The Appointment Committee of Parliament would today enter into its fifth day of vetting deputy minister-designates of its ongoing vetting process.
Deputy minister-designate for energy Andrew Egyapa Merce would be the first to appear before the Committee, John Ntim Fordjor education, George Mireku Duker lands and natural resources and Tina Gifty Mensah deputy designate for health.
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A member of Ghana’s delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah raised concerns with the insecurity situation in Burkina Faso, when they presented country report to the plenary.
According to him most of the people moving from Burkina Faso to Ghana is as a result of the insecurity there and if there is not security in Burkina Faso it would affect the whole of the Community member states and wanted to know what as a country, they are doing to bring stability.
On the text of the ECOWAS Community on free movement of goods and service, he pointed out that they have ratified all the protocols, but was quick to put across that the citizens have not been educated on movement of goods and services.
In response representatives from Burkina Faso noted that the issue of insecurity is not pertaining only to them, but there are border issues of insecurity with Mali and Niger that has a spill over to their country and the insecurity issues, started from an area in Mali and Niger.
In addition, they have the jihadist or terrorist who move into the market space and start shooting indiscriminately, hence they have civilian vigilante groups who fight alongside the national defense forces to protect the country.
And the delegation further noted that, from the last quarter of 2020 till date there has been some level of improvement when it comes to security.
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Deputy Minister designate for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong has describe as unacceptable the cumbersome procedures Ghanaian applicants have to go through in acquiring a Ghanaian passport.
According to him when given the node he promised to assist the sector minister ensure the Passport Office improves on their services to enhance the turnaround time in passport acquisition.
The deputy minister-designate was particularly not enthused about the bureaucracies’ applicants have to go through to acquire their passports and noted further that the Ministry will do all in its power to make the necessary interventions to ensure efficiency at the Passport Office and also announcing that passport acquisition in the country has been decentralised.
Answering to claims that campaign contributions might have been generating an increasingly deleterious effect on the quality of Ghanaian diplomatic representation overseas who are mostly politicians instead of career diplomats, he said it was time to examine research about political versus career appointments.
He agreed to suggestions that empowering long-serving career officials ensures that the most experienced officials are influential in the policy process, incentivizes the development of expertise through a career in government service and added that the merit-based system improves performance of the bureaucracy by cultivating valuable expertise.
The Mampong lawmaker made this known when he appeared before the Appointment Committee on Friday, June 4, 2021 to be vetted.
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Deputy Minister designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Moses Anim said Government is resolved to revitalise the aquaculture industry to increase domestic production and reduce fish importation.
According to him this would create additional job opportunities while stressing that his ambition is to assist the sector minister empower the fisher folks with the requisite knowledge on the aquaculture sub-sector and implementation of other key programmes.
The lawmaker for Trobu further pledged to assist her sector minister in the implementation of the underlining policy drive of the Ministry towards achieving the structural changes in the sector.
Again, the Ministry would use policy interventions and active private sector participation as a tool to promote fresh water fish farming and marine culture, thereby creating additional job opportunities, promoting aquaculture as an alternative source of domestic fish production through deliberate policy interventions.
Reacting to claims that officials in charge of selling the premix fuel sell it mostly to pro-NPP fishermen who hoard and sell the product at an inflated price thus creating shortage, he promised to assist the Minister sanitise the industry and continue the processes aimed at digitizing the distribution of premix fuel to address the confusion characterizing the distribution process.
She gave these assurances before the Appointment Committee on Friday, June 4, 2021 during his vetting.
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Deputy Minister designate for Communications and Digitalisation, Ama Pomaa Boateng has said she is particular about cyber security hence would assist her Minister put in place a system that would help to protect Ghanaians.
The deputy minister designates, pointed out to the Appointment Committee when she appeared before them on Friday, June 4, 2021 that the House has passed a Cyber Security Act when she appeared before the Committee in Parliament on Friday, June 4, 2021.
“I know implementation is ongoing, and a decentralised team to respond too has been set up; there is one for the military and police to check on security online. Again there is one for the financial sector hosted by the Bank of Ghana, there is one by NITA”.
Madam Ama Pomaa, further told the Committee she is aware that, Cyber Security Authority does cyber awareness which is a month-long program in October every year, where they spend time educating the business community and students on how to be secured online.
She was responding to a former deputy Interior Minister James Agalga who wanted to know from the nominee, security wise, what could be done to secure activities online.
Her vetting lasted less than an hour, and she was full of praise for both former President John Mahama and President Nana Akufo Addo for their roles in bringing to fruition the country’s digitisation drive and culminating into the lofty heights and success chalked by the Communication Ministry and the economy as a whole.
The President’s nominee pledged her unalloyed support to the sector Minister Ursula Owusu Ekuful and promised to assist her achieve the Ministry’s laudable goals and visions.
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Chairman of the Appointment Committee, Joseph Osei-Owusu has appealed to the deputy minister designate for Communications and Digitalisation, Ama Pomaa to assist her Minister to help deal with a practice where some fraudulent people use MPs’ name to defraud Ghanaians.
