Author: Akumaa GhanaMPs

Works are seriously underway on a classroom extension project for Tolon Junior High School (JHS) B, in the northern region being initiated to assist create convenience in the classroom for school children, Member of Parliament for the area, Wahab Suhiyini Wumbei has disclosed.

The project which took off this year is gradually nearing completion as it will practically pave way to boost the intake of school children in the bid to push education for all who are within the school going age in the district.

Although the assembly is taking the primary responsibility to ensure the availability and construction of more classroom building for effective teaching and learning, Hon. Suhiyini Wumbei also intimated that he is leaving no stone unturned to promote quality education through the provision of meaningful infrastructure for many schools that exist in the district.

Speaking to Ghanamps.gov.gh, the MP noted the 3 unit classroom block project also comes with certain ancillary facilities that will complement the facility very well.

Some of the ancillary facilities included office, store, teachers’ common room and a sanitary facility respectively.

He indicated that measures are being taken to improve on classroom structures to give leverage to boost quality education in the whole district.

Jonathan Jeffrey Adjei/Ghanamps.gov.gh

The Member of Parliament for Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem (KEEA), Hon. Stephen Nana Ato Arthur has joined the fight against teenage pregnancy by calling for the implementation and enforcement of effective measures to ensure its complete elimination in the area.

The situation of teenage pregnancy has for the past few years risen uncontrollably in the KEEA Municipality though the MP stated that constant efforts have already been put in place to minimize the situation.

However, a recent study conducted by Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR), found that the age at which girls and boys have their first sexual experience had sink from between 11 and 14 to 8 years, the study which was conducted in the Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem (KEEA) Municipality and three other districts in the country.

The research also found that a total of 821 cases of teenage pregnancy representing 17.5% were recorded in 2011 as compared to 793 cases in 2010 representing 17% of antenatal care registrants in KEEA alone.

However, the study included that 13 out of the total number were between the ages of 10 –14 years as against 10 recorded in 2010.

Hon. Ato Arthur however said in an interview with GhanaMPs.gov.gh that measures to help reduce the menace were still under consideration after stakeholders workshop was held two weeks ago to help fight against the menace.

According to the soft-spoken MP, measures such as putting a stop to wake-keepings, and banning of school pupils from attending funerals ceremonies were recommended at the workshop after sighting them to be one of the leading causes of teenage pregnancies in the area.

He further pleaded on parents to educate their children on teenage pregnancy and the consequences involved, at least as a mean of deterring them from indulging in such act.

Emmanuel Frimpong Mensah/GhanaMPs.gov.gh

The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Ghartey is advocating for a separate committee to see to the implementation of recommendations of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee.

Mr. Ghartey made this proposal at the Committee’s sitting on Monday.

“Should Parliament appoint a separate committee to look at the implementation of the report of the Public Accounts Committee; I think that this committee should have a sub-committee which will look at the implementation…’’

On his part,Chairman of the PAC, Kwaku Agyeman Manu said a sub-committee within the PAC will be set up to see to the implementation of the committee’s recommendations.

According to him, the agencies that are supposed to implement the committee’s recommendations have failed to. “’The actual implementations of the committee’s recommendations are not supposed to be done by the committee [PAC] or even by Parliament at large.’’

‘’We are suggesting the set- up of a sub-committee within this group that will do follow up of our recommendations; that committee will be working closely with the auditor general,’’ Mr. Manu suggested.

Article 187 (6) of the Constitution requires that a committee be set up by parliament to deal with any matters arising from the Auditor General’s report.

Meanwhile, President John Mahama has already directed the Attorney General to set up a committee to investigate the latest Auditor General’s report before the commencement of PAC’s sitting.

In a related development Mr. Joe Ghartey also called on members of the PAC to be polite to people who appear before them.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is shocked after discovering mining agreements signed by government and ratified by Parliament are heavily skewed to favour mining companies.

Members of the Committee are amazed that up to a 100% of earnings from gold mined in Ghana is lodged in offshore accounts. And all these transactions are backed by Ghana’s law.

This was revealed during the first public sitting of the committee, Monday.

Explaining matters on Joy News, Ben Aryee, Chief Executive of the Mineral’s Commission said the Minerals and Mining Law 1986, PNDC Law 153 provided that retention accounts agreement be signed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic planning, Bank of Ghana and an applicant mining firm.

He said in the course of time, government passed a new mineral and mining law 2006 which amended the previous law to in some cases allow 20% of the earning to be kept onshore. The Chief Executive says Parliament itself must take the blame.

But, the parliamentarians are stunned that Newmont Mining Corporation could sign an agreement with government to take 100% of its earnings offshore – an advantage no other mining company enjoys.

An MP wondered how one of these retention agreements was signed on 17th December 2003 and ratified by Parliament on 23rd December 2003 – just five days. He said under the Parliamentary system, this was curious.

Another MP said he “was shocked that Parliament could pass such as Act”.
Akim Abuakwa South and vice-chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Atta Akyea, described the regime as “Pernicious, arbitrary, discriminatory, [and] weird.”

