Category: General

The Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has directed the Electoral Commission (EC) to brief the leadership of parliament on the new Constitutional Instrument (CI) it intends to present to the House. He warned the EC to consider the C.I dead if they fail to adhere to the directive.

“…I have not been given any brief by the EC on any proposed instrument coming from them. And so I raised this sometime ago, I’m yet to receive them to be briefed on them. Until that is done, they should forget about laying such Instruments in the House,” he said. The Electoral Commission is in the process of laying a C.I before the House to empower them to rely solely on the Ghana Card as prove of Nationality for its limited registration exercise.

But at the Business presentation on Friday, October 29, 2022 for the ensuing week, the Minority led by their Leader, Haruna Iddrisu demanded the EC and the National Identification Authority (NIA) be summoned before the House to explain and reconcile the discrepancies in the numbers between what the EC has registered as voters and what is on the data of the NIA.

According to Haruna Iddrisu, the EC wants to rely on data from the NIA, and wondered what has become of the EC’s own data that they are abandoning their own bio-data that they have collected and want to use that of the NIA.

Meanwhile, the Speaker urged the EC to engage not just the subsidiary legislation Committee of parliament as part of the pre-laying formalities but leadership of the House as well including his office.

Ghanamps.com

First Deputy whip of the Minority in parliament, Ahmed Ibrahim has hinted that the 2023 Economic policy and Budget Statement of government is going to be an austerity budget because the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is going to raise issues about with our debt levels as Ghana is currently before it.

According to him the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta is even not aware of the kind of budget he is going to present because the fiscal space is closed, because debts to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio from the IMF by 2023 is one hundred and four point six (104.6) percent. “So you do not have the fiscal space to manage yourself. What we need to do is that our local economies, we should reconnect them to the production of global food security”.

In an interview in Rwanda Kigali where he attended the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) 145th Assembly it was made clear that the United Nations (UN) does not give money, they would only support countries with technical knowhow.
“If we think UN and IMF would bring something, we are not going to come out of our problems; and the earlier leaders of the country realize that we need to be telling the truth to Ghanaians, the better. At the meeting we were told the people we are leading are tired of long speeches and sweet words, that the people need action, we should walk the talk”.

And for the purpose of agriculture production, countries must domesticate to ensure that they evaluate their agriculture policy and measure them. “Have we been able to assess the planting for food and jobs, Free SHS, one village one dam, one district one factory?”, he queried. The Banda lawmaker pointed out that as a country we are just putting in place political projects which would not give us results, and the IPU meeting in Rwanda charged lawmakers that as they go back to their home countries they should ensure that they evaluate programmes of the Executive arm of government.

“Do you think if planting for food and job was assessed, we would be crying today? No, its political programme not human centered or agriculture programme that is why we are suffering today. These should have been economic boom for us; they started this policy in 2017 five years down the line, which crops would not bear fruits in five years?” And further added that clearly, government has not been fair to the people they are leading in Ghana, and believes the Ghanaian voters is becoming wiser, they are tired of stories and speeches, they need to see action, this is what the IPU is saying.

Again, they are going to be critical on government. There should be evaluation, that is the responsibility of the Ministry for Monitoring and Evaluation. “How could we have such a ministry but they did not evaluate their flagship programme? That is why none of the flagship programmes is being able to be sustained. You cannot sustain your own flagship programme, is it that you did not believe in your own programme?” he asked

The Minister is telling people we should not export food, the bail of agriculture has been lack of market for agriculture products, the market is there, they are now closing the market, “do you think agriculture would be attractive for people to go into? So there should be a bi-partisan approach to measuring all those flagship programmes; those that are viable let us pursue them, those not viable let us do away with them”, he advised.

“It is the only way we can make head way, the year 2023 is going to be a difficult year, no one is going to bring you food in your country to eat, you have to grow what you eat and eat what you grow.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali

After gaining independence in March 1957, Ghana has seen four Parliaments under four different Republics (i.e. First Republican Constitution of 1960, the Second Republican Constitution of 1969, the Third Republican Constitution of 1981, and the Fourth Republican Constitution of 1992).

The Parliament of Ghana under the Fourth Republic derived its mandate from Chapter Ten of the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution with the responsibility to make laws (Article, 93.2), control public finance (Chapter thirteen), and monitor the performance of the executive branch (article 103).

The above infographic shows the parliament of the 4^th Republic of Ghana according to seat and gender.

The Majority Caucus in Parliament has agreed to step down their request for the removal from office of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta and Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen.

In a statement dated 29th October, 2022, and signed by the Leader of Government Business and Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, he said the President H. E. Nana Akufo-Addo has engaged Members of the Caucus and “requested that the issue be stood down until the conclusion of the round of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the presentation of the Economic Policy Statement of government in November 2022, and subsequent passage of the appropriation Bill after which the matter in question shall be acted upon.

