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Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo Markin has taken a swipe at the Minority Chief Whip for setting up an agenda for the media to take on the chairman of the Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

“You are full of mischief, partisan and political; you were quiet when he was making his submission, where is the Ranking member of the Committee, we are looking for him”.

“Why has the chairman of the Committee been singled out for blame and the issue being personalized? We have both Chairman and Ranking of the Committee, they both confer, chairman alone does not move the committee”.

The Deputy Majority Leader pointed out that the Minority whip should not go after the Chairman of the Committee who is a respected senior member of the House and further added that when the Whip starts speaking the way he has started then they know the “Peace of the House is about being disturbed, he did not make a submission, it came with threat, if we want the committee to speed up its work, leadership should engage the committee and know their problems”.

And if they want them to move with speed of light they should engage them. They, on the Majority side do not accept the submission made by the Minority Chief Whip to single out chairman and subject him to attack and ridicule, when leadership of the Committees are part of the decision, he lamented.

“And your members are part of the committee why single him out and get the media to go after him. The media should know the agenda, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak is setting”

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka has served notice to the House that their side would resist any bill brought to the House, in the wake of the unnecessary delay in considering the private member bill, “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 (LGBTQ+Bill) which has gone beyond three months.

According to him even if a bill is brought to the House to provide water in his constituency and the LGBTQ+ Bill has not been brought to the House for passage the Minority would resist all bills and not cooperate.

“So long as that bill stays there no other bills would pass through this House; we see that its deliberate, if you want it to be fast tracked you know what to do. If government want to get that bill done they know what to do. I am telling the chairman to the face that he does not want the bill to come to the House”.

And added that, if chairman of the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee says what he is saying is not true, he should work out in a week if he would not be able to bring out the report. “This is not the first time that a bill has been referred to him in his committee, we know how you work”, lamented.

This incidence happened on the floor of the House on Wednesday, June 8, 2022 when the Chairman of the Committee handling the bill Kwame Anyim-Adu-Antwi, sets the record straight on floor of the House that it was not his doing for the bill to delay before the Committee. But the Minority chief whip defended MPs who had taken a swipe at the chairman for the delay of the Bill.

And further pointed out that it is the way and manner the chairman of the Committee is going about things hence the delay in the Bill. “He should have gotten a big hall, invited all who had issues to submit say clause one of the Bill they take a day and conclude on that. But you decided to use a vehicle that gave people unnecessary time, meanwhile you know of the constitutional provision and I would give you one Article 106 clause 4; “A bill introduce in the House on behalf of the president shall and should not be delayed in any committee for three months”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The president of the Republic of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo is to lead Ghanaians to plant some 20 million tree seedlings this year.

The 20 million tree seedlings target for the 2022 edition of the Green Ghana initiative is described as ambitious by the Minister of lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, thus every Ghanaian is expected to plant one tree seedlings.

As such the minister advised as many as possible individuals who can plant more trees to do so.

Other very prominent members of the Ghanaian public including the two former presidents, John Agyekum Kuffour, and John Dramani Mahama; Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Yaa Na, the clergy and the Chief Imam would all join in the tree planting exercise on Friday, June 10, 2022

Ten million seedlings would be planted in unreserved compartments while the remaining ten million would be planted across the country in schools, churches, mosques, along the street, homes, and other public areas.

The minister announced that President Akufo Addo would kick start the tree planting at the Afua Sunderland Park, the Vice president would do same at Tamale, the Speaker of Parliament would do his tree planting at the preset of parliament, the Chief Justice at the preset of the Supreme Court, former president Agyekum Kuffour at Gomoa Nsuam, former president Mahama in Accra, the Asantehene would do his in Kumasi, Yaa Naa at Yendi among others.

Ghana, the Minister noted, lost a whopping 80 percent of its forest cover since 1900 and now the country has a crisis situation in the form of climate change and Ghana as a respected member of the international community is contributing it’s quota to the global effort at fighting climate change through this initiative.

Mr. Samuel Jinapor called on all and sundry to join government and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources as well as the Lands Commission to make the day a success and make Ghana green again.
Ghanamps.com

Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin has assured the House that everything would be done to programme the Minister for Finance and the National Security Minister during the week to appear in the House.

The Deputy Majority Leader gave the assurance when the Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, raised concerns about the business committee not programming the aforementioned Ministers for the week.

The Rt. Hon Speaker, Alban Bagbin last week directed the Business Committee to programme the National Security Minister to appear before the House to brief the House on the security situation in the country.

The MPs during sitting last two weeks called for such briefing to acquaint them with relevant knowledge and information especially at the time government has launched the “See Something, Say Something” campaign in the wake of threats of terrorism in the country.

Mr. Armed Ibrahim, Member of Parliament for Banda reacting to the Business statement on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 said the MPs are the privileged ones who can have a close sitting and interrogate the matters with the Minster of National Security”, hence it was important to use any tool available to get him to address the House.

