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The Deputy Minority Leader, Emmanuel Kofi Armah Buah has urged the Minister for Interior to immediately halt the recruitment process of eleven thousand security personnel and rather open the process up for Ghanaians to participate in it fairly.

According to him the ongoing process is opaque and dismissed assertion that it is as a result of back log over the years.

At a press conference address by the Deputy Leader on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, he pointed out that the police administration on July 7, 2023 in a press statement indicated that they do not have any back log hence the Minority is surprised at the turn of events.

And instead of advertising the recruitment process as has been the normal practice the sector Ministry is hiding under the guides of backlog in other to recruit supporters of the ruling NPP government into the security service saying this does not need advertisement as a result of backlog.

Immigration personnel expected to be recruited are three thousand, Ghana police personnel five hundred, prison service five hundred and narcotic five hundred

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

At the ongoing first Ordinary Session of the 6th Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament in Abuja Nigeria, lawmakers have commended Liberia for appointing the first-ever female defense Minister, Brigadier General Geraldine George.

The MP gave the commendation during the presentation of the Country’s report by the leader of the delegation Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.

That notwithstanding, the MPs were not enthused about some treatment being meted out to the former President George Weah including being denied access to a VIP lounge.

A member of Ghana’s delegation to the 6th Community Parliament, Samson Ahi in his contribution to Liberia’s Country report commended the country for giving a very detailed report on current happenings in the country.

I was going through the report and was thinking that things were going on very well in Liberia. But at a point I have to change my mind, when i noticed that the former President was denied access to the VIP lounge, a development I think not good enough, he stated.

Again, I was expecting the report to commend the former president because of what he did in the elections. You hardly find a sitting president would lose less than forty thousand votes and just agree to transfer power; this is a mark of statesmanship and I was expecting the report to commend him highly but I do not know why they decided not to commend him, Mr. Ahi noted.

Hon. Ahi joined his colleagues to further commend a good development in Liberia and noted that he is not commending them for appointing a female as first defense Minister, but the fact that she was appointed as deputy defense Minister by the previous government and when there was change over the current government elevated her as substantive Minister.

“That is a good ternate of democracy; look at the talent of the person, if the person has the capacity to help irrespective of the person’s background you have to give the person the opportunity”.

However, he was not happy the report did not give information on how the Liberian government is putting in measures to deal with drug abuse in the Country.

In the case of Guinea he indicated that he was happy their delegation are back in the ECOWAS Parliament which has been their prayers and hope others like Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali would return to the fold.

He flawed Guinea on grounds that their Country report is not detailed enough; and hoped they would improve it during the second Ordinary session when they are presenting their country report.

He also questioned their efforts at returning to democratic rule which was not specified in the report.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Public Account Committee, Dr. James Klutse Avedzi has clarified on the floor of Parliament that Parliament and the Attorney General are yet to act on the Committee’s recommendation for prosecution of entities and individuals cited for various infractions.

According to him a follow up with the Attorney General and Minister of Justice’s office revealed that Parliament is yet to communicate with them on referrals for prosecution.

Similar checks in Parliament also confirmed that the clerk of parliament is yet to sign the letter to be forwarded to the AG’s outfit.

“It would be good if the clerk signs the letter, so that it can be communicated to the AG for action to be taken”, he emphasized.

A member of the Committee, Rockson-Nelson Etse Dafeamekpor further added that it was when the Attorney General appeared before the Public Account Committee (PAC) and they enquired on progress of recommendations for prosecution that it came out that the AG has not received any recommendation from Parliament for prosecution.

He added that the law establishing the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) without information emanating from the Legislature, they can go ahead and take action on issues coming out of the public hearing of PAC.

The MP also backed the Chairman’s call for the letter to be transmitted from Parliament to the AG’s office for action to be taken.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Minority on the Appointment Committee has taken a swipe at their colleagues on the Majority side for breaching time-tested practices of the Committee, as they went ahead to vet Minister of State designate at the Ministry of Energy.

According to a statement issued by the Deputy Minority leader, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah there is a long-standing parliamentary practice that requires national circulation of information on memoranda from the public.

That is, the public ought to be given adequate time to submit memoranda to make representation; and the Minority is at a loss as to the rationale for the indecent haste on the part of the Majority, more especially as there is a substantive Minister of Energy, and the nominee is already a Deputy Minister at the sector.

