Category: General

Ranking member on Finance is accusing government of diverting oil revenues into the implementation of campaign promises in breach of the Petroleum Revenue Act.

In an interview with the media in Parliament, Casiel Ato Forson noted that the practice is affecting other sectors of the economy that ought to benefit from the oil funds.

“Someone is tactically breaching the Petroleum Revenue Management Act,” Mr. Forson said on  Tuesday.
He said the government is also breaching the Ghana Infrastructure and Investment Fund Act by choosing to divert the oil revenues into funding other activities.

According to the Ajumako Enyan Essiam Constituency MP, the government has diverted the funds into activities, including the free Senior High School policy.

The Petroleum Revenue Management Act (815) which was passed in 2011 regulates the collection, allocation and management of oil revenues by the government.

The Act says in part “For any financial year, a minimum of seventy percent of the Annual Budget Funding Amount shall be used for public investment expenditures consistent with the long-term national development plan.”

Rather than going by the law of the country, the MP said the government is spending a chunk of the money on consumption instead of physical infrastructure.

“I don’t think it is something that we should encourage. I think as people of this country we should be interested in the matter,” he said.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Legal Aid Commission Bill 2018 had gone through second reading on the floor of the House with 32 amendments after the Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Ben Abdallah Banda presented reports of the committee to the House for approval.
When passed, the Legal Aid Commission Bill 2018 would repeal the Legal Aid Scheme Act, 1997(Act 542) to provide legal aid and other legal services to certain category of individuals in Ghana.
The committee further noted with concern that provision has been made in the Bill to require lawyers perform pro bono services as a condition of their solicitors License but was rejected by the committee.

In the view of the committee, the Ghana Legal Council is the statutory body responsible for the regulation of lawyers in Ghana and a body alone with such powers to make such regulations.

Mr. Ben Abdallah Banda noted that, apart from restructuring the scheme into a commission with the requisite level of autonomy, it would further enhance access to legal aid service in the country through the establishment of regional and district offices of the commission.

He further added that the above measure would inure to the benefit of the poor and vulnerable in the Ghanaian society, to ensure the achievement of liberty, equality before the law freedom and justice as well as the protection of other fundamental human rights and freedom.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Witness Protection Bill 2018 has gone through second reading on the floor of Parliament, for the committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs working on the Bill to finalize work on it.

The Purpose of the Bill is to establish a Witness Protection Agency to administer a witness protection programme to protect witnesses, experts and their relatives against potential intimidation as a result of their cooperation with law enforcement agencies.

Presenting the report on the floor of the House, Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, Ben Abdallah Banda noted that the committee considers whether the provision of the Bill conforms to the relevant provisions of the 1992 constitution.

The passage of the Bill into law would enable Ghana to fulfill one of the key obligations under the UNCAC by implementing a witness protection programme in Ghana.

The committee recommended to the plenary for the approval of their report. Most MPs on the floor of the House who commented on the report stated the importance of the Bill and proposed 32 amendments to the Bill.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural Development has expressed its unhappiness about delays in the completion of the Kejetia Central Market which it said will negatively affect payment of the loan contracted for the project.

The first phase of the $259 million project which is expected to be in two phases has delayed beyond schedule even though the beginning of the loan repayment timelines draws closer.

The delay in completing the project is said to be due to litigation on structures earmarked for demolition to aid completion of the Market including a structure near one of the entrances to the Kejetia enclave which blocks access to roads and drainage systems and another designated for electrical systems for the new market.

The loan repayment for the facility is expected to come from monies to be realized from the market after its completion.

During an inspection tour of the facility, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government, its Chairman, Kennedy Osei Nyarko urged the need for the completion of the new market and handed over to city authorities by the end of August this year.

“It is a must that the project is completed by end of August and handed over to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) for traders to start coming in for trading.

“From there, the second phase commences, then we start finding ways of raising money from the traders to settle the loan”, he said.

The Committee proposed that the KMA partners with private developers to help pay compensation for the demolition of the obstructing structures.

“They should get a couple of investors and make an arrangement for them to pay for the demolition so they can use the part of the land for a project that compliments this one”, Mr Osei Nyarko stated.