Additionally, last two weeks, the Speaker also directed that the Minister of Finance be programmed to appear before the House to brief the House on the COVID expenditures before the House could consider the Seventy-five million Euros that the Minister was requesting approval for.
Ghanamps.com

The Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, has warned that parliament would not be doing its image any good if it fails to pass the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian family values bill 2021.
He said it would be an indictment on the 8th parliament if the bill is not considered.
“Many were those who were saying that they can swear heaven and earth that this parliament was not going to consider this bill, so clearly Mr. Speaker, we are proving them right; when they said they swore heaven and earth that this parliament of the Republic of Ghana could not have the will to be able to pass this proper sexual human right bill.

Mr. Speaker, it is getting more than one year now, and I’m totally surprised leadership is not keen on the bill”.

He asserts that this is not the first time the issue on the bill was raised in the plenary; it came up in the last meeting during the presentation of a business statement just as we are doing today. “And the answer that was given by the Hon. Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin was that the Committee was inundated with about 150 petitions and that they were going to consider at least 10 petitions in a week. And that by estimation, by March this year the Committee would be able to exhaust the one hundred and fifty petitions that is if they were to consider 10 a day, then they needed fifteen weeks”.

He noted that parliament was on recess for about two months, and from the time the question was asked, that was at the beginning of the last sitting, “so the fifteen weeks excuse that was given by the deputy Majority Leader who presented the business statement on that fateful day, the fifteen weeks period was to elapse as at 31st March, 2022.

“Mr. Speaker, as I speak today, we are in June, so if you gave an excuse and bought time for fifteen weeks, the fifteen weeks have elapsed”.

He advised the Chairman of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi let the whole country know if he is facing challenges on the bill. “But we can’t keep the country at suspense with the bill which we gave excuse that by 31st March, we would be able to pass it; now we are in June, nothing is heard”.

He believes if the Committee had been able to present a report to the plenary, the house would have been able to use just one week or two weeks to consider the bill”

Dominic Shirmori/Ghanamps.com

Member of Parliament for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, Andrew Dari Chiwitey has expressed disappointment in answers given to his urgent question on shortage of teachers in the district of his constituency by the Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum on the floor of the House on Thursday, June 2, 20220.

According to him the Ministers answers indicate that he is not connected to the educational directorate in the district, “even when I talked of teacher ratio he looked at me in a very strange manner which is very bad as far as education is concerned”.

In an interview he noted that, we should be working at matching teachers with pupils, “that is the only way to get result.  He said he felt so sad because recently, he went round his constituency, but almost every community he went to they had deficit. “In some communities, class one to six, we have only a teacher, in some cases the community paid the teacher”.

He added that there is a deficit of five hundred and sixty-six (566) teachers in the district, despite the fact that the students would be writing the same exams with their colleagues in Accra, Kumasi and all other high schools.

The MP revealed that one of the schools he visited two weeks ago they have shortage of over thirty teachers, “that is too much” and for him he thinks the minister should seat up and resolve some of this problems. The painful aspect is that, they have qualified teachers with certificates with their licenses, yet they are not engaged.

“Personally, I have gone to the Minister’s office to discuss this with him, you go and you cannot have access to him, I have written letters to him, done follow ups, I have teachers who have the qualification to be employed but I did not have access.  I filled a statement in the last meeting on the shortage of teachers in the district, there were days I was told I would take the statement today, then it was pushed forward so finally I had to resort to question”, he lamented.

Mr. Andrew Dari Chiwitey noted that when the speaker talked about him using other avenues, he wanted to make a statement and give very detailed brief on the current situation but did not have that opportunity, but he has not given up he would further engage the Speaker on the matter.

As to whether he would use the avenue of the Committee of Education that has an oversight of the sector, he responded in the affirmative.

“If you follow the secondary school examination results for the past three years you realised that the secondary school perform badly in the Savannah region. I think we have to seat up and do something that is why I have made a plan,  I have visited Tuna Secondary School next would be Sawla then I would go to a private secondary school. I would listen to them we see what we can do collectively to bring up education in my constituency”

Kwaku Sakyi-Dannso/Ghanamps.com

Ranking member on the Privileges Committee Kweku Rickett-Hagan has revealed that he has had discussions with the chairman of the Committee Joseph Osei-Owusu for them to put measures in place to ask for extension of time in the wake of challenges they have encountered as they have a two weeks referral on three absentee lawmakers.

In an interview with Ghanamps.com he noted that the clerk to the Committee has used all available means to invite the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome/Kwabenya to appear before the Committee but she has said in a media interview that she is not aware of her invitation.

“We are re-inviting her again, as we were unable to conduct her hearing on Friday, May 27, 2022. This time we have requested that we receive from her in writing; whatever it is we would make her aware. She is supposed to meet us and we would wait to get that signal in writing”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

Squatters are currently occupying the UNDP flats at Cantonment, the Minister of Works and Housing,  Francis Asenso-Boakye has disclosed

 The squatters are said to have taken over the facility since 2017 when the original occupants who were mostly staff of foreign missions in Ghana, the Cuban Medical Brigade and staff of individual foreign companies left the facility due to its deplorable.

 The state is therefore losing money as the squatters are not paying rent to the government.

The disclosure forced the house to throw barrage of questions at the Minister including why he has allowed such development to fester, when he was going to ensure the squatters are evicted, as well as when the work to give the facility a facelift would commence.

