Category: General

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu presiding over sitting on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 has directed the Finance Committee of Parliament to be joined by the leadership of the Committees of Trade and Industry, and Works and Housing to investigate the basis for the escalating prices of building materials, and related matters.

The Committee has four weeks (one Month) to present its report to the House.

The Speaker’s directive follows a statement made on the floor of the House by the Member of Parliament for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng on escalating prices of building materials in recent times without any just cause.

According to him, it is difficult to find any justification for the price hikes especially when the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy does not impose taxes and levies on building materials. “The price hikes for these items predates the recent taxes this parliament approves as part of the 2021 budget statement and economic policy”.

Mr. Kwarteng’s observation and worry was duly corroborated by other contributors on the issue and his appeal for investigation on the matter was backed by leadership of both sides of the House.

The Majority Leader and Leader of Government business, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu speaking on the issue indicated that this is of urgent public importance hence should not be trivialized

“Mr. Speaker, why it is very serious is that, well, for now we are in the business of counting the number of houses in this country, the projection all these while has been that the deficit of housing is in the region of between 1.5 million and 2 million, we are not too sure of what the exact figure is”.

“The point however remains that demands for housing outstrip supply in this country and that is the reason why rent is so high, so we need to bridge the gap, and if in the attempt to bridge the gap we are confronted with this situation, them Mr. Speaker as a nation we must sit up and analyze the situation”, the Majority Leader stated.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

Recent hikes in building materials in the country that has been a cause of worry to most Ghanaians has generated debate on the floor of parliament on Tuesday, July 6, 2021.

This follows a statement made on the floor by the Obuasi West Member of Parliament and Chairman of the Finance Committee, Kwaku Kwarteng expressing worry on how prices of building materials including cement, iron rode among others have suddenly frog leaped without government introducing any new taxes to that effect

According to him, “in recent times there have been an unusual price hikes of these items on the market which has understandably provoked complains from industry operators and consumers in my constituency in Obuasi West, and the entire construction industry in the country.

He noted that these price developments have triggered further hikes in building related services such as excavation, drilling, tilling among others. “Indeed, I have heard complaints that even water supply to construction sites and construction labour have all become unusually more expensive.

And added that it is difficult to figure out the source of these price hikes stating that “we know that parliament has not passed any law that could have added any tax or levy to the prices of these items. The price hikes for these items predates the recent taxes this parliament approves as part of the 2021 budget statement and economic policy”.

He said the development is strange and must be frontally addressed. “We need to change this for the sake of the construction industry, but more importantly, we need to get to the bottom of this disturbing development to ensure it doesn’t spread to other commodities and other industries on the market.

He thus appealed to the Speaker to task the relevant Committee to investigate the cause and possible solution to the development.

Meanwhile, Mr. Cassiel Ato Forson, also a member of the Finance Committee in supporting the statement made by the Obuasi West MP believes that Ghana as a free-market economy where prices of goods and services are determined by market forces depending on demand and supply, it is possible that the phenomenon is driven by demand and supply.

He, however, added his voice to the call for deeper interrogation into the actual cause of the price hikes, indicating that, “because clearly, if indeed this is artificially done, then it has a negative impact on the Ghanaian economy, because people’s disposal income that are supposed to be used for construction obviously are being used to pay for arbitrary prices”.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

A former member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament, who represented Ghana, Clement Kofi Humado is questioning if the sub-regional Community is abandoning ECO in favor of cryptocurrency as it is high on the agenda for discussion at a delocalised meeting in Burkina Faso.

He further questioned if cryptocurrency is up for discussion because it has found its way into the financial market in ECOWAS and “we want to see what the advantages and disadvantages are”.

According to him he had listen to a BBC and CNN programme on cryptocurrency and he is aware it is one of the main causes of money laundry globally; “people are able to launder money virtually from one country to the other.”

“Sometimes they bypass the central banks and run their own business, so if this issue has to be discussed at Burkina Faso, I think the issue of ECO should also come up and should be run alongside the cryptocurrency, and focus on the implication of the cryptocurrency on money laundering in West Africa”.

