Category: General

Former Nkwanta South Member of Parliament in the sixth Parliament, Geshon Gbediame is questing what new former President John Dramani Mahama would be bring on board, as he seeks the mandate of the National Democratic Congress to lead it in 2020 as flagbearer.

As to why he would not give him the second chance, he noted that he had all the opportunities at his disposal to win the last election as an incumbent but failed, and questioned, “What went wrong, what is new?”

“Are we waiting for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to fail so  that we compare records, when NPP was in opposition he had all the opportunities to display his talent, I am supporting I am clear in my mind and satisfied with what I am doing”, he pointed out in an interview.

According to the former Majority Whip the former President is a good friend but this time around he is throwing his weight behind the Second Deputy Speaker Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin.

When questioned if the chiefs and people of the Volta Region are unhappy with the former President, “honestly if you go to the Volta North, travel on the Hohoe Jasikan road you would ask yourself questions whether we are also countered as part of Ghanaians”.

Again it is the reason to me why, Volta North is fighting to get their own Region, so that they would get their share due them as a region, the Eastern corridor road is something that everybody in the Volta Region is unhappy  about, he said.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Founder of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), former President Jerry John Rawlings has expressed serious misgivings about comments made by the Second Deputy Speaker Alban Kings Foard Sumana Bagbin.

The NDC flag bearer hopeful and Second Deputy Speaker made disparaging comments about two persons with disability who served in the former government.

Mr. Alban Bagbin attributed the poor performance of the former President John Mahama led government in the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections to the appointment of two disabled persons.

Former President Jerry John Rawlings who chairs the council of Elders of the NDC said comments made by the Second Deputy Speaker were unacceptable and were contrary to the values of and principles of the social inclusions of the NDC party.

He further indicated that the ongoing intra party democratic processes taking place are meant to further deepen the democratic credentials of the party and the National Executive Committee (NEC) would have to ensure the full application of the rules and regulations governing the  campaign utterances and electioneering.

“Such utterances have the tendency to negatively affect the unity and cohesion of the Party”, the founder said in a statement sing by Kobina Andoh Amoakwa his communications Director.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The immediate past President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), Nene Abayaateye Ofoe Amegatcher has called for a comprehensive general overhaul of the legal educational system to help save the legal system in Ghana.

He further called on Ghana Legal Counsel to set up and investigate private institutions who offer legal education in the country and take out those that do not meet the requirement to set up a legal institute in other to save and sanitize the system.

Mr. Nene Abayaateye Ofoe Amegatcher made this remarks when he appeared before the Appointment Committee of Parliament to be vetted as one of the four nominees for the position of the Justices of the Supreme Court by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

Ghana Legal Counsel should give accreditation to institutions who meet the requirement and whose students are to be accepted into Ghana Law School to read law, since most of these private institutions which offer legal education does not even have libraries for research work, he lamented.

He again suggested that, proper mechanism must be put in place to check the legal education before things get out of hands, to help save the legal education in Ghana.

Chairman of the Appointment Committee of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu wanted to know the nominees view of private Universities that churn out law students into Ghana Law School.

The nominee who is a lecturer at the Ghana Law School said he was shocked when he marked the script of some of the students who have LLB from the private Universities, “all they care about was fees they charged and churn out thousands of LLB students”.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Director of the Anti-Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Police Service, Superintendent Mike Baah, has underscored the need for Ghana to improve its status on human trafficking.

According to Superintendent Mike Baah, Ghana has moved one step on the United States watch list on anti-human trafficking, from “tire two watch list to tire two”.

He disclosed this in an interview at Afram Plains North when Ghana observed anti-human trafficking.

Superintendent Mike Baah noted that child labour and trafficking is mainly prevalent in mining and fishing communities, despite the fact that Ghana has passed law against human trafficking in 2000 Act 694.

“We have done something but we need to do more to help protect our children, it is good to organise a sensitization programme to educate people in communities that engage in child labour and trafficking”.

He added that if Ghana did not improve its ranking on human trafficking and dropped to tire three(3), that would have affected Ghana’s relations with the United States of America, “that would have been a doom for us all the support we receive from the US government would have been affected”, he lamented.

Again being on the tire two watch list we need not to be complacent, we need to do more to consolidate the gains we have made, he said.

