Month: March 2021

Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin on Saturday, March 6, 2021 led his former colleague lawmakers to take their first jabs against the COVID-19 disease.

Ahead of Saturday’s exercise, the Speaker on Thursday, March 4, 2021 announced on the floor of the House that they would be undertaking such an exercise as leaders, to dispel the wrong notion that some Ghanaians have against the vaccine.

Leader of Government Business, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on Friday, March 5, 2021 whiles presenting the Business Statement for the ensuing week also announced to his colleagues to make themselves available for the exercise.

Despite the fact that they might have already made some commitment towards their weekend activities, it was very important for them to make themselves available for the vaccination exercise, he advised.

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Member of Parliament for KEEA Samuel Atta-Mills has taken a swipe at the Minister for Trade and Industry, Alan Kwadow Kyremantey for the conflicting representation he is giving to Ghanaians on the state of the Komenda Sugar Factory located as his constituency.

According to him the Minister in the seventh Parliament told the House that the factory is not producing any sugar when he appeared before the House on two occasions on the subject matter of the status of the factory.

Mr. Alan Kyremantey said, “There are so many things that had to be put in place that has not been done, but he came before the eighth Appointment Committee and said the factory produces sugar, so should we assume that what he said before the previous parliament was untruth and the vetting to was untruth?”

Mr. Atta-Mills in an interview pointed out that, politicians should be careful of things they say at a point in time when they think it is convenient for them to say A or B, “if you do good it has its own reward and if you do bad it has its own reward”.

On the issue of the Minister-designate then saying before the Appointment Committee that government has gotten a strategic investor in, he noted that he knows the investor personally and he has not signed any agreement with government on Komenda Sugar Factory. Rather, the agreement that the investor has signed is with the University of Cape Coast to provide the investor with different kinds of sugar cane.

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Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has urged the Business Committee of Parliament to speed up the process of recomposing select Committees in Parliament ahead of presentation of the 2021 budget to the House on Friday, March 19, 2021.

According to him the various select Committees have an oversight over the Ministries, Department and Agencies.

He further questioned to know from the Committee if the House had to wait till the new Standing Orders are approved before the Committees are formed, saying “it appears we are out of time and have to work if leadership have had this discussion?”

Chairman of the Business Committee Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on his part noted that he agrees with the point made by the North Tongu lawmaker, adding “if we do not have the Committees in place, debate on the estimates to be considered by the various committees otherwise they can not come on “.

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Former chairman of the Government Assurance Committee in the 7^th Parliament,  Yaw Frimpong Addo has said with current equal  numerical strength of the two dominate parties in Ghana’s Parliament, the Committee would play its oversight role.

According to him he agrees with the Speakers point that the Committee is the weakest in performing its oversight responsibility and they are not playing the role they are supposed to play.

In an interview he noted that the Committee was supposed to be the pivot around which other committees can play their roles effectively, “unfortunately it has not been the case all because of our political arrangements”.

He further noted that under the current Parliament, the 8^th Parliament has resolved this time around that it is going to take Government Assurance Committee’s work seriously, because of its nature.

“God being so good with the current parliament, we have no excuse whatsoever with this split Parliament for the Committee not to work hard. The Minority would always push for us to do our oversight work, the Committee is going to make a difference, I may not be on that Committee but I would be a friend to the Committee”.

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Parliament has by a majority decision and consensus approved the nomination of 13 ministerial nominees of President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Ten of the nominees secured by consensus approval by the Appointment Committee and approved by the plenary.

Meanwhile, three were approved by a majority vote on the floor of the house after extensive debate on recommendations made by the Appointments Committee.

Those whose approvals were secured through a vote were Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister-designate for Information; Hawa Koomson, Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture and Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture.

The legislators spent several hours from Wednesday, March 3, 2021, into the dawn of Thursday debating the report.

After that process was done, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, gave the MPs the opportunity to decide whether or not to approve the three through secret balloting.

At the end of the polls, 265 total votes were cast., Mavis Hawa Koomson got approved by 161 YES votes to 104 NO votes, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah got approved by 155 YES votes to 110 NO votes and Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto got approved by 143 YES votes to 121 NO votes.

Members of the NDC on the Appointments Committee had earlier kicked against the approval of Oppong Nkrumah, Afriyie Akoto and Hawa Koomson over issues they raised against the nominees during their vetting.

The Ministers who were approved by consensus on the floor of the house include Sarah Adwoa Safo, Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection; Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister-designate for Energy; Dr. Yaw Adutwum, Minister-designate for Education and Dominic Nitiwul; Minister-designate for Defence.

