Debates of 8 Mar 2005

MR. SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:25 a.m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:25 a.m.
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs/ Majority Leader (Mr. F. K. Owusu- Adjapong) 10:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am aware that a number of committees met on Saturday; even some met on Sunday. For record purposes and for recognition I hope the Clerk's office would collate these and put them in our Votes and Proceedings.
PAPERS 10:25 a.m.
MOTIONS 10:35 a.m.
Chairman of the Committee (Mr. F. W. A. Blay) 10:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, that notwithstanding the provisions of Standing Order 80 (1) which require that no motion shall be debated until at least forty-eight hours have elapsed between the date on which notice of the motion is given and the date on which the motion is moved, the motion for the adoption of the Fourth Report of the Appointments Committee on the President's nominations for ministerial appointments may be moved today.
Mr. A. O. Aidooh 10:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I beg to second the motion.
Question put and motion agreed to.
Resolved accordingly.
Fourth Report of the Appointments Committee on the
President's Nominations
Mr. Blay 10:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, that this honourable House adopts the Fourth Report of the Appointments Committee on the President's nominations for ministerial appointments.
Mr. Speaker, the Report is contained in a 7-page document that is before you. Mr. Speaker, I will plead with you that you allow the Hansard office to consider the whole Report as read.
1.0 Introduction
Pursuant to article 78 (1) of the Constitution, His Excellency the President communicated to Parliament, for prior approval, his nomination of four persons for appointment as Ministers as follows:
i. Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani -- Minister- designate -- for Presidential Affairs
ii. Hon. Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku -- Minister of State-designate -- Ministry of Regional Co- operation and NEPAD
iii. Hon. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom -- Minister of State-designate -- Public Sector Reforms
iv. Ms. Elizabeth Ohene -- Minister of State designate -- Ministry of Education and Sports.
Mr. A. O. Aidooh (NPP -- Tema West) 10:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to second the motion for the approval of the nominees for the positions specified against their names.
Question proposed.
Mr. Haruna Iddrisu (NDC -- Tamale South) 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to congratulate the nominees and to wish them well in their respective endeavours. But I have a particular interest in the Minister for Tertiary Education for which I would like to make some comments.
During the process of her vetting, she indicated that there had been expansion in terms of access to higher education. Mr. Speaker, as much as there has been expansion in educational infrastructure
as a result of proceeds from the Ghana Education Trust Fund, our students in the public universities are particularly concerned about the urgent need for their student loans to be increased in the face of the Wahala Budget and in the face of rising cost of living. Their immediate concern is how much of the loan will be offered immediately to them.
Also, Mr. Speaker, our students in the polytechnics are particularly concerned about the progression and placement of the Higher National Diploma to which I believe the Minister in charge of Tertiary Education will advert her mind and deal with it as expeditiously as possible.

Capt. Effah-Dartey (rtd.): Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the good Friend from Tamale South is misleading this House when he says that there is a Wahala Budget. Mr. Speaker, with the greatest respect, I do not know and I do not think this honourable House is aware of anything called Wahala Budget. Mr. Speaker, what we know in this House is the Budget of Hope and Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member for Tamale South should withdraw the expression “Wahala Budget” and substitute it with “Budget of Hope”.
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member, I think the problem is a question of translation of that word, because he does not appear to understand the meaning. You could just give an explanation of Wahala.
Mr. H. Iddrisu 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure the hon. Member wanted to expose his
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Order! Order!
Capt. Effah-Dartey (rtd.) -- rose --
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for Berekum, do you have any point of order to raise?
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for Tamale South, continue.
Mr. H. Iddrisu 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. I was only acknowledging how handsome he looks with the new haircut.
Mr. Speaker, I was congratulating Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, the Minister for Public Sector Reform, and I said that sometime ago under the National Institutional Renewal Programme, some aspects of reform had begun in the public sector. Mr. Speaker, our public sector is believed to be less productive, and there are serious issues of competence and efficiency. I do believe that the hon. Member will live up to the challenge in bringing his expertise to bear, but the ultimate thing would be productivity.
How do we enhance productivity within the public sector of the country, especially viewed against the levels of remuneration in the country? Sometimes, there is a correlation. The amount of productivity is contingent on the morale,

incentives that are available. Other schools of thought may disagree with it.

On this note, Mr. Speaker, I congratulate all of them and in particular, the two.

Mr. Speaker, finally, on the hon. Minister for Regional Integration. I am disappointed that West African countries are continuing to postpone especially the initiative on the second monetary zone which requires that some convergence criterion was met. It is with regret that Ghana, in the last five years, has not been able to attain one of the major requirements, which is a single digit inflation; and our understanding, as the hon. Minister indicated is that we may be postponing it.