 The Minister assured that some measures have been instituted to ensure actualisation of the giving the UNDP flats a facelift for which technical and financial appraisals of the flats.

He said  the Ministry in consultation with the relevant institutions is considering an eviction exercise to get all the squatters out of the buildings.

Additionally, the Ministry of Works and Housing has included the UNDP flats as part of its redevelopment scheme and therefore, is in the process of arranging a structured financing scheme for the rehabilitation as well as redevelopment of the flats.

 The UNDP flats at Cantonments, were constructed in 1960, to serve as a diplomatic enclave, offering residential accommodation to the staff of foreign missions in Ghana.

The facility as at December, 2010 comprised of forty-eight (48) flats, housed in four blocks of three (3) storey buildings.

It was initially occupied mostly by staff of foreign missions in Ghana, the Cuban Medical Brigade and staff of individual foreign companies.

But since the facilities did not undergo any major rehabilitation since it’s construction it started deteriorating, a situation that triggered the tenants who initially petitioned the Ministry to take measures to rehabilitate the deplorable state of the flats to leave the flats for private and alternate accommodation which was considered suitable for them.

Ghanamps.com

Constituency Secretary of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Dome/Kwabenya constituency, Ansah Larbi said the new crop of Executives are going to break the eight (8) with or without their lawmaker, Sarah Adwoa Safo.

According to him the least said about their MP the better, adding that they have been managing without her, and their plans have been going on and not centred around their MP, “else we would fail, I say this categorically”

As to whether he was aware the Dome/Kwabenya MP has received a message to appear before the Privilege Committee, but the MP during a recent interview indicated that she was hearing of her being invited in the media, he responded saying;  “I do not work in Parliament, so whatever the MPs and leadership of the House think is right they should do, we are working as a party executives, as far as I am concerned, I am not talking much about the MP, the party would succeed without her and is simple as ABC”.

When questioned about floating voters in the constituency he noted that Sarah Adowa Sarfo is not the first MP on the ticket in the constituency; “when she came the party already occupied the seat for two terms”, he added.

The secretary was confident that what the constituents are looking for is development projects, in terms of roads, health and security; and as far as the party is putting economic infrastructure in place and is improving on their social-economic life, and is what they are looking for, they would not be looking at an individual to vote for.

He, however, admitted that though they have been managing the constituency without the MP, they need her in the constituency; that is why they voted for her, they voted for her to carry out her responsibility.

On their chances of winning the seat in 2024, he noted that they are on the ground and trying to address what constituents want and addressing issues in that direction. “We would listen to them and we would not say our MP is not around so we would throw our hands in the air”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com

The Minority in parliament has served notice to renew their fight for government to render account on COVID -19 related expenses.

Addressing the parliamentary press corps on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu affirmed the need to pursue probity and accountability with regards to the COVID funds and related expenses following the recent revelation by a former Parliamentary candidate and Second Northern Regional Vice Chairperson of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) Felicia Tetteh.

He said the Minority feels vindicated by the revelations made by Felicia Tetteh, who contested the Sagnarigu parliamentary seat on the ticket of the NPP in the 2020 elections.
Felicia Tetteh disclosed that she received a sum of Ghc100,000 out of the total amount of COVID-19 funds. “The Covid fund came, I was given Ghc 50,000; my quota was Ghc 50,000 as a regional second Vice then who doubles as the parliamentary candidate for Sagnarigu, I had another Ghc 50,000; making it Ghc 100,000. The constituency was given Ghc 200,000. The MCE was given Ghc 30,000 and the chairman was given Ghc 20,000 whilst the other executives got Ghc 10,000”,
Following this disclosure Mr. Haruna Iddrisu said; “We in the Minority in parliament as much as we feel vindicated we also feel equally scandalised by emerging reports by leading members of the New Patriotic Party in particular a lady vice chair called Felicia from the Northern Region, Felicia Tetteh who is publicly reported to have said that Covid monies were shared amongst party leadership, constituency regional and for my purposes I add national.

That in fact makes our call for an eminent investigation of the highly anomalous Covid expenditures pending to be probed; probed by parliament, or by the Auditor General, or if President Nana Addo Danquah has any respect for the tenets and values of accountability and transparency to authorize a public probe, enquiry into how the over 19 billion Covid monies were disbursed and utilized”

According to him, it is now clear why a motion by the Minority in parliament to probe COVID by an institution which should be the most fundamental institution in guardian of the public purse, parliament would dismiss the motion even at birth by actors of the New Patriotic Party political administration.

The Minority therefore called on the president, and reminded him that the 1992 Constitution is premised on probity and accountability and that if he has any respect for the values of integrity; let him probe COVID and COVID spending across the country

“But we are to believe for now, and conclude that the Felicia evidence is good evidence and that when his Excellency John Mahatma addressed some groups in the United States barely a month ago and stated that Covid resources were used to prosecute the 2020 elections little did he know that Felicia Tetteh would come and affirm that which His Excellency John Mahama stated”.

They believe the revelation is just a tip of the iceberg as more revelations would come upon further probe.

Dominic Shirimori/Ghanamps.com