He cautioned that these days, because of terrorist activities of extremist jihadist, they can use the cryptocurrency to fund themselves by, bypassing the central bank and do whatever they want to do and this should also be focused on during the discussion in Burkina Faso.

In an interview on the five days delocalised meeting, he pointed out that he was surprised to hear that the ECOWAS Parliament is discussing the issue of cryptocurrency at its delocalised meeting, “not really that it is out of place, but I thought that our initial focus was on the ECO currency which should by now be in use by the 15 member countries in ECOWAS”.

 Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Ecowas Parliament’s joint committees on Administration Finance and Budget, Microeconomic Policy and Economic Research, Public Account, Trade Customs and Free Movement would today start a five days delocalised meeting in Burkina Faso.

The delocalised meeting is on the theme, “Cryptocurrency as a facilitator of Community trade in West Africa”.

The main objective of the meeting in Ougadougou, is to provide the ECOWAS Members of Parliament with an understanding of cryptocurrency and its use in the process of facilitating regional integration.

The meeting also provides an opportunity for the regional parliamentarians to determine the need and nature of regulation to guard against the misuse of cryptocurrency in the region.

A cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital currency that uses cryptographic algorithms and a protocol called “blockchain” to ensure the reliability and traceability of transactions. The adoption of cryptocurrency is affecting the whole world and is finding more and more users in developing countries and regions.

 States are only just beginning to realize the need to protect citizens against misuse and to regulate its use. Therefore, the ECOWAS Parliament, aware of the need to educate citizens on the implications of cryptocurrency, decided to organize this meeting.

During the discussions, high-level experts will expand issues around this virtual currency and provide participants with the knowledge necessary to better understand its use.

The ECOWAS Parliament is made up of 115 seats. For the allocation of seats, each member state is guaranteed a minimum of five seats. The remaining forty seats were distributed in proportion to the population of each country.

Based on this distribution, Nigeria has 35 seats, Ghana 8, Ivory Coast 7, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal have 6 seats each. The other countries namely Benin, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo have 5 seats each.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Communications Division of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament.

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Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Kwaku Daniel Botwe, has said the Guan district assembly would be inaugurated following the completion of consultation with stakeholders for the appointment of member of the assembly and the nomination of a District Chief Executive for approval by the Assembly.

According to him the creation of Guan District commenced with the laying of the Local Government (Guan District Assemble establishment) Instrument 2020 in Parliament on 6th October 2020, and came into force on 9th November 2020.

This came to light when MP for Buem, Iddie Kofi Adams wanted to know when the Guan District would officially be inaugurated.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The first deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu has directed the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament to investigate into the unfortunate incident of military harassment in Wa yesterday and report back to the House in four weeks’ time.

The Speaker’s directive came when the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu spoke about the conduct of the military in Wa and other places in the country, and the security implications of such lawless behaviors.

He said, just this week, there has been a military incident which led to loss of lives following the death of Kaaka Ibrahim at Ejura Sekyere Dumase which has not been resolved yet, and only yesterday, there was another incident of military harassment at Kejetia in Wa where the military were beating the citizens needlessly.

Contributing to the issue, the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu agreed to the call of his colleague Haruna Iddrisu for immediate solution to rising incidents of insecurity.

Mr. Kyei Mensah-Bonsu further spoke against the recent attitude of lawlessness among many Ghanaian youth and must be an issue of concern to all, since these lawlessness between the security personnel and the citizens are not the fault of the security but from the civilians or citizens of this country.

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The Minority in Parliament has rejected the President’s directive for a ministerial enquiry into the Ejura shooting.

Addressing members of the parliamentary press corps, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu stated that the president’s directive is like asking the agencies involved to investigate themselves, and that would not augur well for the outcome.

“We want a commission of enquiry within the meaning of Article 278 of the 1992 Republic constitution, the president must appoint a sole commissioner with two or more person to support just like the Emile Short Commission. And not a ministerial, which would amount to complicity of the state security agencies, they can’t absorb themselves; it should be made up of a justice of the superior court”.

And further added that, they would accept recommendation that calls for reforms and urged the youth who are acting out of frustration not to let the situation escalate, whiles admonishing government to take steps to address unemployment and growing economic hardship in the country.