At a time that the whole world is moving towards integration, we seem to be tearing apart and unable to live up to many of our defined objectives. One would hope that they would fast-track the process to ensure that the Eco becomes the single currency in the subregion in the foreseeable future.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Lee Ocran (NDC -- Jomoro) 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have a comment to make on the hon. Minister-designate for Presidential Affairs. In the Report, the hon. Minister- designate is alleged to have stated that he had not come across any evidence of any former Minister in the National Democratic Congress Government who had stolen any vehicle. That is, quoting from the hon. Minister-designate. It is quite refreshing to hear that after all vehicles were not stolen. But I would like to know what happened to the vehicles that were then retrieved from the former Ministers, how were they distributed; because successor Ministers did not use any of those vehicles. It will be of interest
to know what happened to those vehicles.
Mr. Joe Baidoe-Ansah 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member said that the Chief of Staff said that he had not come across any evidence that any vehicle was stolen. He translated it to mean that no vehicles were stolen. Mr. Speaker, there are two different interpretations. If one has not come across or has not seen evidence, that does not mean it does not exist. So Mr. Speaker, he misinterpreted what the hon. Minister said and put his own slant on it.
My point is that he just misinterpreted what the Chief of Staff said. What the Chief of Staff said was that he had not come across any evidence that the Ministers stole vehicles; and his interpretation was that the Chief of Staff was saying that no one stole any vehicle. That is not what he said; they are two different things. So I wanted to point out, that there are two different issues here. One, the issue of not seeing any evidence does not mean that it does not exist.
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member, the hon. Member for Jomoro was not on his feet when you raised the point of order. So we continue.
Capt. Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey (rtd.) (NPP -- Berekum): Mr. Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak to the motion. Mr. Speaker, I am a member of the Appointments Committee and I was there when hon. Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku appeared before us; and I want to make a few remarks on his position.
Mr. Speaker, I agree with the hon. Colleague for Tamale South that the issue of Regional Co-operation and NEPAD is very interesting and very serious indeed. Mr. Speaker, I think Ghana is one of the
few countries in West Africa that has a ministerial appointment for this particular area of regional co-operation or regional integration, as you may call it, and especially for NEPAD.
Mr. Speaker, I say so partly because sometime last month or two there was this subject being discussed on the air, that one of the pioneers of NEPAD had even gone as far as to say that NEPAD was a hogwash. Whether it is true or not, I am not absolutely sure; but what comes to mind is the point that NEPAD has become a subject that many people are not absolutely sure of -- its objectives, its implementation and the purpose for which NEPAD was set up.
So for us in Ghana to have a Ministry for Regional Co-operation and NEPAD demonstrates our concern, our support and our determination to make sure that NEPAD works; to make sure that there is regional integration. And it is in this light that I specially call on Dr. Apraku, as the Minister for this area, first of all to congratulate him and then to urge him to see his position as a big challenge; because there must be regional integration, so that even travelling from Ghana to Burkina Faso or to Togo or to any of the West African countries would be far easier than it is today.
Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend is misleading this House. That Ministry existed long before the elephant moved to the Castle. [Laughter.]

Capt. Effah-Dartey (rtd.): Mr.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Member, do you have any point of order to raise?
Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:55 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Listening to him earlier on he said he was urging Dr. Konadu Apraku to do his very best so that regional integration takes place. NEPAD is an aspect of regional integration; it cannot stand on its own. It is only when you are integrated that you talk about peer reviews and what have you. So he is misleading us.
Capt Effah-Dartey (rtd.): Mr. Speaker, I want to resist the temptation to orientate my good Friend about the politics of integration and so on. But basically, I think we are all ad idem.
rose
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Chief Whip, do you have a point of order to raise?
Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:55 a.m.
Yes, sir, he is still misleading this House. He cannot teach anybody what he does not know; he does not know what he is talking about and so he cannot resist any temptation to teach anybody.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Member, that is not a point of order.
Capt. Effah-Dartey (rtd.): Mr. Speaker, I did not even say I want to teach him; I said I want to orientate him. Maybe my hon. Friend is misleading himself about the definition of orientation as opposed to teaching. But Mr. Speaker, I would not want us to draw swords on this matter.
The central point which I am sure my hon. Colleague for Prampram and I agree upon is that there is the need for regional integration. We also agree, I am sure, that NEPAD is a noble objective and I want to join him, I hope, in calling on Dr. Apraku to make sure his Ministry achieves results for our motherland. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. E. T. Mensah (NDC -- Ningo/ Prampram) 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am also a member of the Appointments Committee and I want to congratulate all the Members who have been brought before us for approval. Mr. Speaker, the Minister- designate for Presidential Affairs was too evasive, to the extent that it led to confusing an hon. Member, Joe Baidoe- Ansah, because of some simple statements he made that he did not come across evidence of any Minister having stolen any vehicle.
Mr. Baidoe-Ansah 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member just quoted from a statement the nominee made that he had not come across any evidence. Mr. Speaker, he quoted this and used it to make a claim that he

was evasive. Mr. Speaker, I think it is a very clear case of someone who was not evasive.