Last week, it took a strong push back from the Minority to call off the vetting of the same nominee just a day after the referral by the Speaker to the Appointment Committee to ensure that the appointment was advertised.

The Minority wishes to serve notice that it will not be part of any hasty process deliberately designed by the Majority to deny the people of Ghana participation in the work of the Appointment Committee and Ghana’s democracy.

Consistent with the Minority’s earlier position, the Caucus will not participate in the vetting of any ministerial nominee that adds to the already bloated size of this Akufo-Addo/ Bawumia government.

Again, the Minority cannot support the President’s nomination for the Minister of State at the Ministry of Energy at a time when Ghana is going through very difficult periods, including crippling economic crisis, food insecurity, debt default, corruption, state capture and wasteful expenditures.

The Minority once again calls on President Akufo-Addo to downsize his government to signal to the people of Ghana that, at the very least, he is in tune with feedback and appreciates the challenges resulting from the bad economic policies of his government. It cannot be the case that whiles the government asks the people to tighten their belt; those in government would have no belt at all.

Under the circumstances, the NDC Minority Caucus cannot in good conscience participate in the vetting of yet another injury time ministerial nominee, he affirmed.

Ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament for North Dayi, Joycelyn Tetteh has today, Monday July, 8, 2024 toured three (3) Basic Examination Certificate Examination Centres in her constituency and provided each candidate twenty five (GHc 25) Ghana cedis for the week at the ongoing examination.

According to her she is aware of the socioeconomic situations hence supporting these candidates to at least buy breakfast each day before they sit for their exams.

She challenged them to pass their exams with good grades and she will be there to support them heavily with their SHS prospectus.

The lawmaker further provided one hundred Ghana cedis GHc 100 to the invigilator and some support for various teachers from the schools that have brought their candidates to the centers as motivations for their commitment to serving her beloved pupils.

Hon. Joycelyn has assured to doing her part as far as educational activities are concerned in North Dayi Constituency.

The candidates, invigilators and the teachers alike were grateful for this supportive and benevolent gesture from their MP. They wished her well in all her endeavours.

Bismark Kwabla Kpobi

The Majority in Parliament has expressed disappointment in the Minority for standing in the way of government, as it makes efforts to ensure Ghanaians have fair pricing of cement in the country.

Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo Markin at a press conference on Thursday, July 4, 2024, expressed worry over the attitude of some members of the Minority, when government is taking steps to ensure Ghanaians do not experience constant price increase in cement produce.

According to him, more worrying is the fact that the NDC Minority keeps calling on government to leave up to expectation by halting the arbitrary increase in cement products in the country, and yet their attitude in parliament towards that effort speaks otherwise.

“We are disappointed at the manner in which the minority went about the Legislative Instrument (LI) which was laid two days ago in Parliament”, he stated.

The Majority Leader asserts that the main objective of the L.I as contained in the paper presented is to promote competition within the cement industry, but not to regulate pricing of cement; adding that government is not seeking to re-introduce price control as if we are a communist government.

He said this government believes in free market enterprise, but it should be regulated and checked. ‘When the matter came up for the laying of the L.I. the Minority raised a strong objection to the effect that we should subject the L.I. to a pre-laying, which suggestion we agreed. It was made and referral was made to the Subsidiary Legislation of Parliament, it is headed by Dr. Dominic Ayeni after their deliberation they came up with a document, a report signed by the chair of the committee”.

The content said if the sector Minister would take into consideration all the amendments, then they are not opposed to the L.I. The Minister incorporated every single amendment proposed by the committee into the new L.I before same was laid. In other words, the old L.I. was changed so the Minority amendment was factored into the new L I.

“So how come the next day some members of the Minority came attacking government? They are the same people complaining about cost of leaving, cost of pricing of food stuffs and production, and government is taking steps to protect the consumer, the ordinary user of cement in Ghanaian.”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Justmoh Company Dr. Justice Amoh, currently constructing the Boankra Inland port has appealed to Parliament to intervene and ensure that funds are made available for the completion of phase one of the project which is forty percent complete.

According him this is an important national project hence they have been to their banks to ensure that the project goes on even though they have not been paid since November 2023.

He made this appeal when the Committee on Roads and Transport visited the site on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, as part of their oversight to see for themselves where the project has reached as there is much public interest in the project.

More so, it is hoped that the visit of the MPs would help facilitate how best funds would be made available to the contractor for successful completion of the project.