Speaking on Joy News, Hannah Owusu Koranteng of Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM) said she was glad that MPs are worried about the current agreements that heavily inure to the benefit of mining companies.

She said there are a lot of gaps in the current Mining and Minerals Act and urged parliamentarians to review the Act.

She said section 5 subsection 4 &5 of the mining act 2006 gives Parliament the power to approve these contracts. It reads: (4) A transaction contract or undertaking involving the grant of a right or concession by or on behalf of a person or body of persons, for the exploitation of a mineral in Ghana shall be subject to ratification by Parliament.

(5) Parliament may, by resolution supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of Parliament, exempt from the provisions of subsection (4) of this section a particular class of transaction,contract or undertakings.

She wondered how a mining company can retain 100% earning while 100% damages to the environment are left to the mining community to deal with.

Water bodies have been rendered useless to communities, land that could be used for agriculture have been destroyed because of activities of mining companies

She said Ghanaians are not privy to these agreements because they are confidential. She recommends that earning should be capped at 50%.

Joy News

Mr Patrick Yaw Boamah, Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikoi Central, has urged President John Dramani Mahatma to furnish Parliament with the mandatory annual report from the Executive as stipulated by the law.

He said compliance with the provisions of the law would ensure transparency in the work of the Executive, his Office and the Legislature.

In a letter addressed to the President and copied to the Ghana News Agency, the MP said the President had breached provisions of Section 11 of the Presidential Office Act, 1993 (Act 463) that obligates him to submit to an annual report to Parliament on staffing in his Office.

The Act stipulates that “The President shall within three months after the end of each financial year submit to Parliament an annual report containing the following information; the number of presidential staff employed at his office; the rank or grade of the personnel and employees in the other public services assigned to the Office.

GNA

The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joe Ghartey, has remarked that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is not a witch- hunting committee but rather a state institution responsible to protect the national coffers.

According to him the committee is a fact -finding committee which would not prosecute or fine anyone who appeared before it guilty.

Mr Ghartey said this yesterday in his opening remarks at the committee’s maiden public hearings since the inception of the sixth Parliament in Accra.

Joe Ghartey who is also the MP for Esikado noted that the committee exist to ensure that proper due diligence and right financial practices are adhered to in the administration of government funds.

He urged officials who would appear before the committee to relax and provide the necessary information that the members would require from them.

Chairman of committee and MP for Dormaa Central, Kwaku Agyeman Maanu, on his part stressed the need for a sub -committee who will be solely responsible for the implementation of the committee’s report.

The committee during its hearing considered the Auditor General’s report on the Statement of Foreign Exchange Receipts and Payments of the Bank of Ghana for the half-year ended June 30, 2012 which was laid before the House last month.

Before the committee to respond to the report were the Minister for Finance, Seth Terkper, and officials of the Bank of Ghana, Controller and Accountant General’s Department, Ministry of lands and Natural Resources, Minerals Commission, and the Ghana Cocoa Board.

The officials were quizzed on receipts to the Bank of Ghana on revenues from cocoa, gold, manganese, capital receipts and invisible receipts, payments in foreign currency by the Bank of Ghana on oil and non-oil imports, payments by order of the Controller and Accountant General and International Monetary Fund (IMF) payments.

The payments included forex sales from oil and non-oil imports, capital payments and invisible

Sitting is expected to continue today with the consideration of the Auditor General’s Performance Audit Report on the Management and Distribution of Anti-Retroviral Drugs.

ISD

Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, Mr. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, in collaboration with Intercom Programming and Manufacturing Company ( IPMC), a leading trainer in Information Technology( I T ), has inaugurated a new branch of the company at Aiyinasi.

This forms part of measures to bring ICT studies to the doorsteps of people in the area especially the youth and save them the burden of travelling to Accra to enroll in ICT programmes.

Inaugurating the learning center at a short ceremony, Mr. Buah, the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, said it was important to equip people in the area with ICT skills to enable them to seek opportunities in the oil industry.

Mr. Buah said he would build an IPMC center in the district to serve the entire Nzema area and appealed to the youth to take their studies seriously to be employable in the numerous opportunities which abound in the District.

The Founder of IPMC, Mr. Amardeep S. Hari, said it was about time his outfit carried out studies into how IPMC would fare in rural Ghana.

He said software programming would be the main focus of the learning center to produce local programmers as Ghana was tapping the expertise of foreign programmers and urged learners to be serious with their studies and change the fortunes of the Western Region.

Mr. Hari said the presence of IPMC in the area was symbolic especially with the production of oil and gas and urged the youth to take advantage of the training as IT will be an integral part in the life of the future generation.

He said IPMC had made progress in Ghana over the past 20 years as a programming and manufacturing company and had emerged the largest supplier of IT equipment and contributing to the global distribution of software and hardware.

District Director of Education, Rev. (Mrs.) Elizabeth Akuoko, expressed gratitude to Mr. Buah for being instrumental in education delivery especially in the area, thanked IPMC and appealed to the youth to make use of the new facility.

GNA