If this is what he is using as being evasive then he must, maybe, look for other things because for someone to make a categorical statement that he had not found any evidence, and he using it in evidence against someone whom he thinks is being evasive, quoting me to buttress his point that it suggests evasiveness, Mr. Speaker, I have a problem with it. He is misinterpreting what happened, the event, because you cannot be evasive by making a categorical statement that “this I did not find”. I do not see the evasiveness of that matter.
Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the vetting was viewed nationwide and many people did not have any doubt at all in their minds that it was evasive. He was evasive to the extent that he attempted to answer one question; he confused people including yourself about stolen vehicles, vehicles stolen by Ministers. And I am saying that the issue about stolen vehicles, the question did not just drop from anywhere; there was an antecedent to it that when this Government took office, hon. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey was the Minister for Presidential Affairs then, and we all know the abundant evidence we have picked from the report confirming that cars had been stolen -- four-wheel vehicles were stolen.
It was even alleged that I had stolen four four-wheel vehicles when the Ministry of Youth and Sports had only one four-wheel vehicle, which is still there. And that was why the one who asked the question wanted him to clear the air. He went to the Castle, he went through all the files to the extent that he even mentioned names like Prof. Awoonor and company who even
though they were Presidential Staffers had the status of Ministers. So I am saying that he was evasive and I hope that when he takes his new office, he will not be evasive, and he will be forthright with his answers so that this nation is moved forward.
Mr. Speaker, on the issue of regional integration and the convergence criteria for the second monetary zone that my hon. Colleague from Tamale South mentioned, the problem is that when you look at the criteria that we are using, there is no way any country in West Africa would be able to achieve the targets that we have set for ourselves. It is like we have just copied the targets from the developed democracies. In copying, we need to know where we are coming from, where they started from and where they are, so that we do something to revisit the criteria that we have set for ourselves, so that the integration that we are talking about can come about. Otherwise, as I said that day, if we give ourselves half a century or a century and they would want to stick to the criteria that we have set ourselves, we would never get there.
Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I want to also urge Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, in addition to what was said, that as an economist of high grade he should bring his experiences to bear, to ensure that they talk about structures and institutions. Also, the quality of staff that we employ down the line is also very, very important.
With this, Mr. Speaker, I urge my Friends to vote massively for the motion on the floor.
Minister for Manpower, Youth and Employment (Mr. J. K. Adda) 10:55 a.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Report that is before us.
Mr. Speaker, as much as I would like to say that all four candidates are very good candidates and they were very good choices made by the President, I would like to single out hon. Dr. Paa Kwesi
Minister for Manpower, Youth and Employment (Mr. J. K. Adda) 11:05 a.m.
Nduom and make some comments on his nomination, not only because he was my former boss at Deloitte and Touche but also because I know how much he has done in the area of public sector reform.
Mr. Speaker, Dr. Nduom is a consultant par excellence and he has been my mentor in many ways. In fact, he can, indeed, be referred to as one of the originators of public sector reforms in Ghana.

Mr. Speaker, I recall our days in Deloitte and Touche when after successful work with the state-owned enterprise sector restructuring we moved into compiling a comprehensive reform agenda for Government-wide reform. Dr. Nduom was the brain behind that and it is those efforts that have moved on from that level to the last co-ordinating unit that we referred to as the National Institutional Renewal Programme.

Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt that Dr. Nduom will do the best job for us in this area.

Mr. Speaker, we moved down the road of reform, from Civil Service Reform to restructuring and commercialization studies. It is only in very few cases that we moved into implementation.

Many countries, Mr. Speaker, have benefited from some of the good work that we have done on reform papers prepared here in Ghana. But we ourselves have never really benefited significantly from that by way of implementation.

I would like to recommend to my former boss, Dr. Nduom, that as he takes up the new mantle, he should stay away from more studies, more reviews and move into the implementation mode. This

is because it is only in so doing will the country be able to gain dividends in the public sector reform efforts.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I would like to refer to two major aspects of his work that I would want to suggest to him to concentrate on.

Mr. Speaker, it is important for us to revisit the Civil Service Act, which prescribes four-line directorates for all Civil Service institutions despite the vast disparity in the types of work that they do. I think without revisit of this Act and possibly amendment of it, we may not be able to do any serious work in all the Ministries and, therefore, I suggest strongly that we look at that Act when he takes over his mantle.

Mr. Speaker, on the subvented agencies side, lots of studies have been undertaken, recommendations have been made and we are now ready to move into implementation. I think here is a lot of good work in that area and I would like to urge him to take it up and move swiftly into it and see how we can start implementation so that we save Ghana a lot of the money that is going down the drain, where we are not getting value for the money that we spend.

With this, Mr. Speaker, I would like to urge hon. Colleagues to vote in favour of the recommendations in the Report.
Mr. Moses Aduko Asaga (NDC -- Nabdam) 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I also rise to support the motion for the endorsement of the Ministers that were vetted by the Committee. But in particular also, I would want to talk about the public sector reforms as has adequately been talked about by hon. Navrongo, on Dr. Paa Kwasi Nduom.
Mr. Speaker, I think that, as he rightly
Mr. Moses Aduko Asaga (NDC -- Nabdam) 11:05 a.m.