“We are moving at a slow pace as a nation, it is good that the awareness is being created, those who exploit our children should be brought to book to serve as a deterrent and again we need to build the capacity of stakeholders and the media should help us in the awareness creation” he lamented.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Finance Committee of parliament is expected to begin probes to ascertain reasons resulting into the collapse of some seven banks in the country.

The Committee after a crisis meeting held in Parliament has scheduled a three day hearing starting from 5th to the 7th of September, 2018 for the exercise.

Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah said the committee had written to the Bank of Ghana for the relevant documents that will help the committee into the probe.

“We agreed on the mode of the hearings and who to invite and all other matters, so that is what we have been deliberating on. We are now going to write to the Bank of Ghana, that is why we have given ourselves three weeks to ask for documentation and we will meet again here on the 30th of August to peruse those documents and if there are any gaps, we will ask for more.

So we need documentation to form our opinions on what to do, primarily there is going to be hearings and the dates have been agreed upon. Today we are writing to the banks to ask for all the documents” he stated.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah also a Member of Parliament for New Juaben South explained that the Committee will invite the Bank of Ghana, KPMG, PwC, Ministry of Finance, and the new Consolidated Bank of Ghana Ltd.

According to the Chairman, Parliament is generally concerned about the Ghanaian economy hence the move.

“We are concern with the economy generally, all matters dealing with the economy and if banks are collapsing and the Ministry of Finance is setting up a bank, and if they are doling out GH?8billion, don’t you think we should be concern? So how are we strengthening the law for example, banks and specialized deposit taking laws so these do not recur? He asked.

On the 1st of August, the Bank of Ghana announced the formation of the Consolidated Bank of Ghana after the collapse of some 5 banks [Unibank, Sovereign, Construction, Beige and Royal], according to BoG they were insolvent and revoked their licences then merged them into what it has been christened the Consolidated Bank Ghana Limited.

This comes only a few months after it revoked the licences of the UT and Capital Bank which were also indigenously owned.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi has hinted that Heads of Government Departments and Agencies who failed to ensure that fuel purchases are entered into the log books and cited in the Auditor General’s report will be surcharged hence forth.

According to him, the excuses being cited for failure to enter such purchases have become too rampant some of which are cock and bull stories.

Mr Avedzi gave the hint when some government agencies appeared before the Committee to respond to infractions raised against them in the 2016 Auditor General’s report.

On recurrent infraction in the Auditor General’s report has been the lack of records on fuel purchases which are supposed to be entered into log books placed in each government vehicles.

The absence of log books means the fuel purchases might not be used for official government duties.

Surcharging heads of institutions enforceable by the Attorney General is expected to inject some level of supervisory efficiency in the public sector.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

A civil society group by name Economic Fighters League has petitioned the Speaker of Parliament Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye to declare the seat of fifty-four Members of Parliament vacant for absenting themselves more than fifteen times in the first session of the seven Parliament of the fourth Republic.

In a petition signed by its General Secretary, Hardi Yakubu the group indicated that they are making their demand base on a research work done by civil society group Odekro backed by Article 97 (1) (c ) of the 1992 constitution.

Article 97 (1) “A member of Parliament shall vacate his seat in Parliament (c) if he is absent, without permission in writing of the Speaker and he is unable to offer a reasonable explanation to the Parliamentary Committee on privilege from fifteen sitting of a meeting of Parliament during any period that Parliament has been summoned to meet and continuous to meet”.

The petition of the group indicated that the Speaker of Parliament had to adjourn the sittings on several occasions for want of quorum.

And pointed out that the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu had to lament over the attitude and said those who absent themselves should properly not be before the House and the petition supported that position saying it was back by the constitution.

Mr. Hardi Yakubu further said the absenteeism by legislators was not only depriving Ghanaians proper representation in the legislature, but can also lead to poor scrutiny of Bills, agreements and also Executive actions.

He further added that the record show that the said MPs did not provide any “reasonable explanation”, to the privileges committee.

The group indicated to the Speaker that doing nothing about the chronic absenteeism does not help in upholding the constitution and goes to confirm the view that the laws of Ghana only work when some class of citizens are involved.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs failed to record fuel purchased worth forty-five thousand, four hundred and eighty-six, sixty- five pesewa (GHc 45,486.65) as pointed out in the Auditor General’s report for Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) 2016.

