Author: Kwaku GhanaMPs

Leader of Government Business in Ghana’s Parliament, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin has taken a swipe at the Minority in Parliament in their attitude of ‘see no evil, say no evil’.

The Majority Leader was not happy that the Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin adjourned the House sine die without giving leadership of both sides the opportunity to speak after he raised a disagreement on a letter emanating from the presidency on the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill passed by the House which seeks to prevent the Clerk of Parliament from submitting the Bill to the President for his assent until the determination of a case at the Supreme Case.

According to him the conduct of the Minority leaves a lot of questions not answered as to whether they were aware of the action the Speaker was going to take on the floor of the House on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

“Again, is it the case that, they are in support of this action to disrupt government business? They should remember that the people of Ghana are watching, we have ministers who are supposed to manage ministries and conduct public business for the benefit of the people of Ghana; what the Minority has done today shows they are not on the side of democracy”

Addressing members of the Parliamentary Press Corps on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 just after adjournment, he pointed out that the Minority want government business to come to a halt through their conduct. “They were not even ready to get us to engage Mr. Speaker but they were ready to pack and move into their cars and go home. Obviously, it is a political journey they are on; they want to explore the situation to their advantage. We believe that the good people of Ghana would know that we as NPP in government stand for the betterment, progress and development in government”.

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The Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu has accused the Office of the President of hindering the work of Parliament.

This follows an official letter to Parliament, requesting the House to refrain from transmitting the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, commonly referred to as the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, to President Akufo-Addo for his assent.

Addressing members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, Mr. Iddrisu stressed that the letter, which seeks to prevent Parliament from performing its duties, reflects President Akufo-Addo’s “quest for predominance” over other organs of state including the legislature.

“That is unacceptable and must be fought by all persons who love democracy and cherish the principles and values of the 1992 Constitution. This is a monumental threat to Ghana’s democracy and a monumental threat to Parliament as an institution. By Article 93 we are clothed with legislative authority and mandate,” he said.

The former Minority Leader also called for the letter signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, to be disregarded for failing to follow Parliament’s standing orders.

“Politically, what power does the President’s secretary have writing to the Clerk of Parliament and not the President himself writing directly to the Speaker as is required of our Standing Orders, so that officially it can be read as communication from the President?” Mr Iddrisu asked.

So ideally this paper means nothing and should be ignored by the Clerk because the President must sign communication to Parliament addressed to the Speaker, he noted.

On Monday, March 18, a letter addressed to Parliament and signed by the Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, had requested Parliament to refrain from sending the anti-gay bill to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for his assent.

The decision, according to Nana Bediatuo Asante, stems from the acknowledgment of two pending applications for an order of interlocutory injunction before the Supreme Court.

The letter emphasized that it would be improper for Parliament to proceed with transmitting the Bill to President Akufo-Addo for any action until the matters before the court are addressed.

Furthermore, it was disclosed that the Attorney-General has advised the President against taking any action regarding the Bill until the issues raised in the legal suits are resolved by the Supreme Court.

However, the Tamale South MP insists that an attempt to seek an injunction to prevent the passing of the bill is not the same thing as an injunction granted.

“But more importantly, Parliament cannot be injuncted not to perform its lawful function as the legislature of Ghana,” he explained.

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Chairman of the Health Committee of Ghana’s parliament Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye would have none of John Mahama’s attack on the Agenda 111hospital project initiated by the ruling government new Patriotic Part.

According to him, the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Mahama should rather let his boys and the Minority members in parliament do those kinds of politics but not him the leader of the opposition NDC.

“What makes building 111hospitals over ambitious when the NDC in 2020 promised 88 district hospitals? He is being disingenuous and inconsistent; Ghanaians do not have short memories as he has always said”.

Ghanaians are clear of the principles that every district must have hospital for universal health coverage; and to be able to attain it there should be fair access for everyone.

Addressing members of the Parliamentary Press (PPC) on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, he noted that fifty percent of the Agenda 111 hospitals have passed sixty percent completion. “Do you mean this is not realistic? Under the NDC, under 8 years they were able to complete 6 hospital all the new ones uncompleted or repacked and seeing completion”.

It will therefore be phenomenal under the forth republic should the NPP government complete twenty hospitals (20) by December 2024, adding that under former President John Kufour’s reign he did not complete 8 hospitals; “and I have always use 8 hospitals as the indicator and bench mark for success for any government.”

Dr. Ayew further back his point by pointing out that, in the NDC manifesto of 2020 page 64 item Q, John Mahama asked Ghanaians to vote for him and he would ensure he would provide district hospitals in all districts where there is none. “We have passed that time in Ghana where you just speak and go free. The Ghanaian is now very cautious and you should be mindful of the words you bring out.

The difference between his agenda 88 and 111; commonsensically, there are new regions and they are six. For the principle of equity you need to put one hospital in each region that would make 88 plus 6 then you add two psychiatric hospitals in the southern zone.

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Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin is strongly advocating for enactment of law to take care of the welfare of lawmakers as it exist in other arms of government.

Mr. Afenyo MArkin, responding to a statement on the floor of the House bemoaned the sorry nature of their former colleagues who left office because they do not have any support.