The others are Albert Kan Dapaah, minister-designate for National Security; Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration Minister-designate; Dan Botwe, Local Government, Decentralization & Rural Development Minister-designate, Ambrose Dery, minister-designate for Interior.

Ignatius Baffour Awuah, the Minister-designate for Employment, and Labour Relations and Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Minister-designate for Parliamentary Affairs were also approved by consensus.

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Even before the formation and approval of Committees in the 8^th Parliament, the Member of Parliament for Ho West Emmanuel Kwesi Bedzrah has said the Government Assurance Committee under the current Parliament would be exemplary.

According to the former chairman of the Committee in the Sixth Parliament, he has taken notice of some assurance given my Ministers-designate who come before the Appointment Committee.

“This time around it would not be assurance given on the floor of the House, and you notice my colleagues on the Minority side of the Committee, kept repeating ‘can you give assurance and that alone is enough”.

He said this in an interview when Ghanamps.com sought to know if the Government Assurance Committee in the 8th Parliament would be vibrant than it was in the immediate past 7th Parliament that did not even hold a single public hearing, and only went on fact finding mission getting to the close of the lifespan of the seventh Parliament.

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A member of the Appointment Committee on the Majority Group side, John Kumah said Minister-designate for Fisheries Hawa Koomson should not be judged on her eloquence for approval as a Minister.

According to him in Ghana people think if you speak English language eloquently then you are intelligent; that is “very unfortunate”.

He noted that the Minister-designate has a truck record; she provided ambulance to all constituencies in Ghana within two years in office, to resolve the countries ambulance problems.

“She got several dams and implemented one million per constituencies and was a third timer as a Member of Parliament. It is not about her ability to rattle English, we are working together as a committee, forget about the politics we work as a team on the committee level”.

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Member of Parliament for Ejisu John Kumah has said the issues on Frontier Health Care Services and their charges at the airport would not be the basis on which a nominee should be rejected.

A number of Ministers-designate were not able to provide satisfactory answers to the committee on the Frontier Health Care Services contract when they appeared before the Vetting Committee and this has so far raised a lot of questions even among the public, and it is believed some ministers-designate may take a fall for that.

But Mr. John Kumah in an interview noted that the issues playing out on the Frontiers testing is “much ado about nothing. I do not see how one particular transaction is becoming so much of an issue. Ministers-designate who came before the House have given information on the matter as to what they know”.

He further noted that if Parliament is not satisfied with the matter, there are other procedures that can be used. They can fill a question and other means can be adopted in seeking information, “this issue has been overblown”.

And added that, the work of the opposition is what the Minority on the Committee is doing but they are creating mountain out of a mole hills; “seriously I do not get the issues”.

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President Nana Akufo-Addo is expected to deliver this year’s state of the Nation address in accordance with Article 67 of the 1992 Constitution, which states that at the beginning of each session of Parliament and desolation of parliament the president performs this duty.

According to the Speaker, Rt. Hon Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin the President has indicated to him he is ready to perform that constitutional duty on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.

He further announced to the House on Tuesday, March 2, 2021 that within this same meeting which ends at the end of this month, the president has caused to be prepared the financial budget to be presented to the House for approval under Article 197 on Friday, March 12, 2021.

And told the House there is a tall order of businesses to be performed before the end of this month; and urged MPs to cooperate with him and leadership of the House in this regard.

He ended on a sad note, by announcing to the House the death of Robert Apadola, Deputy Clerk of Parliament, one of the foundation members of the fourth Republican Parliament. His death occurred during the three weeks suspension of the House.

The Speaker told the House the late Apadola was admitted at Korle Bu and when leadership got wind of his bad health condition, they took a quick decision to seek further medical attention and whiles arrangements were being made to receive him into a health facility for treatment, he passed away.

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The second test conducted by NoguchI Memorial Medical Institute in Parliament against the novel coronavirus has seen drastic reduction of positive cases from one hundred and fifty-six cases to twelve after three weeks suspension.

Majority of those who tested positive are staff of Parliament representing two percent compare to the nation rate of ten to twelve percent.

According to the Speaker Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, staff and Members of Parliament who had tested positive remain at twelve as at Tuesday, March 2, 2021 when the House reconvened.

And further told the House he had directed the clerk to let auxiliary staff to take their leave to help decongest their offices as the House witness weekly disinfection of the House.

He further urged MPs and staff yet to go for the second re-testing to do so.

Speaker Bagbin emphasised the importance of MPs and staff to go for assessment to know their status and importance of adhering to protocols by regularly washing their hands, sanitizing and maintaining social distance.

“I pledge in consultation with leadership of the House we would roll out vaccination of staff and members of this in the coming weeks, and hope MPs would be supportive in this regard”.

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