Mr. James Appietu-Ankrah -- rose
-- 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.
Hon. Member, do you have any point of order to raise?
Mr. Appietu-Ankrah 11:05 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member on the other side referred to somebody as hon. Navrongo. I do not think that we have a Member here called “hon. Navrongo”.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, if he cares to know, I am closer to hon. Kofi Adda and we are all family members. Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, this same job of public sector reforms, I stand corrected, was under the purview of the Senior Minister's office and for the past three or four years, we thought that we should have been growing out of it and coming up with reforms. Now that it is a specific duty, we hope that the Senior Minister would bring some of the lessons he had learnt to support Dr. Nduom so that he could accelerate the programme.
Mr. J. H. Mensah 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, just to clarify
something for my hon. Friend. We have had a process of public sector reform, which will last many years. It has already lasted many years and will last many more years. So far, we have carried it out without creating formal machinery. Last year, we proposed to the Government that it should be institutionalized as part of the processes of government. And therefore we are in the process of institutionalizing it. But I am not abandoning the processes of public sector reform.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy he has just supported what I was saying, the fact that he was in charge of Public Sector Reforms, and we need to learn a lot from him. But the point I was trying to make is that even though we are institutionalising public sector reforms, there are also deadlines for us to meet certain triggers in our programmes with the World Bank and the IMF. And I am trying to alert the new Minister of State that his assignment is a very big one and therefore he has to work more vigorously.
I have always said that I respect Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom and I wish he were still a Cabinet Minister rather than a Minister of State. But whatever it is, he has been given an important assignment.
Mr. B. K. D. Adu (NPP -- Okere) 11:05 a.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the motion on the floor of the House.
Mr. Speaker, in congratulating the four nominees, my advice to them is that they have all been Ministers before and all that they have to look at are the mistakes made and correct them so that we could move forward for the betterment of the nation.
Mr. Speaker, to whom much is given, much is expected. Good things have been said about Dr. Nduom whom I admire so much -- a friend. All I would want to say is that much is expected of him. I would want to assure him of my prayers, like all others, that he would work
assiduously because public reform is the most important in a nation's development. If the public officers do not work hard, what happens? The country retrogresses. I therefore wish him well and I know he will not fail because he is a man who has succeeded in the discipline he has been in.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
On a point of order. I think there is telepathy between the Senior Minister and me; I want to know what kind of comfort he is talking about. [Laughter.]
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member, proceed. That is not a point of order.
Mr. B. D. K. Adu 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was building upon it. Lizzy would not let you stand in her reception for a minute when she is called on a telephone. That is very good indeed and I would want to recommend this to all Ministers appointed. It is unfortunate; sometimes you go to some Ministries and a Minister, knowing you are a Member of Parliament, would even not make an effort to see you. That is not good enough. So Lizzy and all of them, I wish them well because their hard work and innovation would bring this country forward.
With these few words I support the motion on the floor.
Mr. A. K. Agbesi (NDC -- Ashaiman) 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity. Whilst congratulating the nominees, there is a lot of concern being expressed about
the number of Ministers that have been appointed and, maybe, continue to be appointed.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister-designate for Presidential Affairs is on record as having said that the number of Ministers and Deputy Ministers so far was right. Mr. Speaker, this was when he was asked about his view about the number of Ministers.
Mr. B. D. K. Adu 11:15 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, he has made a sweeping statement that Members of Parliament are saying Ministers appointed are many; it could be his side -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member, proceed.
Mr. Agbesi 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, some Members of Parliament, maybe, from this side of the House, are saying that the number of Ministers so far appointed are too many.
His Excellency the President is on record to have said that, whilst on the other side of the political divide, he was of the view that the number of Ministers were too many but having assumed office, he found it necessary to say that there is need for more Ministers to be appointed.
Dr. A. A. Osei 11:15 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my dear hon. Colleague is saying that it is a fact that Ghana is HIPC today;
that is a factually inaccurate statement. Ghana is not a HIPC country today so he may withdraw.
rose
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Order! Order! Hon. Member for Nabdam, it is a point of order raised, so you may have to resume your seat. He raised a point of order, there must be a ruling on it before any hon. Member can say anything.
Mr. Agbesi 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I do not think that as at today the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government has told Ghanaians that we are no more HIPC -- [Interrup- tion.]
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
On a point of correction. My point of correction and interest and information is that he did not say that Ghana is HIPC; he said Ghana is a HIPC country. And by the World Bank classification, if you go onto the Internet right now and you are looking for HIPC countries list, Ghana is on it. So why should he say that we are not a HIPC country?
Dr. A. A. Osei 11:15 a.m.
On a point of order. I think that my hon. Colleague is misleading the House. The HIPC is a process; you opt for it and there is an end point. Ghana in July 2004 officially went out of the HIPC process. Mr. Speaker, I was part of the delegation that went to the Paris Club for that. My hon. Colleague is mis-construing the fact that people keep on talking about Ghana being a HIPC country. Ghana officially is not a HIPC country. HIPC has two parts -- Highly Indebted Poor Countries -- By international standards we may be still a relatively poor country; but highly indebted, we are not.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I am still insisting on the
definition of a “HIPC country”, and I am saying that Ghana went into completion point but that does not mean that we are not classified as a HIPC country. I am saying that we can go out right now, onto the World Bank website and click on HIPC countries, and Ghana is a HIPC country.
Dr. A. A. Osei 11:15 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, this is not something that you wish you were or you were not. My hon. Colleague is a Ghanaian; whether he disagrees with our ability to get out is one matter, but officially we opted for it; we went to Washington and worked out of it and we have been declared not in HIPC, so he continues to be misleading the House.
Mr. Speaker, I do not know which website he is talking about, whether it is Asaga's website or International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- Mr. Speaker, for the records, the bosses of IMF and the World Bank have already ruled on this matter and it is not up to my dear hon. Colleague to wish that we were not. He is factually misleading and I wish that he would desist from misleading this House.
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member, we need to make progress. Hon. Member for Ashaiman, would you kindly wind up.
