Category: General

Ministries Departments and Agencies of Government are indebted to National Information Technology Agency (NITA) to the tune of twelve million seven hundred and twenty-two thousand, seven hundred seventeen cedis, sixty-six pesewas (GHc 12,722, 717.66) as at the end of last year.

The Minister of Communication and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, who disclosed this in Parliament on Thursday July 22,2021 also indicated that Parliament also owes two hundred and ninety-three thousand, seven hundred and sixty Ghana cedis (GHc293,760.00) and the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs owes sixty-seven thousand two hundred Ghana cedis (GHc 67, 200.00)

The Minister told the House NITA also receives services from service providers like Vodafone, MainOne, ECG, Ghana Water Company, American Towers (ATC), to enable it provide services to its clients which are mostly government institutions.

NITA currently owes its suppliers sixteen million nine hundred and seventy-three thousand two hundred and eighty-five Ghana cedis and twenty pesewas (GHC 16, 973, 285.20) as at the end of December 2020, and the breakdown is a as follow.

1. Vodafone GHc 3,710,095.92
2. ATC GHc 7,395,582.85
3. ECG GHc 5,521,750.31
4. Ghana Water GHc 345, 856.10

“Mr. Speaker, Vodafone has currently disconnected services to NITA outsider Accra, for nonpayment and this has affected most MMDAs especially those on the GIFMS platform, we have made constant strong case to the finance ministry to find a lasting solution to this perennial problem during every budget preparation process”

Indeed, NITA has constantly suggested that the finance ministry deduct at sources a percentage of all the goods and services budgeted for all MDAs for digital connectivity and services to offset their indebtedness.

And has also made proposals for the establishment of a central fund to pay NITA for data just as MDAs pay for utilities.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minister for Communications and Digitalisation Ursula Owusu Ekuful has said her Ministry would work in close collaboration with the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) and Mobil Network Operators (MNOs) to provide connectivity to Ghanaians in their respective locations.

According to her it would be done through the Rural Telephone project and would help close the gap in the MOs rollout plans and ensure universal access.

She further told the House, Brodi, Yabraso, Atomfourso, Akore, Degedge, Bepoayase, Sampano, Bebunsua, Konkonte and Kogua in the Tain constituency would be catered for under the phase II of the rural telephony project.

This came to light on Thursday, July 22, 2021 when Member of Parliament for Tain Adama Sulemana asked the sector minister if the above communities, there are plans to connect them to the rural telephony project.

The Minister further told the House the communities mentioned above are not part of phase I of the project, however they have been captured by GIFEC under the phase II of the rural telephony project.

She indicated that, “none of the mobile network operators have captured these communities in their current network roll out plans, GIFEC will expedite work on the compilation of the beneficiary communities that are not covered under the current project for inclusion in the next phase of the rural telephony project.”.

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The President’s nominee for the position of Special Prosecutor, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng on Thursday, 22nd July 22, 2021, faced Parliament’s Appointments Committee after the Rt. Hon. Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin’s referral to the Committee for consideration and vetting.

 He will carry out the extraordinary responsibility of independently fighting corruption and will have full authority to initiate investigations into all suspected corruption-related offences of all persons in public service if approved by Parliament.

As part of its mandate, the Special Prosecutor’s Office is mandated with the authority to investigate and prosecute all suspected corruption and corruption-related offences as pertaining to public officers, politically exposed persons, and persons in the private sector alleged to have been involved in any corruption and corruption-related offences.

 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo accepted the nomination of Kissi Agyebeng to the Special Prosecutor’s Office with a charge to him to deal with public sector corruption and by a letter to the Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, dated 29th April 2021, sought Parliament’s approval of the appointment.

 Mr.  Agyebeng has been a law lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana Legon since October 2006, teaching and researching Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Corporate Law, and Legal Research and Writing.

Called to the Bar in October 2003 and also engaged in private law practice, Mr. Kissi Agyebeng holds a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree from the University of Ghana and Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Dalhouse University and Cornell Law School.

