institutions more responsive to the COVID-19 pandemic than they now.

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The Rt. Hon. Speaker Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin has said he and the President Nana Akufo-Addo now in leadership position should ensure that Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana is complied with.

According to him in their days back in Ghana’s Parliament, they held views that there should not be cutting down of the budget of the judiciary and Parliament who are also arms of government.

He noted that he was the chairman of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs in 1997 to 2000, and until January of 2021 he was a Member of Parliament, and in 1997 then Nana Akufo-Addo was a ranking member of the same committee.

“Together we worked we fought for the observance of this constitutional provision, lucky we are now in a position to ensure that this is comply with, those times we were MPs and our voices did not carry much weight”.

And added that as speaker he would ensure that the right thing is done, and told the House since the principles are accepted by all when the issue came up on revising the budget of the Judiciary and Parliament, they should put the matter to rest and move and not go into any litigation.

This happened on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday,  March 16,2021 when the Speaker indicated to the House that he would not accept revision of the budget of Parliament that generated some debate on the matter with speakers to the issues trying to quote the constitution to back their points.

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Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu has noted that the Executive arm of government cannot treat Parliament like it would do to the Ministries, Department and Agencies of government when it comes to ceiling on the 2021 budget.

According to him they would not accept that and added that the Minister caretaker invoke Article 179 and should be in context as he performs that function on behalf of the President, but the directives given by the Speaker should be respected.

Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on his part noted that he can understand, the Majority Leader presenting the budget has abandoned lawmakers and their plight and further explained that the directives of the Speaker was given for him to convene to the presidency.

The Tamale South MP Haruna Iddrisu backed the position taken by the Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin by quoting Article 179 clause 3 and 5 to back his point.

Article 179 clause 5, “estimates shall be laid before Parliament and with clause four saying the President should not revise it but government can recommend their revision”.

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Minister of State in charge of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has said Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin cannot give directives to the President of the land, Nana Akufo-Addo on ceiling of the Judiciary and parliament on their budget.

According to him he shares in the principle that Article 179 clause 3 & 4 should be complied with. “I want to be clear on this, to say that the Speaker has directed the president, then he can direct that the president should be arrested.”

North Tongu lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa jumped in to offer explanation that, the speaker’s directive was to the Finance Minister caretaker and the Vice President who were present at the reading of the 2021 budget.

Again, “Osei-Kyei was so busy that day so he did not receive the Speaker’s directives. He looked more like a finance Minister we have never had, the quality of the leather bag was so impressive to the extent that Ken Ofori Atta would want to hurry back to the country”.

Mr. Osei-Kyei further on his part noted that the issue as the Speaker has brought up could be taken up but it is not for nothing that Article 179 clause 1 has said a month before the budget comes to the House it should be presented so that if there is any suggestion it is dealt with.

“If there is any negotiation it could be done before it comes to the House, in this case as we all know, we did not have time, so it should be possible to resolve this in the midyear budget review it can be done”.

Mr. Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu further told the House on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 he is not sure in this case if there should be litigation on the matter, despite the fact that they want the best for Parliament, “but we cannot start on a quarrelsome note”.

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The Rt Hon. Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 clearly stated that, Parliament will never allow itself for the Executive arm of government to impose anything they wish on them.

He said, Parliament has the final power to approve or disapprove any request from the Executive or Presidency.

Mr. Bagbin further explained that, it is not for the Executive to impose ceiling on the Judiciary or Parliament and that, the Executive have to do the proper thing by making a recommendation on the 2021 annual budget for Parliament to make a final decision on its approval.

“We are not to receive an order or instructions from the Executive to give an approval to the budget estimate for the year 2021”.

This was when the Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediako wrote to the Speaker that nothing can be done about the ceiling given to the Judiciary and parliament to ensure that public debt does not balloon up in 2021.

But the Speaker direct the committees that in considering this year’s budge estimate, they should take on board his directive and tell the House about the negotiated figures and not the ceiling that has been given by the president.

And that is not the internment of the1992 constitution, “if you do otherwise, I as your speaker would not append any letter submitted to the president for his assent, I mean what I say, the weaker link in our democracy is Parliament”.

He further noted that because of that they are unable to control things like corruption, to hold the Executive to account and get the rule of law going, and so far as he remain the speaker, Parliament is the arm of government to lead that, “I will insist that the right thing is done”.

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Ranking Member on Finance Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson has served notice on the floor of the House that the Minority would not be part of approving the 2021 annual budget if anomalies detected by the Minority are not corrected by the Finance Ministry.

Contributing to the motion to start debate on the budget on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 he accused the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of adding an amount of sixty seven point three billion Ghana cedis (GHc 67.3b)  to country’s public debt in just one year.

He sent some strong signal to the Minister of Finance and his Ministry that, the minority is sending a strong message that until these anomalies are corrected, the NDC Minority caucus would not be part in the passage of the 2021 annual budget.

Again, in the budget, government has been claiming fiscal consolidation has been made since 2017, “I am trucking the public debt and to say COVID-19 cannot be blamed entirely as we encounter economic mess.”

“The mess started in 2018 and no one should make any attempt to blame anything on the novel coronavirus. Government inherited a debt of one twenty billion, of that amount additional twelve point two billion Ghana cedis”.

And that same year our public debt move to one hundred and forty two billion. Government should be given commendation where it is due, but in 2018 we lost our way, the Finance Minister told the House our debt was three percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), representing eleven point nine billion cedis.

“That is not true, the situation of misreporting started in 2018, an amount of nine point eight billion Ghana cedis was excluded from our document and an IMF document I hold in my hands confirms this, article 4 August 2020”.

Again, our debt in 2018 was seven percent to GDP and not four percent as announced by then Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta.

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