Mr. Agbesi 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister- designate for Presidential Affairs is going to be near the President, and it is my view that whilst he is near the President, he must continue to speak to the ears of the President to take a second look at the number of Ministers that we have in this country. Mr. Speaker, having said so, I thank you very much.
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Chairman of Appoint- ment's Committee, are you in the position to wind up?
Mr. Blay 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, there would not be any need for me to wind up, and
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
And in accordance with article 78 (1) of the Constitution, this House has given approval that the following four persons be appointed
Ministers:
(1) Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani -- Min- ister-designate for Presidential Affairs;
(2) Hon. Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku -- Minister of State-designate for Regional Co-operation and
NEPAD;
(3) Hon. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom -- Minister of State-designate for Public Sector Reforms; and
(4) Ms. Elizabeth Ohene -- Minister of State-designate , Ministry of Education and Sports.
I shall accordingly inform His Excellency the President.
Hon. Chairman of the Appointments Committee, do you have any point to make?
Mr. Blay 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I will crave your indulgence that Members of the Appointments Committee be informed that we are to start the vetting process for today's nominees, that is, the number of nominees that we have scheduled for today.
Mr. Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Members of the Appointments Committee are asked to kindly fall out.
Government's Financial Policy, 2005
Motion:
That this honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December 2005.
Mr. E. K. Salia (NDC -- Jirapa) 11:25 a.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this motion to approve the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December, 2005 as presented by my hon. Friend and Colleague, hon. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu.
Mr. Speaker, much as I commend the presentation of this Budget, I believe that the hon. Minister's first presentation looks like he has depended more on volume as his concern has been more of the size of the Budget, the number of pages than the quality it contains; and I believe that whatever his reasons are for giving us such a big document, if they were quality, the quality could have been contained in a smaller, easier to read volume. This is because I see a lot of repetitions and I would say, a lot of statements that are affecting the integrity of this Budget.
Mr. Speaker, in this Budget Statement, there have been a lot of claims for works which I am sure a lot of us would agree have been duly exaggerated.
For instance, in claiming the amount of work done on the Han-Tumu road, the Wa-Han-Tumu road, a distance of 124 kilometres where only 12 kilometres had been worked on, 10 kilometres of which were done by the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government and only two kilometres were attempted by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government, the Government has claimed that they have done 41 per cent
of the work on the road.
Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:25 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague is on a very dangerous path. He is misleading himself and this country. Mr. Speaker, he makes a categorical statement that 12 kilometres has been done. Then he goes on to say that 10 kilometres out of the 12 kilometres was done by the NDC Administration, leaving two kilometres. And in spite of the earlier categorical statement that he made, he now then says that the two kilometres -- this Government has attempted to make the two kilometres. Mr. Speaker, those two statements are very irreconcilable; that is one.
Mr. Salia 11:25 a.m.
They are not, if you understand.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, he as a former Minister for Roads and Transport knows that working on the road does not entail only the physical construction; he knows -- [Inter-ruption.]
Mr. Salia 11:25 a.m.
What does it mean?
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:25 a.m.
This crossfire is not acceptable here. Mr. Speaker, he knows and for that reason he is misleading this House.
Mr. Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Hon. Member for Jirapa, you may proceed.
Mr. Salia 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I accept that all these percentages might not have been calculated by the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, but I believe that the integrity of the Statement is affected by the lack of truth in some of these
statements. It is the same thing with the Volta Region road. I am sure that anybody who travels on it would know that the road from Tema all the way to Aflao is not 69 per cent complete because that road has not even reached Sogakope and the surface dressing has hardly gone beyond Sege.
Consequently, I would appeal to my hon. Colleague to take a close look at some of these figures they are quoting because they mislead the general public about what work has been done.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say that a lot of noise has been made about the achievement of economic stability by the current Government. I admit that some achievements have been made, but when one looks at what has been available to this Government in comparison to, let us say, the NDC time or the period before 2000 when the Ghana Education Trust (GET) Fund was not available, it was just beginning to come into effect, and the District Assemblies Common Fund was still in its infancy, the Road Fund and all of them have now matured and are generating a lot of revenue for the State.
Mr. Speaker. coupled with the fact that having declared ourselves a HIPC nation, there have also been some benefits even though there have also been a lot of detriments, the revenue at the disposal of this Government has been so enormous that they could have done far better than they are doing.
Mr. Speaker, when you look at their intention to attain a 5.8 per cent GDP growth, I believe that it undermines the fundamentals that they say they achieved in the previous years. We expect that if those achievements were sustainable then the growth rate could go beyond 5.8 per cent.
So I have my doubts as to the
Mr. Salia 11:35 a.m.
reasonableness of those achievements that they are touting and claiming because most of them are provisional and probably they are not too certain that those are the true achievements of the economy such that when they become finalized they could be reduced, such that maybe then the growth rate of 5.8 per cent would be coming from a lower base than the actual 5.8 per cent that they are claiming now.
Mr. Speaker, I also have a lot of concern about the efficiency with which those funds are utilized and I would like to refer to page 293 of the Minister's Statement and refer to paragraphs 1036 and 1037, where I believe the Minister was really very honest in admitting that a lot of duplication of activities -- I may wish to quote, for instance, from 1037 --
“This has led to duplication of activities and expenditures, thereby depriving this economy of focused handling of issues and programmes, and resulting in increased cost of implementing the Budget.”
I am inclined to believe that herein lies the problem of our economy. Too many institutions have been created. They are duplicating their efforts and various programmes are tackled by too many institutions, none of which pays consistent attention to those particular activities that they are concentrating on, thereby leading to more inefficiency and a worse contribution to the economic growth of our country.
I believe that it is good to identify the problem but the solution of holding workshops at the end of April 2005 to see whether they can do anything about correcting those mistakes needs to go beyond that. Maybe, institution-building expects should take a look at realigning Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and ensure that they are not working at cross purposes. I do not believe that a workshop or a couple of workshops
would resolve the contradictions that are inherent in a number of the institutions.