By Christian Kpesese ghanamps.com

Minority members on the committee of Local Government and Rural Development, has urged government to withdraw its restrictive directives to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies with regards to the use of their approved funds.

According to the Minority, Nine Hundred and Five million, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Thousand, Nine Hundred and Eighty-Two (GHc 905, 999, 982.00) Ghana cedis was given to 254 MMDAs in 2018, for their planned local government projects and programmes as approved for them in the formula.

Deputy ranking on Local Government and Rural Development, Benjamin Kpodo at a press conference noted that they have picked up information that a directive has gone out to the MMDAs to transfer funds to be applied in the following projects.

School feeding, 40 percent, GHc 362, 399,992.80; National builders corps, twenty percent (20) GHc 181, 199,996.40; planting for food and jobs twenty percent (20) GHc 181,199,996.80; and the balance for the Assemblies own projects twenty percent (20) GHc 181, 199, 996.40.

He further called on government to explore and find other means of funding its flagship programmes.

And urged government to desist from any further acts that seek to deprive the Assemblies of their lawful funds due them for implementation of their local development agenda, such as introducing legislations that seek to appropriate parts of the monies due to the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF).

The Minority urged government to take steps to regularly release DACF as stipulated in the constitution and avoid holding such funds long in arrears.

And noted that decentralization can be deepened when units are strengthened financially to function satisfactorily.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

World Bank Country Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Henry G. R Kerali has said the World Bank is committed in ensuring that open defecation would be a thing of the past in Ghana.

According to the World Bank Country Director, there is the need for a collaborative effort and working together and placing sanitation issue on a high priority.

He made this remarks at the opening of a three days urban sanitation forum ongoing in Accra on the theme, “Taking Urban Sanitation Solutions to Scale”.

Mr. Henry G. R. Kerali further pointed out that one key challenge Ghana has to face is dealing with sanitation problems and the World Bank is providing funds for households toilet at subsidized amount.

Again there should be better coordination among various agencies and local authorities dealing with sanitation issues in Ghana, he said.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The National Communications Authority is to conduct an investigation into complain of communication interference from Burkina Faso, talk about by people of Lambussie by August ending this year.

Deputy Minister of Communications George Andah disclosed this on the floor of Parliament, when Member of Parliament for Lambussie Edward Kaale-Ewola Dery wanted to know steps taken to curb the network interference from Burkina Faso.

He further assured the House that it would be updated when the investigation into the communications interference from Burkina Faso is completed.

Mr. Andah pointed out that should there be confirmation of a breach, Ghana would hold a meeting between regulators and operators involved in September 2018 to ensure that relief is brought to the people of Lambussie District by November 2018.

Mr. Speaker Lambussie District is 16 kilometers from the Ghana-Burkina Faso border, if the interference is caused by signals from Burkina Faso at Lambussie, there may be a potential breach of the Border Coordination Agreement, he said.

He further revealed that in 2012 at Accra both countries had an agreement that signal from each country can extend to the other country within a penetration distance of 10 kilometers, whiles the strength of signal from an operator in a country should not exceed -85 decibel-milliwatts (dBm) penetration distance in the other Country.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

Eight (8) Ministers of State are expected to answer 17 questions from Members of Parliament next week.
This was disclosed after the business statement was presented on the floor of the House.

Members of Parliament from the Minority side of the House had expressed worry  over most of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s  Ministers either not being in the jurisdiction to answer their questions and sending their Deputies, or not a single soul from the Ministry being on the floor.

And expressed the hope that the ensuing week Ministers would make themselves available on the floor of the House to enable MPs play their oversight roles.

Ministers of Transport, Finance, Special Development Initiative, Gender, Children and Social Protection would take one question each going for their respective Ministries.

The Interior Minister would take two(2) questions, whiles the Health Minister is expected to take five(5) questions and the Roads and Highways Minister would also answer five(5) questions, whiles the Minister responsible for National Identification Authority(NIA) would take a question.

In accordance to order 70(2), Ministers of state may be permitted to make statements on the floor of the House, while Bills, papers and reports are supposed to be laid on the floor of the House.

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com