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Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah has given indication to Parliament that he would investigate the reason behind the youth in Obom Domeabra constituency not benefiting from planting for Foods and Jobs and One District One factory both of which are government flagship programmes.

According to him he is surprised that the youth have not benefited from the government flagship programme and he would find out why and report back to the House.

This came to light when Member of Parliament for the area Sophia Karen Edem Ackuaku revealed on the floor of the House when she asked questions on job creation for the youth in her constituency.

Other MPs who caught the eye of the Speaker wanted to know when the one million jobs which the Minister talked about would be rolled out.

In his response the Minister pointed out that very soon when the Minister of Finance comes to the House to present the budget policy of government for 2022 the one million job policy would be laid out.

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Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah said the Nana Akufo-Addo led administration is in the process of rolling out an Inter-ministerial initiative job which is expected to create one million jobs.

According to him the initiative seeks to strengthen and coordinate job creation efforts across the various sectors.

And the youth are expected to benefit from the one million jobs to be created between now and 2024 and the good people of Domeabra Obom Constituency would be beneficiaries of this one billion Ghana cedis initiative.

“Government would soon outline this, as a major policy statement to the House”. He disclosed this when he answered a question posed by Sophia Karen Edem Ackuaku, Member of Parliament for Domeabra/Obom Constituency as to what plans the ministry has in terms of job creation for the youth of her constituency.

“Mr. Speaker, since 2017 to date government has been working assiduously to create various jobs opportunities for Ghanaians particularly the youth across the length and breadth of the country. As a result, a number of jobs have been created through the implementation of various government job interventions such as.

1. Planting for food and jobs
2. One District one factory
3. Nations builders corps (NABCO)
4. Youth employment programme under the YEA
5. National entrepreneurship and Innovations programme

He further told the House on Tuesday, November 2, 2021 that his Ministry exists to coordinate job creation interventions in all sectors of the economy and promote harmonious industrial relations towards sustainable development.

“Contrary to the widely perceived notions that the sector creates direct productive sector jobs, the sector rather coordinates employment”, he said.

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Ghana’s Ranking Member on Road and Transport, Governor Kwame Agbodza said constructing railways to interconnect member states within the West African sub-region is very critical to help realise the vision of trade and free movement of ECOWAS.

According to him individual member states are working on their own to get their railway networks functional, as Ghana is working to connect with Burkina Faso.

“We need to interconnect within the sub-region to boom cross border trade, but we should have some level of understanding so that when we build railways to a standard in Ghana, Togo would have same standard and when it is time for us to converge, we can harmonies and use our railway network”.

In an interview, he pointed out that some level of understanding has been going on and added that railways is capital intensive and does not think any individual member state can develop railway base on private enterprise alone.

For example in the United Kingdom when it is past ten o’clock, “if you go check the underground it would be running almost empty, because the rush hour is over but trains are still running someone has to pay for the loses”.

He further added that government cannot expect the private sector alone to pay for the full cost of investment in the railway infrastructure, government funds has to go into it as a form of investment to sustain it.

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The first deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim said the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee would be breaching article 106 (14) if the Committee does not present its report this week.

According to him the third meeting of the first session is a budget meeting, in the same vain the above quoted article says a bill should not be delayed for more than three months at the Committee level.

“The LGBTQ+ bill which was presented through a coalition with some MPs being part is expecting so much from parliament House, nothing has been heard despite the fact that Mr. Speaker said we should pass through due process and pass it”.

In his contribution to the business statement presented to the House, he pointed out that with the remaining 8 weeks to go before the House goes on recess, the three months that the House was on recess there was not advertisement placed by the committee handling the bill for him to participate.

And wanted to know the status of the bill as if not taken this week the Committee would be in breach of the 1992 Republican Constitution.

In his response, the Deputy Majority Leader, Afenyo Markin noted that the Committee in question has met to consider bills that are before it on Thursday, October 28, 2021.

He added that, they should be given the chance to do their work as they are staking steps to address the issue raised on the floor of the House.

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Members of Parliament from the Volta Region have called on President Akufo-Addo to render an unqualified apology and retract his unsavory comments made against Torgbui Adzonugaga Amenya Fiti V, President of Aflao Traditional Area for asking for the completion of E-Block.

President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo during an interview on Peace FM last week when asked about the demand of the chief of Aflao questioned if the chief has the power to give such an ultimatum to the minister, and added that if the chief is frustrated by the delay, he (the chief) could go and complete the project.

But addressing the media in parliament, the Member of Parliament for Ketu South, Abla Dzifa Gomashie flanked by her colleague MPs from the region noted that the paramount chief of Aflao only made a legitimate call concerning the practice where new governments turn to abandon projects they inherit from their predecessors.

She said the tax-payers’ money had already been sunk into the project and it was just appropriate that it is completed and opened for the people from the area to also benefit from it.

They described the president’s response to the demand made by the paramount chief of Aflao as an affront to the chieftaincy institution, the chief and the people of the area.