Mr. Speaker, my next problem really is the effect of the petroleum price increases on the transportation sector. Mr. Speaker, it looks like a lot of people do not understand what the beef is with respect to price increases. We admit that being a petroleum importing country, prices will necessarily increase when the world market price of petroleum products goes up.

Our problem really is the extent of the increase and what has contributed to such a high nominal increase. We believe that at this point in time when the world market price of crude oil has gone up, the Government should have no business introducing new levies and taxes. This is because that will further aggravate the suffering of the masses of this country.

Mr. Speaker, it is necessary to raise some revenue and I believe that the old revenue raising methods that were in place such as the contribution to the Road Fund, the margin for the oil marketing companies -- most of them could have been retained. But I do not believe that there was the need to increase a lot of these levies and taxes and particularly to introduce new taxes when we all know very well what serious impact petroleum price increases have on the entire economy.

Mr. Speaker, there has been an attempt in the Budget to lessen the effects of the petroleum price increases by agreeing to increase the number of the Metro Mass Transit buses. I agree that this might be a useful way of reducing the suffering of the urban worker. But I do not believe that it goes far enough because it is not only the urban dwellers or workers who need transportation services. Bus services are not available in the rural areas and a lot of

poor people also reside in those rural areas.

After all, Ghana is basically a rural country and the number of people living in the urban areas is far less than the number of people living in the rural areas. What ameliorative measures is the Government putting in place to reduce the suffering of the rural poor?

Besides, Mr. Speaker, the Government is confusing the effect of the petroleum price increases with the need to implement the policy of Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE). The impression is being given that by paying the school fees of children, the Government is alleviating the impact of the petroleum price increases on the people. These are very different things. There has been a programme of FCUBE and it has nothing to do whatsoever with petroleum price increases. If even there were no petroleum price increases, the Government would have still been compelled to implement the FCUBE.

Mr. Speaker, the other area that I think has been left out is the haulage system in the transportation sector. We are talking about passenger transportation. What about the haulage of goods? What measures has the Government put in place to reduce the effect of the petroleum price increases on the haulage of goods from producing centres to consuming areas? What is the Government doing about reducing the cost of transporting raw materials from the areas of production to the manufacturing centres? Mr. Speaker, transportation cost on goods and foodstuffs takes about fifty per cent of the price of the goods; and with the constant increase in the petroleum prices, it is making it more difficult for Ghana to be competitive in the importation of various goods and services.

There is lack of competitiveness because at the port itself, at the time the

goods have been transported from the producing areas to the seaports, we lose our competitiveness because the prices are too high. Beyond that there are a number of cases in which farmers from particularly the Brong Ahafo Region, in the rural areas and in places like Bimbilla, when they have transported their yam to the market, the haulage costs are so high that some of the farmers are compelled to abandon their yams because they are not able to pay the haulage cost.