The Majority Leader said “after deliberations among the Majority Caucus today Wednesday, 26th October, 2022, it was agreed to accede to the President’s appeal”. On 25th October, 2022, at the commencement of the Third Meeting of the Second Session of the Eight Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana, about eighty (80) members from the Majority Caucus held a press conference demanding the resignation or sacking of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta and Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, Charles Adu Boahen by the President Nana Akufo-Addo.

They threatened to boycott all government business in parliament including the Budget and Fiscal Policy presentation if the president fails to act on their demand.

Ghanamps.com

The petition by Friends of the Earth – Nigeria, and its allies Youth Volunteers in Cote d’ Ivoire and Ghana, together with impacted communities to SIAT at its head office in Belgium about the negative impacts of the activities of their companies has yielded result, Madam Rita Uwaka, Coordinator of FoEA has disclosed.
Friends of the Earth – Africa (FoE – Africa) is a non-governmental environmental organization which operates in 72 countries around the world and 11 countries in Africa, (of which the West Africa sub-region is one) to check abuse and other human right violations by these multinational companies operating on the continent.

According to Madam Rita Uwaka, after the presentation of their petition against SIAT which operates plantations in the sub-region at their Head office in Belgium in June 2022, the head office of SIAT has agreed to send down a team by the end of this month from the head office in Belgium to visit Ivory Coast, followed by Nigeria and Ghana to see for themselves issues of abuse of human rights and environmental degradation being carried out by the multinational company.
“The companies are compelled to visit the communities; just last month they indicated they are coming to Ivory Coast by the end of this month to address the concerns they raised. So the head office is coming with an overall team to assess and understand the concerns raised and find a way of addressing those concerns”.

And further pointed out in a media engagement via zoom that communities in which these deforestation, land grabbing and the use of harmful chemicals are ongoing are getting more aggressive in defending their rights, and these communities are suing companies in courts over these developments,
Miss Rita further added that after their presentation at the plenary at the First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament, they visited some members of the European Parliament who are decision makers who are powerful in terms of decision making which would add on to the value of environmental issues.

Additionally, she said after their (Human Rights Environmental Defenders) engagement with the Community Parliament, they have been trying to reach out to national governments and policy makers within the West Africa sub-region to see how issues that were raised at the ECOWAS Parliament have been respected.

SIAT, she noted are mainly in the oil palm plantation, rubber plantation in West Africa mainly Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana and also do cattle rearing in Gabon. Consistently in Africa, these companies pollute water bodies because of their agro-chemicals. She asserts that most of these companies operate within West Africa, and that is the reason they (FoE – Africa) appeared at the floor of the ECOWAS Parliament to point out these issue.

Furthermore, it is not only the environmental advocates whose rights are being abused but journalists who publish stories on the kind of abuse being perpetrated also do come under attack, she added.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has directed the Clark of Parliament to list the motion on the order paper for the consideration of the House on the report of the Privileges Committee on the three Majority MPs referred to it for absenting themselves for more than 15 sittings during the first meeting of the second session of Parliament.

The MPs including; Sarah Adwoa Safo, MP for Dome-Kwabenya; Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, MP for Assin Central; and Henry Quartey, MP for Ayawaso Central. The Speaker ruled that the privileges Committee’s report on the 3 absentee MPs could not be accepted as the final decision on the matter but should be subjected to a vote on the floor of the house.

“…. the House, is well within its rights to receive and consider the report of the Committee and make a determination arising out of the recommendations. In the circumstances, it is my ruling that, the motion was rightfully admitted and the report of the Committee is subject to the consideration of the House.

 It goes without saying that the preliminary objection of the Majority Leader to the admissibility of the motion for consideration of the report of the Committee, is hereby dismissed in limine”. Meanwhile, the Majority leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu disagreed with the Speaker’s ruling and gave indication that he would file a motion to challenge the ruling.

Ghanamps.com

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin is expected to give ruling on the fate of the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Sarfo today Wednesday, 26, 2022. The Speaker gave the hint when he was presenting his formal communication to the Members of Parliament on the first day of work of the Third Meeting of the Second Session of the Eight Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana on Tuesday, 25th October, 2022.

Mr. Bagbin deferred ruling on the matter on the last day of the second Meeting following disagreements between the Majority and the Minority on how the report from the privileges committee should be handled. The Speaker in May this year referred three Members of Parliament including Mr. Henry Quartey, MP for Ayawaso Central, Mr Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, MP for Assin Central, and Madam Sarah Adwoa Sarfo, to the Privileges Committee for absenting themselves from 15 sittings of the House without his permission.

But the fate of the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya became a thorny one when in the report, it was stated that she was not available to give her side of the story after various attempts were made to contact her. And to that effect, the Majority side of parliament called for her seat to be declared vacant asserting that Madam Adwoa Sarfo failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities to explain her absence without leave.