Adding his voice to the call, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who was the deputy Minister of Education in the erstwhile John Mahama administration under whose tenure the project was initiated said under the E-block project, chiefs across the country gave out lands free of charge to facilitate the implementation, hence the call by the Aflao Chief was on point, especially when the contractual period of completion was 18months from the time it was started. so if five (5) year’s down the line the chief doesn’t see the political will to complete the project, there was nothing wrong averting the minds of the government to complete it, he added.

He said chiefs remain partners in development and would continue to push for developments projects from all governments to better the lives of their people.

He said what is most unfortunate was the fact that Torgbui Fiti V was not the first to have raised issues with uncompleted projects in their area, adding that prior to getting to Aflao, other chiefs including the chief of Yilo Krobo whose demanded the operationalization of the E-block in his area, while others from Kumawu, Abetifi among others made similar calls but none of them received such disrespectful response as extended to the chief of Aflao.

Meanwhile, Madam Gomashie hinted of launching an appeal for fund to raise money to complete the E-block as directed by the president, and urged all citizens of the area and well-meaning Ghanaians to donate to the fund to help complete the project.

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Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu is advocating for the National Media Commission (NMC) to be situated in a position to respond to social media not as a primary toxic source of misinformation adding that social media should be seen as part of mass media.

According to him he was part of the Ghanaian digital migration story, the group that worked for Ghana to migrate from analog to digital, but was quick to point out that ten years down the line the nation has not declared a cut-off point to digital migration.

“Therefore, the NMC as part of your mandate you should request for the sector Minister and stakeholders to declare a cutoff date for Ghana’s terrestrial, radio and television migration”.

He added that Ghana would benefit from some spectrums which would allow it to have more fm’s and television stations which could move to three. “We should be able to achieve that as a country even today the world is moving towards five G plans, and NMC should set the tone to declare the country’s cutoff date so that we would be fully operational and functional on the digital platform”.

Mr. Iddrisu made this comments on Thursday, October 28, 2021 when the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs organise an engagement with the core leadership of parliaments Committees with the National Media Commission.

The Minority Leader commended the sector Minister for his support of constitutional bodies like the Electoral Commission, National Media Commission and Commission for Human Right and Administrative Justice and has remain religiously continuously and bemoaned the inadequate funding that goes to them.

“ I know the struggle you went through to get monitors in the regions,  how can you perform well when you cannot monitor in the regions, but the Majority Leader  has come to learn in government that there are financial constrains whiles in opposition it was easy for him to blame president Mahama”.

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Two police officers, the Greater Accra Regional Operations Commander, ACP Isaac Kojo Asante and ACP Eric Winful (Divisional Commander – Adenta-Abokobi Division are to face the Privileges Committee of Parliament for possible contempt of parliament. under Article 117of the 1992 Constitution.

The Speaker of Parliament, Right Hon. Alban Sumana Bagbin referred a request from the Madina Member of Parliament to cite the two police officials for contempt of parliament under Article 117of the 1992 Constitution and Order 28 of the standing orders of parliament.

The Madina MP, Francis Xavier Sosu explaining his ordeal in the hands of the police to the Speaker on the floor of the House said, the Police personnel led by ACP Isaac Kojo Asante, and ACP Eric Winful October 25, 2021 manhandled and obstructed him from attending to a parliamentary duty after leading his constituents to demonstrate about the nature of bad roads along the Ayi Mensah, Kweiman, Danfa, Adoteiman and Otinibi communities in his constituency.

According to him, though the demonstration was done in accordance with the Public Order Act and there were no destruction of public or private properties, and recorded no casualties, “after addressing the demonstrators, the Police informed me that they needed to send me to the Regional Commander to answer a few questions. I informed them that I was on my way to parliament to attend to other Parliamentary duties because I was a Deputy Ranking Member and was to attend Leaders meeting in preparation of resumption of siting on 26th October, 2021.

They insisted that I needed to come with them and informed them that if they want to put me under arrest they have to tell me of the reasons of the arrest and also as a siting member of parliament , they would have to write to Right Hon. Speaker before they can execute any criminal orders on me”.

However, in fragrant breach of the laws which relates to privileges of Members of Parliament, the officers “led the way and attempted to forcefully apprehend me in the presence of my constituents, an act which I verily believe amounts to contempt of Parliament.” And it took the intervention of the youth to rescue him.

Meanwhile, the Speaker invoking Order 31 has directed the Privileges Committee to investigate the complaint, and submit their report for the full consideration of the House, adding that the house per the evidence available would determine whether the complaint is contemptuous or not.

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The Minority Caucus in Ghana’s Parliament through its Ranking Member John Jinapor has urged the government to scrap the Special Petroleum Tax imposed on petroleum products with immediate effect.

According to him scraping of the Special Petroleum Tax imposed on petroleum products will provide some respite for Ghanaians from the agonizing high cost of fuel at the pump.