I think that this Government should take a look not only at the passenger transportation system but also at the haulage system because the haulage of goods has an immense impact on the economy of this country.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, the next area I want to tackle is the railway sector. There has been a lot of noise about using the railway sector to improve transpor- tation in this country. Theoretically, everybody knows that in most of the developed economies the railway sector has been very useful in both passenger transportation and the haulage of goods and services.
Mr. J. H. Mensah 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, if one could be informed about this figure of two hundred and fifty million dollars which was put into the railways, where did they disappear to? Mr. Speaker, I think he may have made a slip of the tongue.
Mr. Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Hon. Member for Jirapa, do you agree with that?
Mr. Salia 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am speaking on authority because for eight years I was the Minister responsible for Railways, and I would show you where that money went. The money went into the importation of locomotives from France and Germany. It also went into the provision of wagons from Japan. It also went into the rehabilitation of the eastern and central railway lines with the provision of resources by the Italian Government -- [Interruption.]
Mr. J. H. Mensah 11:35 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, this money has gone into the rehabilitation of the eastern railway line, which does not work. And all the locomotives -- they have to borrow money from the mining companies to equip the railway corporation with wagons to carry manganese and bauxite from Awaso to Takoradi. So these eight million dollars that was borrowed from the mining companies, Mr. Speaker, I think that we will have to look into this matter very carefully; and I would urge my hon. Friend to come back to the House with further and better particulars on this matter.
Mr. Salia 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to reiterate that the programme where the railway company collaborated with the bauxite and manganese company was a programme I initiated before I left office. This is because they are the main beneficiaries of the railway operations in the Western Region. Passenger transportation does not bring revenue and therefore they collaborated to do this and pay in advance from their returns.
The railway system has been neglected for such a long time that a lot of money is indeed required to rehabilitate it. The
amount of money put in does not finish the work that needs to be done. All I am saying is that in four years they have only been able to put in five million dollars and they are making a lot of noise about what they have done and how much they have achieved in the railway sector without making any comparison to what was done previously.
Mr. Speaker, finally, I wish to state that their claim that the previous Government had neglected the mass transit is also false. It was a matter of strategy; while this Government has created a new parastate organisation to deal with mass transit and it is pretending that it is a private company -- it is not true. We supported the private sector, even though they claim that we were not private sector friendly. All our investments in mass transportation mostly went to the private sector through the
GPRTU.

We also supported Omnibus Service Authority (OSA) with about hundred mini buses and also supported City Express and the State Transport Corporation.

The truth of the matter is that mass transit is not sustainable unless it is subvented by Government. And if the whole country has decided that they want to put HIPC money into mass transit, all the better. But what I am saying is that on its own, in the next eight years, unless the Government continues to pump a lot of money there, those new vehicles that have arrived, when they break down, unless there is more money from the Central Government to repair them, the company itself cannot generate enough revenue to maintain them because of the very nature of the operation of mass transit systems.

