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COVID brought out the best in Akufo-Addo – Fanteakwa North MP

The Chairman of the Education Committee of Parliament,  Kwabena Amankwah Asiamah, on Thursday, November 25, 2021, put up a spirited debate, hailing the quality of the managerial skills of President Akufo-Addo, during the peak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

He said managing the pandemic brought out the best in President Akufo-Addo and put him above any President as the world witnessed how great the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces is in terms of crisis management.

For instance, Hon. Asiamah said the way and manner the President handled the novel coronavirus when it spread across some Senior High Schools in the country was beyond imagination, stressing that his good leadership skills helped brought the situation under control and allayed the fears of parents and students as well.

“The way and manner he [President Akufo-Addo] handled COVID-19 in our schools, especially, the Senior High Schools when they were having their WASSCE final exams were beyond imagination. During the time, the President fed all the students, both public and private with one hot meal a day for several weeks. That is the mark of a good leader who never discriminates”, he noted.

Mr. Asiamah was contributing to the motion for the approval of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government on the floor of Parliament.

Commenting further, he said what made President Akufo-Addo stood out as a great leader during the pandemic was his insistence of supplying all the senior high schools with infrared thermometers, reusable nose masks and some other logistics and ensured that all the schools were also fumigated and disinfected.

These items, he noted, contributed a lot in halting the spread of the virus which brought fear and panic among the populace.

“Many thought the COVID will breakout in our schools. The doom sayers were there when it happened to Accra Girls School when some few students had COVID in those days. People cried for closure of schools but the President ensured that the right measures were put in place to save lives”, he underscored.

In September 2020, the Lancet Commission for COVID-19 on the roll call for countries that have made strides in the fight against novel Coronavirus and saved their citizenry from the devastating effects of the pandemic, hailed Ghana under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo, for being quite exceptional in managing the pandemic.

Ghana’s name was written in gold among nations that have used their meager financial resources and under-resourced health systems compared to giant nations such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Canada, Germany and South Africa among others, to achieve excellence in preventing the further spread of COVID-19.

Ghana’s performance and political leadership as well as that of other nations in the fight against the pandemic came under the microscopic eye of the United Nations after it set up a team of health experts to form the Lancet COVID-19 Commission which was launched on July 9, 2020, to among other things, assist governments, Civil Society Organizations, and UN institutions to respond effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Commission aims to offer practical solutions to the four main global challenges posed by the pandemic: suppressing the pandemic by means of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions; overcoming humanitarian emergencies, including poverty, hunger, and mental distress caused by the pandemic; restructuring public and private finances in the wake of the pandemic; and rebuilding the world economy in an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable way that is aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement.

The Commission chaired by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs in a statement on the occasion of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly published online on September 14, 2020, placed Ghana among the highly recognized countries that did great in the fight against COVID-19 despite challenges in its health system as well as funding.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

2022 Budget is a sign of good things to come – Education Minister

The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei  Adutwum, has told Parliament that the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government present an opportunity to turn around the economic fortunes of Ghana, urging all and sundry to support and approve it for implementation.

“The 2022 Budget”, he noted “is a sign of good things to come”.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of Parliamentary sitting on Thursday, November 25, 2022, moments after contributing to the motion for the approval of the budget statement, Dr. Adutwum made a strong case to back his call for support of the economic policy of the government for the year ending December 31, 2022.

For instance, he said the 2022 Budget is going to make massive investments in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education, stressing that once they are achieved, it will help transform the country’s educational sector”.

“We are talking about 35 STEM high schools. It is just like building 35 PRESEC schools across the country. When we talk about a transformed Junior High School – schools that have the feel and look and the content of a high school so that we can reverse the damage that was done to our education system from the 1987 reforms that we took which reduced high school education from seven to three years because the three years that was supposed to make it six, the Junior High School was never implemented as such”, he noted.

He added “When you walk across the length and breadth of the nation into a Junior High School where there are no libraries, no science labs, no computer labs and we still tell the good people of Ghana this is a Junior High School. We borrowed this concept from the United States of America where Senior High School and Junior High Schools are not on the same premises. But in each of the Junior High Schools, we have the same facilities – we never did that”.

According to him, the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government is seeking to reverse that trend and build new Junior High Schools that have all the elements of Senior High School.

“This means that with three years of lower Secondary Education, you can go to Upper Secondary Education and be equipped with six years of quality education. This budget has allocated potential funds for it”, he explained.

He said all these clearly outlines the vision of President Akufo-Addo, which he described second to none, believing that the number of initiatives outlines in the budget when achieved, will put President in the National Education Hall of Fame.