He was born on July 2, 1978, and awarded the Bentsi-Enchill prize for Best Graduating Student of the University of Ghana School of Law in 2001 and E.N. Sowah Memorial prize for best student in Family Law at the Ghana School of Law and has participated in several international arbitration hearings.

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 Government spent GHS 8,725,000.00 and USD 1,866,934.00 in repatriating Ghanaians in China and the United Arab Emirates respectively and others who became stranded in other countries across the world due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

 The expenditure involved quarantine and air tickets while an additional USD 475,895.00 was expended on evacuating those in West and Central African countries and a further GHS 44,460,530.00 spent to quarantine evacuees in eighty-five hotels spread across Accra, Prampram Bolgatanga, Takoradi and Kasoa.

 Some private individuals also made donations including the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central Kennedy Ohene Agyapong who mobilised USD 428,000 and a personal cash donation of USD 200,000.00 to support evacuation from Lebanon.

 A cash donation of GHS 200,000.00 from Sethi Brothers was also received to subsidize the cost of quarantine of some evacuees from the United Kingdom.

 The cost of the hotel accommodation for the evacuees included three meals and water per day for the fourteen-day quarantine period.

 In all government successfully evacuated 10,025 stranded Ghanaians during the evacuation across the globe using KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Middle East Airlines, Emirates Airlines as well as the Ghana Air Force Casa aircraft which was used to evacuate those from West and Central African countries.

 A further 534 Ghanaians from Saudi Arabia, 233 from Qatar and 230 from Kuwait working as domestic workers in the Gulf whose plight got worsened during the pandemic were repatriated with the government absorbing the cost of quarantine,

 The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration Shirley Ayorkor Botchway made these disclosures in Parliament on Thursday, July 22, 2021 when she appeared before the House to answer to a question.

 The question stood in the name of the North Tongu Member of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who wanted to know from the Minister the number of Ghanaians evacuated from the foreign countries to Ghana due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost of the evacuation.

The Minister disclosed that Cabinet on Friday, May 22, 2020 approved a strategy paper presented by her Ministry with a further directive to develop an evacuation implementation plan for the evacuation of the stranded Ghanaians.

 The implementation exercise, according to her, was put into effect on May 23, 2020 in collaboration with the Covid-19 Task Force to bring these stranded Ghanaians back home.

 She said the evacuees comprised ability-to-pay migrants, government-funded evacuation of officials and state-sponsored students, the distressed or destitute comprising Ghanaians who travelled before the advent of the pandemic and returnees or deportees comprising Ghanaians who had been scheduled for removal from their various countries of abode.

 The evacuation exercise, she noted, was undertaken in phases to ensure a well-coordinated exercise which decision was primarily informed by financial and logistical considerations such as the capacity of quarantine and isolation centres and the human resource capacity of the Covid-19 Task Force to hold large numbers of evacuees.

 The Minister however revealed that donations from individuals did not go to Covid-19 Trust Fund because donors such as Ken Agyapong requested his monies spent on the destitutes in Lebanon while Sethi Brothers directed their donation go to stranded Ghanaians in the United Kingdom.

 She said justice for human right violations for the illegal migrants in the Gulf States could not be sought since they used different airports and unapproved routes, secured visas elsewhere and added that majority of these evacuees from Lebanon have since returned.

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The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin, has warned Members of Parliament (MPs) that they risk incurring his wrath, henceforth, should any of them flout the rules of engagement of the House.

Indisciplined members, he noted, will no longer be tolerated, stressing that grave consequences await any member who unnecessarily interrupts proceedings of the House or misconducts himself while sitting is ongoing.

