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Ranking Member on Local Government and Rural Development, Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye is advocating for fiscal decentralisation for the Assemblies in Ghana as part of complementing the decentralisation the country has embarked on.

According to him recentralizing small fiscal regimes of the Assemblies is against the tenet of the Ghanaian Republican 1992 Constitution and principles of our local governance structure.

In an address with members of the Parliamentary Press Corps (PPC) he pointed out that government is supposed to give five (5) percent of total revenue to the District Assemblies Common Fund. This is a statutory provision in the constitution, “for a whole year government has not done that, what is the assurance that the one that is not statutory when government collects it would be sent back to the MMDAs?” He queried.

He further noted that, government has proven for some time now that it cannot be trusted as far as reimbursing the Assemblies are concerned. It is troubling for government to come and collect property rate meant for the assemblies and take it to the center, he added.

After they take what they take then they would give the remaining to the Assemblies. GRA themselves are limited in scope and jurisdiction, “so, how are they effectively going to embark on this function that has been executed by the MMDAs for some time?”

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Member of Parliament for Agona East Queenstar Pokuah Sawyer has urged government to consider revising the huge property rate that is being charged in other to encourage property owners to honour that obligation to the assemblies.

According to her government should be flexible with it and further empower the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in collecting the property rate rather than waiting for the Ghana Revenue Authority to do so.

“They might not even know whom and where to go for it at a particular time and I am still insisting that government should allow the MMDCEs to do that internally”. She made this known at a press briefing in Parliament House after making a statement on it on the floor of the House.

Madam Pokuah Sawyer further pointed out that in the 2022 budget statement of government, it was made emphatically clear that the GRA was going to move around the MMDAs to take over the collection of Internally Generated Funds (IGF).

This, she noted was not a positive development considering the fact that most of the districts do not raise enough IGF to run the assemblies, and when they have to share the little that would come with another government agency, then it becomes very problematic.

Citing the Agona East District Assembly, as an example, she said “assuming the IGF is about one million Ghana cedis and the GRA has to come in to help collect it, and they have to take a percentage of say 60 percent the 40 percent left what can it do?” She queried.

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The Minority side of the Communications Committee has taken a swipe at the Minister for Communications and Digitalisation Ursula Owusu Ekuful and the Director General of the National Identification Authority (NIA) Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah as being responsible for the juries that occurred during the sim card registration on Tuesday, March 22, 2022 at the NCA head office.

According to them the directives given are absolutely untenable and do not make sense technically for sim card registration to be done before March 31, 2022 otherwise sim cards would be deactivated.

At a press conference addressed by the Deputy Raking member of the Committee Samuel George Nartey, per the NCA’s own report two weeks ago less than eight million Ghanaians have registered whiles there are over forty million active sim cards.

“We expect a proactive Ministry and Agency to by now announce extension of the exercise. We do not know what is holding them back or the fear that they would be called incompetent and the injuries occurring all because of the fear of the deadline”.

He further called for the reversal of the policy directives and apologies rendered to the families of the victims; and in addition the NIA office is a National Security zone which should not see more than hundred people there since it houses bio data of Ghanaians.

“They must stop the mass registration and rather channel their resources to the district offices of NIA as today it is a stampede, tomorrow a different thing might happen; we cannot handle with all the numbers there”.

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Member of Parliament for Sawla- Tuna-Kalba Constituency, Andrew Dari Chiwitey has appealed for support for his constituents at Kalba after a rainstorm ripped off the only health center in the area and also displaced hundreds of residents.

He want the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) as a matter of urgency support in bringing the back the health center into full operations after it was heavily hit by the rainstorm.

On Saturday, March 19, 2022 a late evening downpour in the community was accompanied by strong winds that caused extensive damage to property running into several thousand of cedis.

At least 3 children were injured and buildings were destroyed in the 20- minute’s rainstorm.

Even though the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has been to the community to undertake an assessment, the Legislator says the affected residents will need some support towards their recovery and not the usual giving of plastics bowls by the Organization.

The MP said he is in touch with the District Director of Health, the in-charge of the facility and the Damongo Catholic Diocese to fast-track support for the re-roofing of the health center so that quality health can be delivered to the people.

According to him, he has some small money in his NHIS accounts which he will quickly mobilize to assist in the rebuilding of the health center.

“I am really saddened by the extent of damage caused by the disaster and I urged NADMO to support because my people are broken”, the MP stated.

Ghanamps.com

As Members of Parliament continue to complain about their questions disappearing, or not being programmed, Member of Parliament for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba is worried over a community-health planning and service centre (CHPS compound) which was started under the John Dramani Mahama administration with a ninety-five (95) percent completion in 2016 but have been left to deteriorate.

According to him he wonders when the health facility would be completed for the use of his people and at the same time there is a health center that has been left to dilapidate.

In an interview on Friday, March 18, 2022 he noted that he want to find out from the sector Minister if there are plans to rehabilitate the health center as advertised in the order paper.

“I wanted the Deputy Majority Leader to give me reasons why that question was dropped and an assurance if that question would be captured. All these things he evaded and did not answer; he came and said I should go and meet my leadership”.