This came to light at the on-going Public Account Commit, public hearing which is in its fourth day of public hearing.

Stores regulations 1604 required that a log book be maintained for each government vehicle in which journeys are undertaken, whiles regulations 1605 mandates head of department ensure that the rate of consumption of fuel and oil is computed monthly.

Member of Parliament for Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abrem, Samuel Atta-Mills was unhappy with the development and pointed out that as much as twenty-one vehicles were involved.

The Chief Director of the Ministry, Benjamin Afful who represented the Minister and his Deputy indicated to the Public Account Committee (PAC) that the issue reported on by the Auditor General was administrative lapses and has hence been addressed.

He further pointed out that some were recorded and some were not recorded and when questioned by Dr. Clement Apaak, a member of the committee as to what measures had been put in place to curb such occurrence in the future, Mr. Benjamin Afful pointed out that now all vehicles in the Ministry have log books and an assistant Director had been put in charge of the log books and pool of vehicles going forward, the Ministry had only one infraction in the 2016 AG’s report.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Association of Members of Parliament’s, drivers have petition the leadership of the House over low remuneration condition which they are not happy about.

In their petition they are calling for increase in their salaries. They want allowance paid to them on public holidays, exposure to imminent risk and hazards allowance and collective bargaining agreement.

The petition was signed by its General Secretary Farouk Abdul-Aziz and copied to the Majority Leadership and the Minority Leadership.

The Association in copying the Speaker Professor Mike Aaron Oquaye noted that their terms of engagement was oral and without any rules of engagement by the MPs, “which makes our bosses to pay us four hundred Ghana (GHc 400) as monthly salaries”, they lamented.

Mr. Farouk Abdul-Aziz pointed out that subject to the labour Act 2003, Act 651 section 67, employees remunerations are enshrined in the Act of which we are pleading for increment in salaries which they believe can help them to survive the economic hardship.

He added that MPs drivers are hired and fired at their discretion and urged that their social security are paid.

MPs’ drivers Association further noted that one difficult challenge they face is their resting place when Parliament is in session and when committees have to travel outside Accra.

They pleaded for Leadership of Parliament to provide them with a place to wait and rest because their work comes with a lot of fatigue and stress.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

An international agreement that will see Ghana and China trade in bauxite in exchange for cash worth US$2 billion has received Parliamentary approval of the Parliament amidst concerns from some Members from the Minority Caucus.

The approval follows the adoption and approval of the report of the Finance Committee on the Master Project Support Agreement (MPSA) between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and Sinohydro Corporation Limited for an amount up to US$2billion for the construction of priority infrastructure projects.

The deal which is in the form of barter will enable Ghana raise US$2billion from China’s Sinohydro Corporation Limited to undertake various infrastructure projects that are aimed at bridging the country’s infrastructure deficit estimated at US$30billion.

Sinohydro Corporation Limited would in turn, receive refined bauxite in the form of alumina or aluminum over a fifteen(15)-year period (inclusive of a three-year grace period) from the Republic of Ghana.

Per the deal, the Government through the Ghana Integrated Bauxite and Alumina Development Authority (GIBADA) (proposed) will establish a bauxite processing plant to process the raw bauxite into alumina before shipping same to service its obligations to Sinohydro Corporation Limited’s strategic partner (Offtaker).

Presenting the Finance Committee’s report to the plenary, it’s Chairman Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah noted that under the MPSA, the Chinese state-owned hydropower engineering and construction firm is responsible for arranging the project financing for all the priority projects subject to the mutual agreement of the parties.

Sinohydro, he added, “shall be solely responsible to enter into the financing agreement with any financial institution that agrees to provide the project financing.

The objectives of the project, according to Dr. Assibey-Yeboah are to improve road infrastructure for enhanced intra-urban, regional and national road traffic flow, pursue rural electrification, affordable housing, fish landing sites, strengthen economic and regional integration and reduce the cost of doing business in the country.

The Minority members however believed the cost involve will add up to the country’s public debt stock which currently stood at US?142.3billion as at the end of 2017.

They accused the Ministry of Finance for what they described as an attempt to ‘hide the debt’ involved in the agreement.

Ranking Member on the Finance Commitee, Casiel Ato Forson, observed that the description of the agreement as barter obscures what the minority believes is a debt threatening a potential court action.

By Christian Kpesese / ghanamps.com