According to him the job is full of depression as they go through a lot and are often left on their own. He thus admonished that they should not wait for someone to die and then come to the floor of the House to make beautiful statements which amounts to nothing.

He further backed his point by saying in the constitution of the Republic of Ghana it is only the President and the Vice President who seem to be recognized upon retirement. “So, I call on my colleagues as we go on recess ,we should have a proper thinking of this matter now that we have, ways and means committee, that committee must have that responsibility of enacting a proposal which would look at this things critically; that is our welfare for same to be debated and we must resolve and make it mandatory for the state to take care of us. It cannot be that you come into public service, you leave and an MP is seen in public and wearing sleepers”.

Again, people say we are corrupt meanwhile you do not have anything, your salary is next to nothing.

“I was better off in private practice; many people in this chamber who are professional are suffering, they were better off in private practice, but they are serving the nation. We should get the narrative right, we should get the people to know that this is our right, so that it would not be that if you are asking for it, it’s at the expense of the state, or it is too much, why are you asking for it?”

He also blamed the kind of politics they churn out as partly responsible for their predicaments and called for change, otherwise they give the Ghanaian the impression that, every MP is corrupt then, so “when you are asking for medical support they would say you have already stolen from the state, that is where we have a problem even our gratuity we have a problem defending it”.

Again, you have your constituents coming to you for, school fees and funeral donations that are more that your salary. Festival support to chiefs, electricity and water bill, in the case of some constituents their wives have given birth and in the hospital you have to pay.

HE cited the case of a colleague former Central Regional Minister under Kufuor, Edumazi who has to solicit support from his colleagues at the car park; a man the media projected as very rich while in office.

“We have so many colleagues in the same situation; this House should take this thing up. I call on leadership of the House to initiate it now because the statement would not go just like that.

We should enact a law for the welfare of the House, let us nominate five from each side of the House as a committee to investigate the welfare issue, enact a law and let it be part of the conditions of service of this house; enough is enough, he stated.

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The Ranking Member on the Health Committee of FC Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has called for caution in dealing with the indebtedness of public hospitals to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Mr Akandoh responding to threat by the electricity distributor to go after these public health facilities said the situation is dire as the country is battling with hospitals that are sick.

“As I speak with you now, we even have sick hospitals: hospitals that are sick, the places that you are supposed to go and get treatment, they are already sick.We have situations that we don’t even have basic medical equipment for the hospitals; we have situations where our ambulance service, that is the emergency health care system is coming to its knees. You remember we bought not less than 300 ambulances and as I speak with you now, out of the 300 more than 100 have been grounded.”

According to him there are hospitals in the country that pose as death traps because we still have a situation where patients have to sleep on the floor, some have to sit on benches for treatment, “so we have a challenge already, we should not attempt to worsen the already precarious circumstances we find ourselves in the health sector.

Mr. Akandoh who was speaking on the Ghana Tonight Show on TV3 on Wednesday also intimated that the country even failed to improve access in the sector for sometime now, even though the attempt was made in the previous regime to add more than 6000 beds. It therefore becomes very difficult and unpleasant when people travel many kilometers to the hospitals only to be tuned away for lack of electricity. The implications therefore is death of such patients.

Ghanamps.com

The announcement by the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to take action against some 91 hospitals mostly public hospitals following their indebtedness to the power distributor does not sink well with the Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and he has called for restraints in that regard.

He asserts that these hospitals render essential social services and so we must be thinking more about the welfare of the people rather than breaking even and making profit.

It is the reason government had some subversions to take care of utilities in the various hospitals. Unfortunately, government at a point announced the scrapping of those subversions, thus putting pressure on the hospitals to raise money to take care of their utilities. But because the utilities were very high, even at the time government was responsible for these bills “you know how they were struggling; not to talk about withdrawing these interventions.

Once you withdraw these interventions it would have a dire consequences on the health care delivery in the country.”
He said it is time we reflect on these things and investigate whether those utilities have been abused or properly so used for health delivery.

“If indeed these consumptions are for proper health care delivery, then I think government must reflect on it again to pay to set those utilities off their books. Government must pay.”

According to him, if the situation is not properly handled it would worsen the already weak health care sector we have as a country.

“We have to be very careful; this is about the lives of the people in the country and think through it. If indeed the system has not been abused , we don’t have a situation where people are doing commercial activities with the consumption of electricity in the various hospitals and the consumptions are properly so-called for health delivery, then I think we have to relook at it and bring back those subversions to take care of these utilities”, he emphasized.

The ECG has given some 91 hospitals mostly public 72 hours to pay their debts owed it or show commitment to paying these debts or risk disconnection following some 261million Ghana cedis debt from these facilities.

But Mr. Akandoh thinks the situation cannot be treated as an ordinary one on the basis that ECG has to run so they can just disconnect these facilities because if the hospitals don’t operate there would be dire consequences, “so if there should be that agreement between government and the Electricity Company of Ghana, we have to look at it”

He said though these hospitals also have internally generated funds, they pay some portion to a central point: and that also calls for another investigation to ascertain if they generate enough to be able to offset their bills but are abusing the money.

He made these submissions on the Ghana Tonight Show on TV3 on Wednesday, March 13, 2024.

Ghanamps.com