“The name Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will be written in gold in the National Education Hall of Fame – the day that we will build it and so will Ken Ofori Atta, the Minister of Finance because this budget is laying the foundation for the Ghanaian economy to be competitive”

Dr. Adutwum added that, when we talk about STEM Universities so that all those regions without universities will also claim a university.

 “I heard some of my colleagues saying we will not vote for the budget, my response is that maybe you haven’t read the budget to your constituents and if you have, they will tell you to stay in Accra until it is approved because our hopes and future is in this budget. The budget is going to take Ghana to a new level where we could compete with the rest of the world. This is the budget for the 21st Century”, he stressed.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Speaker advocates for strengthening of Parliament’s oversight and accountability role

The Rt. Hon Speaker Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin is advocating for strengthening of Parliament’s oversight and accountability role when members of the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) had an engagement with him on Thursday, November 25, 2021.

According to him CSOs need to know what parliament is doing in other for parliament to tap into their long years of experience so that Parliament would be able to stand against the all mighty Executive to ensure that what Ghanaians voted for and are promised them is achieved.

As the youth and people of Ghana and Africa can no longer wait, and parliament needs to rely on the expertise of CSOs.

Mr. Alban Bagbin revealed that parliament’s corporate strategic plan talks about them engaging with CSO, but he would want to qualify it as, “creating the enabling environment to partnering CSOs as  we do the same thing eventually when it comes to law making or oversight a lot of you are doing that in the various areas of governance”.

Again, with the long experience and research of CSOs, he noted that they have a lot of documents which Parliament does not have and they need them to support parliament to legislate on critical areas of governance that they have overlooked.

Members of CSOs engaging Speaker

“I have told my colleagues and we have looked at the legislations and we realised that since 1993 we have been passing laws that only talk about the Executive but not Parliament. When I took over office it was an empty office, no handing over note, no staff”.

He recounted that the country has developed a Presidential Transition Act but nothing for parliament. “So we are more concerned with transition in the presidency not parliament”. “How do I get to know what happened before I came,  who am I to work with, and how are they going to be recruited, what is the structure of the Speaker’s secretariat,  what are the professional mix you need? There is nothing to guide the Speaker”, he emphasized.

The Speaker asserted that Ghanaians think that parliament is just MPs, but there are a whole lot of other civil servants. “They do not know that the parliamentary service is part of parliament; they do not know we have auxiliary services here; we have a division of health personal who work in parliament and are paid by the resources of parliament; again they do not know we have police and fire service units who work with parliament.”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

WHO has not declared any country COVID-19 free zone—Minister

The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has revealed that neither Ghana nor any other country in the world has been declared COVID-19 free zone since the pandemic is still in existence.

As a result, the Ministry of Health is still working through its agencies, development partners and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to step up public education to ensure strict adherence to the protocols and measures, which are still in full force.

Mr. Agyeman gave the clarification on the floor of the House in response to the Member of Parliament (MP) for Salaga South, Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah’s question on the subject matter and additionally wanted to know steps the Ministry is taken to scale up public education to ensure strict adherence to the protocols.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Agenda 111 hospital projects on course – Agyeman Manu

Government’s quest to construct some hundred and eleven hospitals under the Agenda 111 project is on course, the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has stated.

His response on the floor of the House follows the Member of Parliament (MP) for Daffiama/Bussie/Issa, Dr. Sebastian Ngmenenso Sandaare who asked when his district would benefit from the construction of hospital in his district under the Agenda 111.

In his response, the Health Minister noted that there was a sod cutting ceremony to herald the commencement of the project in Atwima Kwanwoma district in the Ashanti Region to signal the beginning of these hospitals in all the beneficiary districts, on Tuesday, August 17, 2021.

And Daffiama/Bussie/Issa is included under the Agenda 111; all preparatory works towards commencement of works have been completed.

Currently, zonal consultants and contractors are finalizing mobilization activities to site for works to commence shortly, he told the House.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Akandoh wants government to get serious with COVID-19 vaccination process

Mr. Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member on the Health Committee of parliament wants government to scale up its approach to vaccinating Ghanaians against the deadly coronavirus.

He criticized government for the slow pace of the vaccination process accusing it for waiting for donor supports in order to carry out such an important exercise aimed at protecting the citizenry.

He said government’s actual target is to vaccinate about twenty million people (20, 000,000) Ghanaians out of the thirty million (30, 000 000) population with a specific target of vaccination about 17,000,000 people from April to the end of October, 2021.

He noted that “It is not for nothing that government set for itself that target, because if you are vaccinating to achieve the health immunity, you must do it within a particular space of time; and as things are going it is unfortunate we are not achieving the head-immunity”.