The CEO of Justmoh thanked the Committee for coming around and pointed out that the visit is historic, adding that in his thirty-five years being in the construction industry this is the first time he has had a visit from a parliamentary Committee.

Concerning the regulation of his contract on the Boankra project, he noted that the process is ongoing, and to the best of his knowledge, it is before the Public Procurement Authority and they have given approval for the project to continue; “but we are yet to finalize the signing of the contract.”

According to him, the contract that was approved by parliament was three hundred and thirty million dollars; but this was revised now to three hundred and eighty million dollars and “we signed one hundred and ten million dollars with the concessioner for a section of the project”, he added.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Roads and Transport Committee, Kennedy Osei-Nyarko has explained that the current contractor working on the Boankra Inland Port project has been regularized based on issues raise by the Minority members of the Committee on controversies between Ashanti Port Service and Justmoh on the abrogation of their contract.

According to him the sector Ministry has explained that Ashanti Port Services were given time to get the needed fund to work but could not do it and their contract was subsequently terminated as the Ministry has gone to the Public Procumbent Authority to regularize the contract of Justmoh, the current contractor working on the project.

He said the Attorney General and lawyers would deal with whatever they need to do in the wake of a possible judgment debt as some of the parties are in court.

In an interview, he pointed out that they have advised the ministry to bring the new contract to Parliament as the initial contract was brought to Parliament.

Mr. Osei-Nyarko further noted that the Committee has learnt that there were some variations in the contract, indicating that in the initial feasibility study, it did not come out that some portions were water logged, and when not worked on, in the future additional money would be spent to do filling. And working on those areas delayed the project a bit.

Meanwhile, the committee has requested for the new contract to be brought to it for them to be well informed on the current development to help them adequately inform the public and the media on the project.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Roads and Transport Committee Kennedy Osei-Nyarko in the company of other Committee members has expressed satisfaction in the work so far done at the site.

The Committee members as part of their oversight role paid a day’s working visit to the ongoing Boankra Inland port project in Ejisu constituency on Wednesday, July 3, 2024.

According to him, the Ministry, contractor and consultant have done well so far with forty percent of phase one of the project done.

“What we witnessed is impressive; when you are outside you hear so many things as if nothing is happening, all of us are witnesses; you the media, we on the side of the committee, I would say we are impressed. We were told by the consultant that the contractor has not been paid since November 2023, the IPC that has been raised has not been honoured”.

He affirmed that the project is such a great initiative, and that the government and the ministry should do well to ensure the project goes on, since it would be helpful for the nation.” It is not for only the Ashanti Region; but the Sahel and the Northern part of the country; it is going to serve a great part of the Northern half of the country”.

And further pointed out that initially he was of the view that the first phase would be completed by the end of this year, “but we have been told in 2026 due to the new changes that came in. We are happy as a committee and we are going to the House to report it; where ever we have to find money for the contractor to finish the work we would do for the project not to halt”, he assured.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Minority members on the Appointment Committee have boycotted vetting of deputy Trade and Industry Minister nominee, Kofi Ahenkorah Marfo on Tuesday, July 2, 2024.

According to a statement issued by the Minority Leader Dr Atto Forson, they, as a caucus are affronted by the already large size of the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government and its poor economic performance. “We are again unable to support this nomination by President Akufo-Addo at this time because our country has gone through very difficult periods, including crippling economic crisis, food insecurity, debt default as a result of excessive borrowing, corruption in government and wasteful and reckless expenditure.

He further pointed out in his statement that, ordinary Ghanaians going through excruciating hardships and businesses relocating from Ghana as a result of the high tax regime created by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, one would have expected the President to downsize his already large government.

This would have sent a signal to the people that President was mindful of the economic realities and was willing to do things differently to restore the needed confidence in the economy. That the President continues to nominate additional ministers to his already large sized government at this injury time demonstrates a lack of appreciation of the economic mess that his government has unleashed on Ghanaians as a result of its bad economic policies.

And consistent with their position as announced on May 17, 2024, the NDC Minority Caucus cannot out of good conscience support the approval of this injury time deputy minister nominee, especially when this Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has been reckless, wasteful and insensitive about the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian.

“We will not, and cannot, take part in a decision to further burden the already suffering Ghanaian, especially when the president is unmindful of the financial consequences of his bloated government”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com