Again, he noted that the maiming and killing of innocent Ghanaians who are justified within their constitutional rights to protest and to call for fixing of the country only vindicates the minority’s position, “as you recall we questioned too many security personnel in uniform on the street”.

Mr. Iddrisu pointed out that innocent people who were killed in Techiman for the purposes of turning an election, the sovereign decision, were actions of overzealous men in uniform.

“We questioned many of the people who were being recruited into the security agencies, they have not been trained enough and adequality, people who should be trained for nine months end up being trained for only three months”.

In addition, he said more worrying are NPP sympathizers and vigilantes who are recruited into the army and police, “they are not professionals hence they even chase NPP ministers out, I am not surprised”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Parliament has expressed worry about the amount of money being expended on information management systems by the National Health Insurance Authority, indicating that the development if not controlled would affect the core function of paying for health services delivery for beneficiaries of the scheme.

At the passage of the formula for the disbursement of the National Health Insurance Fund on the floor of the House on Wednesday June 30, 2021, the Committee of the Whole, in a report  said “the amount of GH¢205 Million allocated for Management Information Systems, the GH¢12 Million to be used to upgrade the Oracle ERP Applications and for the renewal of Oracle License as well as the GH¢4 Million for ISO Certification” was outrageous even though the allocations are aimed at  enhancing the security of the NHIA’s ICT platform and also improve upon the technology.

The House as thus recommended that the Health Committee be directed to embark on a study tour to inspect NHIA’s ICT installations/facilities; interact with the Management or Officials of the Authority, particularly those in charge of ICT to understand the reason behind the huge expenditures on ICT and also the need for them, and report to the House.

CAPPING

The House was also not happy about the capping on NHIA, especially when it has over the years advised that “all the Health Sector agencies including NHIA, should be exempted from the Capping Policy but it appears the recommendation has not had any consideration from the Government.” adding that there is every indication that NHIA has some financial difficulties and must not be constrained further by Capping.

“The Committee expressed worry about the Capping on NHIA because in its opinion the amount involved is huge and could be used to deal with some of the financial constraints of the Authority.”

According to the Committee, out of Three Billion, Eighteen Million, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Four Ghana Cedis (GH¢3,018,850,1 64.00) being revenue to the NHIA from two revenue sources; taxes on domestic goods and services and SSNIT contributions, “expenditure in respect of NHIF is One Billon, Nine Hundred and Three Million, Nine Hu Thousand, Five Hundred and Fifty-Four Ghana Cedis (GH¢1,903,907,554.00) and that is what the Authority will be allowed to spend, The difference between the expected revenue and the allowable expenditure indicated afore is, One Billion, One Hundred and Fourteen Million, Nine Hundred and Forty-Two Thousand, Six Hundred and Ten Ghana Cedis (GH¢1,114,942,610.00) and that is the amount by which NHIA has been capped. It translates into 36.9% of the expected revenue”, the report said.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com

President Nana Akufo-Addo has directed the Interior Minister Ambrose Dery to commence public inquiry into circumstances that led to the unfortunate Ejura incident on Tuesday, June 29, 2021

In a statement issued by the Direct of Communication, Office of the President, Eugen Arhin noted that the president has directed the sector minister to provide detailed report of the inquiry, with recommendation for action within ten days Friday, July 9, 2021 to the President.

And further pointed out int the statement that the President is saddened by the death of Ibrahim Mohammed, Murtala Mohammed and Abdul Nasir Yussif.

He extends condolences to the deceased families and wished the injured speedy recovery.

Ghanamps.com

Ten (10) Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are schedules to appear before the Public Account Committee today, Wednesday, as the Committee continues sitting review the Auditor General’s Report for the period 2017 under review.

First to appear before the Committee would be the Ministry of the Interior, to be followed by Gender Children and Social Protection, Employment and Labour Relations, Judicial Service, Government Machinery, Sanitation and Water Resources, Finance, Ghana Revenue Authority, Information and Controller and Account General.

The Committee in its earlier meetings advised personnel appearing before the Committee to represent these MDAs to be truthful in their submissions to avoid sanctions.

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