“Conducting ourselves in an ethical and principled manner should be our creed. We must identify out values as individuals and as a collective and live by them. We are aware of how events of the dawn of January 7, 2021, have left a sour taste in the mouths of most observers of parliamentary process. We are also conscious of the fact that misunderstanding of parliamentary processes has at times led to suspicion of impropriety on the part of some Members of Parliament. It will require a sustained hard work to erase these misconceptions I am talking about a conscious effort at remodeling the profile of the Ghanaian MP, through what we are seen to be doing, the transparency and integrity that govern what we do and the outcomes and impact we achieve. We need to work together on this”, he noted.

Rt. Hon. Bagbin made this observation on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, in a formal Communication to the House.

Commenting further, the Speaker reminded Members about the Code of Conduct for Members which enjoins them to “rebuild public confidence in our political system in a period when citizens of this country and elsewhere are losing faith in politics and politicians”, stressing that “it is our duty to restore their trust through our conduct in the performance of our duties as politicians and public office holders”.

“We need to do more in this regard”, he underscored.

He urged all Members to subscribe to their organizational vision of making Ghana’s Parliament a model in Africa, and one of the best Parliaments in the world.

“This we cannot achieve if we continue with the “business as usual” approach to our work. We need a step change, and this will come with us taking ourselves a little bit more serious. Ours is a strong institution with a strong culture. What we need are a few changes here and there and we will be on a path towards achieving our vision”, he noted.

He added, “we need to give the citizenry enough reasons to keep addressing us as Honourable Members of Parliament. As such, we owe it a duty to our compatriots and to ourselves to handle this house with the decency it deserves. We cannot afford to lower the standards of Parliament and lead this country into an attitudinal decay”.

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The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, has told Parliament that his office has no details about the cost of Presidential air travels.

Such details, he noted, could best be accessed from the Office of Government Machinery which is headed by the Chief of Staff, and that of the Office of the Minister for National Security.

He told Parliament on Wednesday, July 21, 2021, when he appeared before it to respond to some questions in relation to the cost of Presidential air travels that the Ministry of Finance, as has been the practice, releases quarterly funds to the Heads of Departments, thus, Office of Government Machinery, for all operational activities of the office.

“Mr. Speaker, to facilitate the safe coordination of the President’s travels, domestic and foreign, the Office of Government Machinery and the National Security Secretariat work together to achieve this. The President’s domestic and international travels are matters to do with National Security. The National Security Minister is best placed to furnish this Honourable House with the details needed”, he noted.

Ofori Atta’s comments were in response to an urgent question filed by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

Ablakwa had sought to find out from the finance minister how much the President’s recent official travels to France, Belgium, and South Africa in May this year, cost the Ghanaian taxpayer.

A similar question was also filed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) MP for Dormaa East, Paul Apreku Twum-Braimah, who had also sought to find out from Mr. Ofori Atta the cost of air travel of the President using chartered flight between 2013 and 2016.

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The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, in his message on Tuesday, July 20, 2021 to Muslims on the celebration of Eid al-Adha asked Muslims to pray for the country as “these are not the best of times for our country”.

According to him, the challenges of the country are in various aspects of national endeavor and are pronounced.

“Our economy needs an urgent boost if we are to experience growth and development. We have been propagating a paradigm shift in the management of our economy, which never seems to materialize, we cannot continue down the route on which we are currently, with very little effort at industrialization; it has not been helpful.”

He stated that within the Ghanaian social setup, education and health facilities are overstretched.

“The growth in our population, which I believe will be borne out by the ongoing population and housing census, has not seen a reciprocal attempt to improve upon infrastructure for health and education. The result is there for all to see: lack of hospital beds, and schools under trees continue to be challenged,” he added.

On top of all these, the Speaker said Ghana remains sharply divided along political lines.

He said: “We strive to find the political coloration of citizens who raise issues with where our country is headed, instead of finding out the reasoning and the logic in the issues raised. We cannot continue like this. In addition, we see very little attempt to punish corruption and inefficiency among the political class, thereby creating the perception of political clubbing at the highest level of the political superstructure of this country.”