Speaking at a media briefing in Accra on Tuesday,  the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy and Mines Committee,  John Abdulai Jinapor explained that the demands by the Minority Caucus on the Committee to scrap the Special Petroleum Tax imposed on petroleum products has become necessary because crude prices which was pegged at a bench-mark price of $54.75 dollar per barrel in the 2021 budget statement has risen to over $85 representing an increment of  over 55%.

“As a net exporter of crude oil, Ghana’s revenue receipts from petroleum exports are therefore expected to increase from the initially projected figure of $800 million to over $1.2 billion. What this means is that the nation is making huge unanticipated revenues from crude exports hence the need to abolish the Special Petroleum Tax to ameliorate the suffering of the ordinary Ghanaian.” He indicated.

Mr.  Jinapor who doubles as the Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu Constituency in the Savanna Region insisted that despite the introduction of a sanitation levy of 10 pesewas per liter of fuel, the country continues to be engulfed in filth with poor management of garbage across the various towns and cities of the country.

The group is therefore calling for a review of the sanitation levy by resorting to the polluter pay mechanism which is a more pragmatic way of managing our waste.

They argued that it is untenable to tax the ordinary fuel consumers since the consumption of same does not contribute to the waste being generated daily.

Mr. Jinapor further urged the Nana Akufo-Addo-Bawumia led government to, with immediate effect reconstitute the Board of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and appoint a substantive Managing Director with the task of ensuring that the refinery is able to process domestic crude to its fullest capacity.

According to him the current state of TOR leaves much to be desired. “It will be recalled that as part of efforts to revamp TOR and ensure value addition to our domestic crude, the NDC at the time procured about 2million barrels of crude for processing by TOR.

Unfortunately, but characteristic of this administration, that parcel of crude which was procured by the NDC administration for TOR to process was sold under very opaque and bizarre circumstances.

Today as a result of bad management and poor leadership, the Tema oil refinery is on the verge of collapse with government proposing to turn it into a tank farm”, he stressed.

“We wish to state that we reject the decision by President Akufo-Addo to turn the refinery into a tank farm, we believe that with the right polices, the refinery can be turned around to fulfill the purpose for which it was built.” The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Energy and Mines Committee disclosed.

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The Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport  Committee of Parliament, Governs Kwame Agbodza said the Greater Accra Regional Minister’s directive that come next year Aboboya would not be allowed to use the motorway is out of place.

He said he has no locus to issue such a directive, because there is no law backing what he has said. “He is overstepping the authority under his watch; there is no law in this country that gives power to regional Ministers to determine which vehicles drive on which road that is within the purview of the National Road Safety Authority and the Ministry of Roads and Transport.”

He challenged the Regional Minister to quote the law that supports his directive.

Addressing the media in parliament, Mr. Agbodza said the biggest challenge on our roads is not only the road users but the nature of the roads which are bad, full of big potholes, not enough roads, with some outliving their capacity, lack of road signage among others.
He said the roads must first be in a proper condition before one can begin to enforce the laws on them. “If you have the roads without signage or road furniture how are you going to blame somebody if the person doesn’t know what the speed limit on a particular road is, if there’s no signage on that road?”

Therefore, there is the need for a holistic solution to the problem which should be a combination of things. “Indeed, I would have expected that we even have a cycling-lane along the motorway so somebody who lives in Tema who likes biking can ride motorbike or bicycle from Tema to Accra, we don’t have that now; that is what we should be looking at the moment.

According to the Ranking Member, one of the solutions

He said it is the responsibility and commitment of everyone including the minority to help in ensuring safety on our roads, and that they have executed that adequately as manifested in their support in changing the National Road Safety Commission into an authority, and the minority has been frontal in getting that bill passed.

He indicated that as part of the bill, the Ministry of Transport is supposed to come with the necessary legislative instruments (LI) to operationalize different parts of the law.

However, on the specific issue of Aboboya that carries refuse to Tema for recycling using the motoway, he said the only reason the tricycles are going there is because that is where the treatment plant is located. And questioned what becomes of the refuse collected from our homes by these same tricycles (Aboboya) is the Regional Minister’s directive is implemented?

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Member of Parliament for Lawra, Bede Anwa Taazumo Ziedeng has said the system of pushing rejected nominees of President Nana Akufo-Addo for the position of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) through is the cause of the brouhaha that surrounded approval of some of the chief executives.

According to him one should have the heart, mind for democracy bearing in mind that by respecting the views of other people is the way to go.

 ‘I have been a regional ministers before, when I was a regional minister and DCEs were nominated we have to try to pass them, in Sissala East the president nominated someone as the DCE when we went for confirmation he was rejected, second confirmation he was rejected, what I did was I told the president we should replace him, we send a different person and the person was confirmed”.

The former Regional Minister questioned, “why must is it be one person, and if not that person then nothing happens?, I do not think that is right hence the reason why we had problems”

Again, when the first confirmation came there was no problem, the problems started arising with the second confirmation, “we should know people are thinking differently.

The Lawra MP was reacting to confusions that characterized the confirmation of MMDCEs in some MMDAs across the country when the Minority caucus on the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development met with the press to register their disappointment in the development.

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