Sadly enough, “by the benevolence of some donors we now have vaccines available….”, and stated that he even picked up information that some of the vaccines are getting expired, and wondered if government was waiting for all the vaccines to get expired and be discarded? “The cheapest thing to do at this point in time for me is for government to expertise action on the deployment and vaccination process.

Mr. Akandoh also chided government and for that matter the health ministry for the low level of education of the masses on the vaccination; indicating that people’s doubts about the vaccines at the initial stages would have to be cleared going forward to enable them avail themselves for the exercise.

According to him, the government in the 2022 budget statement has indicated that the country has received in excess of some 8.4 million doses of the vaccines, saying “it is important for us to know how many doses of the vaccines we have received as donations, it is very important, and we need to know how many dosses of vaccines we have bought as a country with Sputnik V in mind, and the processes leading to the purchase of these vaccines”, he emphasized.

He believes government is only hiding behind COVID-19 and spending huge sums of money. “We have spent in excess of 15 billion Ghana Cedis on COVID-19 as at now, we don’t know where these monies have gone to.” Adding that as at now, some frontline health workers have not been paid their allowances; some contracted the virus in their line of duty, they have not gotten their insurance package. Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, he noted is still facing irregular supply of oxygen.

These and many more developments call for a probe into the entire expenditure of COVID-19 because the core issues of COVID are not been tackled.

He said some of the expenditure patterns as reported do not make sense, stating that “even when COVID was severe, in the 2021 budget, it was reported that we had spent about three hundred and forty-three million on hands sanitizers, nose masks and things like that. In 2021 when COVID is not that severe, they are reporting to us that they have spent about five hundred and ninety-seven million on hand sanitizers, and nose masks.” To him, even if Ghana were supplying the whole world with these things, we wouldn’t have spent that money.

He assured that the Minority has served notice to insist on the details on the expenditure of COVID.

He was worried that the budget was silent on any support to the laboratories like the Nuguchi, and other diseases centres that are supposed to be carrying out research works on the disease, while mass testing has also stopped.

Ghanamps.com

Krachi East to be captured in 2022 budget for CHIPs compound construction—Minister

Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu has told Parliament Krachi East communities currently have not been captured in their 2021 plans and budgeted for any construction of CHPS compounds.

The Ministry would liaise with the Ghana Health Service for an assessment based on the request and evaluate them for consideration and budgeting in the ensuing years’ budgets, “our  ability to implement this will largely depend on the quantum of budgetary allocation to the Ministry in subsequent years”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Presidential Travels: Bryan’s advice is an affront to parliament and undermines authority of the Speaker –Ablakwa

Minority’s Ranking Member on Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said the advice by the Chairman of the Committee Bryan Acheampong for the National Security Minister not to come to the House to respond to the travel expenses of the president is an affront to the House and undermines the authority of the Rt. Hon Speaker.

According to him, it is totally unconscionable and unpardonable to have a presidential jet in good condition but the president is renting expensive charted aircraft.

He quoted Order 66 (1) to back his point, which states that; “Mr. Speaker shall be the sole judge of the admissibility of a question”. So no member of parliament or other person than the Speaker of Parliament admits a question and the question in issue relates to the president’s travels to Belgium, France and South Africa.

He asserts that it does not lie in the mouth of the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee to advice the Minister,  who only last week was expected to respond to that question as programmed in the order paper, but he had to send a letter to parliament that he has had to travel and would be looking at another  time to come and respond. “At no point in time did the sector minister say the information on the president’s travel has been classified as being a top secret.

He noted that at a time that this government has submitted a budget and is asking the people of this country who are under hardship and suffering, the government is demanding taxes from an already burdened Ghanaian people.

“Would you believe it that at this time, same government is demanding more taxes, this same government is refusing to be accountable to the people, how can you be demanding more taxes from the Ghanaian  people and refusing to account to the people” he queried.

According to Mr. Ablakwa, the Minority does not see any national security consideration in this matter; the Speaker did not see any issue of national security which should prevent the minster from responding to the question, and in every democracy the cost of travel of the president is known to the people, he added.

“You just google the cost of travel of USA presidents and you would see the cost per hour, it is about two hundred and six thousand dollars, and that of the royal family of the United Kingdom, you would see it rated at about five thousand pound an hour. The German Chancellor and French president, it is known by the citizens of those countries and even us who do not live in those jurisdictions and tax payers there”.