He further added that surprisingly the First Deputy Speaker who was in the chair directed that he should see the clerks at table over the same matter. “My issue is I do not have to see the table office, I was supposed to ask the question today”.

Again the Deputy Majority Leader is a smart guy, he is always trying to dodge my questions on the subject matter. I asked a specific question to the education Minister which was advertised, “I did not get any communications from leadership neither the table office”, he complained.

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Member of Parliament for Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Andrew Dari Chiwetey has dismissed assertion that the Minority side of the House is deliberately frustrating government business on the floor of the House by citing issues of quorum the whole of last week.

“Where are the Majority MPs for us to take a decision on the floor of the House? It’s clear that they do not come to the chamber; you can see that the members present in the chamber, we would go strictly the constitution ones we need 138 members to take a major decision”.

In an interview, the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba lawmaker insisted that it cannot be said that the  Minority is frustrating government business, no; “ we are always present to work if you go into the chamber now and count the members present in the chamber those on our side are far more than their side”.

As to whether their crusade would force the Majority MPs to come to the House to help take decision, he said “we think they should be there to do business, we are not forcing them but we think they should be there to do business. If it happens we have to take a major decision and we do not have the numbers we do not care”.

“We would insist we have the 138 and we must go by the constitution Article 102 and 104 must work that is all”.

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First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Owusu had expressed worry over the practice where Members of Parliament move to the chamber, write their names and leave the chamber.

The Deputy Minister had reason to direct the table office to write names of only members present in the chamber unless they were seen involving in proceeding before leaving for other parliamentary businesses.

The House last week suffered a number of adjournments for lack of quorum usually raised by the Minority side of the House.

According to the First Deputy Speaker, it is difficult to justify the adjournment of proceedings occasioned by lack of quorum, and yet the following day, in the votes and proceedings, there are more than necessary numbers of lawmakers to take decisions.

He stated that he was not oblivious of the fact that some lawmakers attend Committee meetings at a point in time, but there are procedures to doing that.

“That is why, the rules says ring the bell for ten minutes, there is nowhere in the presence of this parliament that you cannot walk into the chamber within ten minutes if indeed we have people at the committee meetings. We have enough time to ask them to come to the chamber so that business of the House can go on. I find it inconsistent business is truncated because a quorum is raised and the numbers are not sufficient”.

And charge leadership of the House to do something about this development and it has occurred throughout the whole of last week; proceedings have been halted, “because at a point someone counts and noticed that there are not sufficient members in the House for it to proceed, yet the following morning our report indicated that we have more members”.

So, if anybody takes the report and compare with the votes and proceedings “what happened, it would be difficult to reconcile how come we have two hundred and fifty of you present yet you could not take a decision; we have to do something about this reporting”, he emphasized..

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Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin has told Parliament President Nana Akufo-Addo is not be blamed for the delay in him coming to deliver the State of the Nation Address (SONA) which is a constitutional mandate.

According to him it’s the duty of the Rt. Hon Speaker and leadership of the House to agree and programme him to come and deliver when the date is communicated to him.

This came to light last week Friday, March 18, 2022 when the Member of Parliament for Adaklu Governs Kwame Agbodza wanted to know when the President would fulfill the constitutional mandate of presenting SONA.

Earlier in the previous two weeks the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle also raise same issue on the floor of the House.

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Majority Chief Whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh has pointed out that to be fair to the Minority, there has been a number of occasions they have supported them to pass a number of agreement and motions on the floor of the House.

According to him for some time now both the Majority and Minority have been trying to engage each other and it has been quite productive and clearly Ghanaians have imposed a parliament on them to see them work together.

“We in the majority have been doing, I should be fair here there has been a number of occasions the Minority has supported us to pass a number of agreements and motions. To that extent I want to commend them, they have been quite cooperative”.

He was however; quick to point out in an interview that there are some unusual surprises sometimes with regards to approvals and other businesses by their counterparts.

“I guess we have to do our homework well, I do not want to spill the beans, we have to do our homework well; do not forget it is a competition they are playing such a way that they would have an advantage over us, a matter of they trying to obstruct government business the conclusion is for you to draw”.

He made this known in an interview, when questioned if he believes the Minority is doing all they can to frustrate government business as noticed in the past week.

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The Majority Chief Whip Frank Annoh-Dompreh has thrown a challenge to his colleagues in the Minority to allow them pass the E-levy and face the consequences. “If the much talked E-Levy (Electronic Transfer Bill) is bad a policy as the Minority has told Ghanaians, they should allow us pass it and suffer the consequences thereafter.

“Ask them, if they care more about the Ghanaian people and they want to come to power and we bring a policy that is so bad, they should rather help us to pass the Electronic Transfer Bill 2021 and surfer the political fortunes against us”.

In an interview, He noted further in an interview that the Minority is aware that the E-Levy would innure to their benefit and the huge revenue which would come in to be the game changer and the narrative would change.

“Bottom line is that we should put our house in order as majority, the cue is clear to us, we have drawn our lessons what has happen the last weeks, we have to put our house together and get our business done simple as that”.

Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com