In his view, these are what “we must pray for during this solemn occasion, so that the Almighty Allah will properly order our steps as a country and place us on the path towards national reconstruction and restoration.”

He called on leaders of the country to exhibit a lot more sacrifice whilst working at resolving the many challenges that confront the nation.

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A Nigerian businessman, Abey Tolu who imports coconuts from Ghana particularly Jomoro in the Western Region is appealing to the Ghanaian and Togolese authorities to open their land borders to help facilitate trading activities.

According to him despite the fact that trucks with goods are allowed through the land borders of Ghana and Togo, he cannot say things are that smooth.

“If authorities in both countries open their land borders things would be better for us, this is the business we do, we import coconuts from Ghana, they are carried to Nigeria, they are sent to Kano and Abuja and used for biscuit and cream”

He indicated that though he is enjoying his stay in Ghana, life would be a lot better if impediments to their business, like the closure of the land borders can be opened to ensure easy flow of their goods and services across the borders.

He made these remarks when Ghanamps.com chanced on him on Sunday, July 18,2021 while he had a truck loading coconut bound for Nigeria.

Meanwhile, in a related development, Ghanaian truck driver Abeiku Christel, who normally loads coconut to Nigeria has also appealed to the Ghanaian and Togolese authorities to open their land borders as he spends a lot of time crossing the two land borders.

“I have to spend sometimes a week or three in crossing the Ghanaian border from Aflao to that of Togo. I do not face these challenges at the Benin border to Nigeria, as they remain opened”.

He pointed out in an interview that the police extort so much money from them, adding that the police park them for a long time as a form of punishment if they fail to pay whatever amount they require from them. And in most cases, they the drivers are compelled to use their own monies to settle the police just to go through the border.

And further added that the land borders of Benin and Nigeria is not closed, so it makes crossing quite easier.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

It appears recent public outcry and misgivings that greeted the car loans for members of parliament has given MPs the opportunity to seek alternative ways through which their mobility can be improved by government instead of the usual car loans.

They are now calling on government to provide them with official vehicles that would be a property of the state to work with.

The decision came up when the Finance Committee laid their report on the $28 million Dollars car loan for members of the 8^th Parliament of the fourth Republic on Wednesday, July 14, 2021.

The Committee took note of recent concerns expressed by many sections of the Ghanaian public about the burden the current vehicle loan arrangement for Members of Parliament and Members of the Council of State imposed on the public purse.

The committee further said, the House’s legitimate concerns are fueled by the fact that, of all the Article 71 office holders, it is not only Members of Parliament and Members of the Council of State who benefit from these vehicle loans, part of which are re-paid by the State.

Accordingly, the Committee strongly recommends to Parliament to discontinue the current vehicle loan arrangement for MPs, and members of council of state, and should have similar duty post vehicle arrangements as Article 71 office holders have.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Minority through its deputy leader, James Klutse Avedzi is calling on the Auditor General to investigate the account of the first lady of the country, Rebecca Akufo-Addo to make sure that, there is enough money in her account in order not to have the issued cheque bounced or uncleared

Also, the Auditor general must calculate an interest on the refunded amount to Mrs. Akufo-Addo to pay.

They asked if “since 2017 that she received this money, does it mean she does not spend the money and she has kept the money for all these times?  If the answer is yes, it means she did not need the money, so why did she take the money in the first place, in refunding the money she has to compute the interest on it”

And further wanted to know if the money she is refunding is the actual money she received, and also to find our if she has enough money in her account so that the cheque eight hundred and ninety-nine plus, she has issued would not bounce.

The Minority opined that the first lady has a nongovernmental organization (NGO) heavily supported by the state institutions like the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), so “if she is refunding the money, it means she does not like any state money. As such monies paid to her NGO should be audited by the Auditor General and all those monies should be returned to the state.

“We welcome her refund” but it should as well extend to other monies she receives for support for her NGO, the Minority stated.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com