And further revealed that the Minority would not support the 2022 budget because of lack of accountability, transparency which has even been captured in the Auditor General’s report.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Ghana’s economy is recovering after COVID-19 pandemic—Samuel Jinapor

Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor in his contribution to the 2022 budget on Wednesday, November 24, 2021 told Parliament Ghana is recovering from the global pandemic that has affected the world’s economies.

According to him on Monday, November 22, 2021 the Bank of Ghana in its update on composite economic activity indicates that the annual growth rate in September this year was 11.2 percent compared to the 10.8 percent in 2020 whiles in 2019 it was 4.2 percent.

An indication of sustainable recovery from the global pandemic and a clear indication that measures being taken by the President Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration is leading to recovery of the national economy.

“I call on the House to support this budget, the youth as well; it is a budget that would pull the country out of its economic difficulty, there has been a lot of debate in this House aimed at scoring political point”, he said.

To back his point, he said in 2014 GDP growth was 2.9 percent, 2015 – 2.1 percent and in 2016 – 3.4 percent which is the best of the previous John Mahama led administration. “Mr. Speaker, today in spite of all the difficulties our national economy has undergone, in spite of the disruption in the global supply chain, the fact that even developed economies are struggling today in 2021 GDP growth as at today still stands at 3.5 percent”.

He added that in 2014 to 2016 there was no pandemic, the then government of John Mahama scored 3.4 percent GDP growth in 2016 and his colleagues in the NDC have not contested the figures, “it is uncontestable, without the pandemic they took us into unemployment situation, we had a nation graduate unemployment association without pandemic; our friends from the other side moved us into dumsor.”

In addition, he pointed out to the House that he is not an economist and financial expert on deficit, but the Bank of Ghana has given Ghanaians figures to appreciate, stating that “with all the expenditure Akufo-Addo and his government embarked on, free electricity, water, food, SHS, allowance for frontline health workers; in spite of all of them the deficit stood at 11.7 percent of GDP, that is a fact that of NDC’s 2012 – 12.2 percent of GDP 2013 – 11.7 of GDP 2014 -11.9 GDP   2015 and 2016, and it is captured in their own budget and I do not know why they are worried about it. Before COVID-19 hit the first quarter of 2020, the GDP growth of our country was 7 percent”.

The Akufo-Addo government is telling the youth of this country, to just start with “whatever ideas you have, if you build an IT business, agriculture and government is going to give the youth of this country a poll of resources so you can build your own enterprise; this is a budget that would respond to unemployment in our country”, he stated.

Furthermore one point two million Ghanaians in school today and TVT is going to be free and with Free SHS government is going to absorb whatever cost there is and is in appendix 4A of page 246 of the budget statement.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Ablakwa lashes out at government over Blekusu Sea Defence project

The Ranking Member on the Foreign Affairs Committee of parliament and Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has lashed out at the government for not making any budgetary allocation for the second phase of the Blekusu Coastal Protection project.

According to him, he is stunned that a tidal wave disaster of this magnitude that displaced about four thousand people has not found any expression in the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

Contributing to the debate on the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy on November 23, 21, he said he was disappointed at the 2022 budget statement, and “that disappointment Mr. Speaker emanates from the rather insensitive, the rather cruel, the rather unpardonable omission of the tidal waves humanitarian crisis that hit this country.

The current policy of the president is that anytime disasters of this nature have happened in other jurisdiction, he is among the first world leaders to comment, to empathize, to condemn. In Sierra Leon when a similar disaster happened, they did not only issue a statement, the Vice President led a delegation to sierra Leon to commiserate with them and to make donations. Here in Ghana, on the 6th of November, weeks before the budget was presented the president until now has refused to say a word, not a statement of empathy, not a statement of sympathy”, he added.

According to him, after going through the entire budget, and the pages that deal with Works and Housing, “all the appendices, including those that have priority areas from now to 2024, “not a mention of the Blekusu Coastal Protection project is mentioned, is not, not in the medium term; and wondered how Ghana would be seen in the comity of nations.

Per this development, he noted, leadership would be seen as a leadership that does not care, that does not owe the people a duty of care and responsibility. “And Mr. Speaker, we are speaking of a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions” and for it to be ignored is rather unfortunate.

He debunked the assertion by some of his colleagues from the Majority side who argued that the omission was because the budget was completed somewhere in September hence the tidal wave disaster in November couldn’t have found expression in the budget.  Citing an event as recent as 25th October, 2021, in which the President attended and launch a programme under the auspices of the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources which finds space in the budget, he said it can’t be true that the budget was completed before the event of the tidal waves disaster.

He described the government’s inaction as gross dereliction of duty, said the situation in the tidal wave affected areas is very dire, and it is sad government has not prioritized it.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com