But the Minority thought otherwise and argued that she has to be heard to fulfil natural justice. More so, the Majority side thought recommendations as contained in the report was enough to declare her seat vacant, but the Minority believed that procedure was not appropriate as they needed to take decision on the report on at the plenary.

Ghanamps.com

The Parliament of Ghana resumes today, October 25, 2022 to completing its business for the last quarter of 2022. This will be the Third Meeting of the Second Session of the Eight Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana will commence on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at ten O’clock in the forenoon at the Parliament House in Accra.

The highlight of this meeting would be the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of government for the next year in the midst of the current economic challenges faced by the country. Meanwhile, the Public Affairs Director of Parliament, Madam Kate Addo, in a press release noted that this meeting would consider a total of 66 bills.

These include among others: the Ghana Housing Authority Bill, 2022; Minerals and Mining (Amendment), 2022; Small Scale Mining Bill, 2022; the Affirmative Action Bill, 2022; and the Petroleum Revenue Management (Amendment Bill), 2022.

Additionally, a Private Members Bill on the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which was referred to the Council of State, will be presented before the House.

Ghanamps.com

Ghana has had four constitutional republics since its independence. However, only the Fourth Republic – 1992 to date has remained relatively stable. This is partly due to the fact that its institutional arrangements are different from earlier more turbulent efforts. During this period, Ghana has witnessed eight successful changes in government from the 1^st parliament (1993) to the current 8^th parliament (2021).

The National Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have over this period had greater participation of members in the parliament of Ghana.

From the infographic above, the lowest male representation (116 Males: 86%) for the NDC is seen in the 8^th Parliament. And the lowest Female representation (13 Females: 3%) was in the 7^th Parliament.

For the NPP, the lowest male representation (143 and 105 Males, 85%) was in the 7^th and 4^th Parliaments respectively. And the lowest Female representation (5 Females, 6%) was in the 2^nd Parliament.

Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Namibia Professor Peter Katjavivi on the side line of the ongoing 145th Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) called on Ghana’s Speaker Rt. Hon Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin on Thursday, October 13, 2022. According to him his agenda on calling on the Ghanaian speaker is to learn some best practice from his Ghanaian counterpart to transform their National Assembly.

He recounted his role during the struggle to independence, his role at the National Assembly, and how their founding father President Sam Nujoma request that he set up their National University, where he came down to Ghana and interacted with University of Ghana, from 1992 to 1994. Until in 2003, he left academia and rejoin Parliament again in 2010 as government chief whip and they want to learn from Ghana, the budget office within the parliament, how it is organized and structured, as they have battles with government when it comes to budget of parliament.

“I am concerned that most often the minister of finance comes to the House to present budget , he should share with me so that there are no surprises, the budget of parliament is worked out like any other ministry and this is where we have issues”.

Professor Katjavivi noted that, when the budget is cut for ministry that also applies to them, “they are told you have a ceiling, and this has been the history and now they are saying to their colleagues in the Executive that no, this does not do justice to parliament”. Because parliament plays an oversight role, they do not have representation in other regions, so MPs would have to physically go there, unlike the Executive who are well represented in all the regions, they can easily manage without necessarily traveling there .

“We have been trying to educate the Executive on this but have not been easy. Last year, we succeeded; our ceiling moved up, it was a battle we won; it is now a question of sustaining it. But it comes with a heavy responsibility. We need a budget office that would be able to do justice; a competent right to ensure that we retain and sustain the rational, that we are putting forward our interest is to learn from you how you have been dealing with this so that we can learn from you”.

He said they have plans to organize a small group to come to Accra to continue the conversation by then they would have an understanding of what they are looking for. It would be put in a letter to the Speaker so that all these are well captured. And one worrying development is that he has to present the budget of constitutional bodies, sometimes he has to defend the indefensible when things are not done properly and the structures are not right and listening to the Majority Leader and the Speaker from Ghana at their side meeting he appreciated that Ghana has advanced and things can be done through consultation.

On his part, Rt. Hon Alan Kingsford Bagbin noted that the three arms of government need to work together particularly on how to strengthen and make parliament independent and autonomous to be able to work on its duties, get it some kind of financial autonomy adequate enough to operate. And to make impact, because democracy is nothing but parliament, unfortunately these are new features in governance in Africa, as people have been used to the Executive, the Minister, not Speaker, not MPs.

Again those challenges are not peculiar to them alone, there are some progress that other parliaments have made, Ghana has been able to make progress in this direction and would share that with Namibia when their delegation visit Accra. The current leadership in Parliament, because they have been in parliament these concerns come to them and they put ideas together and work on them.

Luckily, the current president was a former Member of Parliament and both experience the kind of challenges so they are amendable and listen and find ways and means to deal with this. As it takes time to amend a constitution, if you do not have a basis in the constitution, you dialogue and find solution. When I became Speaker and I received invitation from the president for a meeting, it was to discuss the budget of parliament.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com/Rwanda/Kigali