According to him Members of Parliament (MPs) have been victims of people using their names to create facebook accounts, where the fraudulent individuals who engage in this practice promise unsuspecting, Ghanaians to give them jobs in the police, immigration and public service.
“You here people asking, Hon. are you the one I was chatting with? If you say no, then they tell you someone is using your name asking us to pay this amount of money as protocol fees for a job. I have told people I do not even own a facebook account”.
He further noted that, sometimes you do not have all the people who have fallen victim to those scams coming forward to tell you what they have gone through, only to move around and bad mouth you that you have taken their money for a job.
“I know that the IT field is a difficult one, what you know another person knows, but try and help your sector Minister deal with this problem”.
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The Member of Parliament for Banda, and first deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim has accused government for deliberately refusing to constitute boards of various MDAs in order to perpetuate corrupt practices.
He said the absence of boards breeds corruption, and state that corporate governance is the highest decision-making bodies manning the affairs of MDAs, hence what is happening now is that people are just using their discretions to the detriment of the populace.
This, he said is largely responsible for the current economic hardship in the country.
He wondered how the government would be able to deal with the current power challenges effectively without the boards of all relevant agencies under the power sector in place. “As I speak now, we have dumsor, but if you go to VRA, Bui, and all the power sector, he has not formed the boards, so how can you fight dumsor?
Issues with free senior high school are still with us but if you go to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) they don’t have a board.
Mr. Ibrahim who expressed all these sentiments in an interview with the media also accused government of not helping parliament to function effectively and efficiently to the benefits of the citizenry.
According to him, the government at the beginning of this meeting counted a number of bills to be considered for passage, but the cabinet is yet to pass even one to be forwarded to the House.
Responding to the reason for early adjournment on Friday, June 4, 2021, he said “there is no major business before us to do, that is why today we adjourned sitting”. Ghanaians are waiting for us to do something, but where is the Minister of Finance, all the annual reports that we have to work on, where are they? He asked.
He said none of the reports that have been laid in parliament is ready and wondered how they were going to deal with budget reports next week.
“We are ready, Speaker is ready and MPs are ready, we are waiting for the government to bring those Financial Budget Performance Reports to the House, but the reality is the government is not ready”.
He expressed fear that this parliament would soon be accused of not passing important bills, but the truth is the government is failing in its duty to push the necessary documents to the House for work to be done on them. “So, who is sabotaging who? The government is sabotaging itself” he stated.
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Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Alban S. K Bagbin has been scheduled to address this year’s High-Level Virtual Event to mark 60 years of diplomatic relations between Ghana and Denmark in celebration of Denmark’s Constitution Day this month.
The Speaker, as part of the presentation, will also explore ways of strengthening inclusiveness in governance with a special focus on improving political party structures.
This was made known when the Danish Ambassador to Ghana, Tom Norring paid a courtesy call on Speaker Bagbin in Parliament to officially invite the Speaker to participate in their 60th Anniversary in Ghana, and to solidify the long-lasting bilateral relations between Denmark and Ghana.
Speaker Bagbin emphasized the need for the two countries to initiate a dialogue on how to enrich their experiences to build their countries. “Denmark as we know has a high human resource development index with Sweden, Norway and Finland because they run social democratic systems which focus on fairness, justice and equity due to their experience with the Kings and monarchy which they demolished long ago; and it is one of the countries Ghana can learn a lot from when it comes to multi-party democracy”, he said.
Speaker Bagbin also urged the Danish Envoy to take and pay special attention to the strengthening of the Ghana-Denmark Parliamentary Friendship Association geared at fostering MP – MP relationship between the two countries.
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Minister designate for Energy, William Owuraku Aidoo has said with the introduction of nuclear energy in Ghana, it would be a game changer in Ghana’s quest to be energy sufficient when he appeared before the Vetting Committee on Thursday, June 3, 2021.
According to him when the sector minister Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh appeared before the Committee, he indicated that it is something that Government is serious about and an operator has been selected and the name is Nuclear Power Ghana.
He further told the Committee that, having previously served on the board; they were earlier looking for a vender and that gave him the opportunity to travel to India, Russia and China accessing any of them becoming a vender.
“It’s something that is upmost on government agenda, a location has been selected for a possible installation of the nuclear plant”, he told the Committee when James Agalga, a member of the Committee wanted to know if nuclear energy was on government’s agenda.
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As the Appointment Committee of Parliament enters its third day of vetting, four deputy minister nominees are scheduled to appear before the Committee today.
They are Ama Pomaa Boateng Deputy Minister Designate for Communications and Digitalization, Kwaku Ampratwum-Sarpong Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Moses Anim Fisheries and Aquaculture Development and Nana Dokua Asiamah Adjei for Trade and Industry.
So far two batches of deputy minister nominees have appeared before the Committee making a total of eight as four designated nominees are taken each day.
The vetting is ongoing with strict observation of COVID-19 protocols, hence limited number of people are permitted to the Committee room.
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