So if it is something they want to
Mr. S. Asamoah-Boateng (NPP -- Mfantsiman West) 11:45 a.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to speak to the motion on the floor of the House. The hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning (Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu) did present the Budget to us in this House -- a Budget of hope, a Budget that will see to the growth of our economy.
Mr. Speaker, if you consider the fact that during the first term of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Administration, when we took over, the economy was almost crippling -- I had a cursory look at the Budget of 2001, and Mr. Speaker, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was projected to grow at 4 per cent and now we are talking about 5.8 per cent -- then we are grateful for a very good management of an economy. And when the hon. Minister says that we have laid a good foundation for the lift-off of the economy, then he is right to say so.
Mr. Speaker, if you look at the Budget Statement quite carefully, the Government set itself some targets. There were some objectives of a real GDP growth of 5.2 per cent and inflation was predicted to fall below the 25 per cent that was the figure in the previous year.
Mr. Speaker, the objective to have an international reserve was also targeted at three months of import cover. And if you look at what has been achieved, it is remarkable that instead of 5.2 per cent, we
have reached 5.8 per cent; inflation went down to 11.8 per cent and then we have been able to get not less than three months but 3.8 months of import cover. These are what we have been talking about, that the first term of the “Positive Change” was to lay a solid foundation for the lift-off of the economy.
We also aligned the Budgets that we have been reading and the Ministers have been coming here to present the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy document that we had. And that obviously, Mr. Speaker, shows that this Government is looking at the rural communities, their prosperity and how we can lift them up. Whilst we are tackling poverty, we also recognize that tackling poverty on its own is not the solution to our development; the solution is to have wealth created for people to be prosperous. So if you even look at the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy document, it is entitled:
“ A g e n d a f o r G r o w t h a n d Prosperity”.
This is the foundation for it and the Budget speaks volumes of it.
Of late, you would hear that, when the Minister finishes presenting the Budget Statement everybody wants to dub the Budget in their own terminology; and this morning we have been entertained to this whole idea of Wahala and all that. Whilst I do not intend to go into that, for it is the prerogative of anybody to dub it anyhow they want, the basis of this year's Budget that was read shows that the poor are being looked after.
In fact, when people say that there is no money in people's pockets, there has been, and this year in particular, the Minister has made a conscious effort to make sure that money goes into their pockets. And if you look at it quite closely, Mr. Speaker, you would see that tax relief alone would put
Mr. E. K. D. Adjaho 11:45 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I would want to find out from the hon. Member on the floor -- He seems to be misleading the House. How does the ¢299 billion that he is talking about translate into the pockets of individual workers of this country?
rose
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for Mfantsiman West, are you prepared to yield to the hon. Member for Old Tafo?
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng 11:45 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker.
Dr. A. A. Osei 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of information. What the hon. Member for Avenor (Mr. E. K. D. Adjaho) might not have known is that the reliefs that were identified in the Budget means that Government will not collect the equivalent of ¢299 billion. It means that individuals will directly receive that quantum -- they will actually receive it. [Interruptions.]
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I will pardon my senior Colleague on the other side. I am surprised he does not understand tax relief -- how it translates into people's pockets. Maybe, I will give him a few lessons in economics later on when we finish. When you give tax relief or when the tax threshold is -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Adjaho 11:45 a.m.
On a point of order. The hon. Member who is on the floor, I
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, you know it is not a point of order. Let him continue.
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng 11:45 a.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to continue. So Mr. Speaker, it is very important for us to give credit where credit is due, that when the tax threshold has been increased, then of course, the extra money is not taxed and that goes to the benefit of the ordinary person. Not only that -- [Interruption.]
Mr. J.K. Avedzi 11:45 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member who just spoke is misleading the House by saying that the new tax regime will accumulate ¢299 billion into the pockets of individuals without telling us what group of people -- Is it the rich? Is it the poor? Or what group of people?
Today in the Daily Graphic, page 14, Databank has made some observation, which I argued on here last week, that this new tax regime is a regime that does not favour the poor, it is not pro-poor; it is money that is being taken from the poor and given to the rich. And therefore, when he says that this money is going into the pocket of the individual, I would want to know from the hon. Member which group of people. Is it the low-income earner or the high-income earner? He is therefore misleading the House.
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I do not intend to engage my hon. Colleague in debate. If he chooses to believe the Databank report -- I was present at Databank's assessment of the Budget and this information was not known. I do not know where he read it from. But the point is that if you look at the Budget Statement, on page 271, it gives you an idea as to who would benefit and what category of income earners, so I do not intend to go into all the details. But the point is well made that a tax relief is going to income earners and that is something that will help put money into people's pockets. [Interruption.]
Alhaji Abukari 11:55 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my good friend is still misleading this House. He gives the impression that people are going to be enriched by the tax relief and people are going to be more comfortable by it, but he knows very well that that is not true.

Mr. Speaker, the increase in the fuel prices which we were complaining about and which brought about a lot of Wahala is taking a lot of money from people. So whatever reliefs they would have had from these taxes have been taken away by the fuel price increases and therefore subsequent increases in prices of all commodities in the country. People are further impoverished; so it is not right to give the impression that people are enriched by this type of relief. Mr. Speaker, he is seriously misleading this House.
Mr. Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Hon. Member for Tamale North, I will give you time to contribute but not at this stage.
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng 11:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I move on to the other areas where
Government's attention has been shifted very massively and that would also help to engineer the economy and grow it quicker. If you look at the corporate tax regimes, it was estimated that we would manage to reduce the corporate tax from 32.5 per cent to 30 per cent. In the end, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning came here with his team and informed us that it is being lowered to 28 per cent. That is encouraging to the private sector; and I would appeal to my private sector colleagues outside to also play their role in helping to build the economy from the little that they can also make from the tax regimes.
Mr. Speaker, generally, if you look at the Budget Statement, what it shows is that Ghana has moved and great leaps have been made to the extent that Ghana's sovereign credit rating has also been confirmed and for the second time running, we understand that we are still in “B plus” which is very good for the business community to go out there and source funding and also to be able to do business outside the country.
These are signs that the Government's efforts to move this economy to a higher gear is actually working. So Mr. Speaker, I am very encouraged that Ghana has now seen growth which is now going to be massive, which is going to run through all the sectors of the economy and will help us achieve the prosperity that we have all been craving for.
Mr. Speaker, not only do the tax regimes help the economy but if you look at it, Government's expenditure on services like education and health which go to help the poor -- in most cases education and health, are two things that the poor depend on and it helps them to get out of poverty. If you look at it, there is an increase in those areas and the expenditure levels are meant to be increased. So if you look at all these things and with
Mr. A. W. G. Abayateye (NDC -- Sege) 12:05 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity given me to contribute to the Financial Policy of the nation. I want to talk on three points and make it a day.
I come from a constituency which is rural -- Sege -- carved out of the Ada-Dangme East District Assembly. The Minister in his presentation talked about the construction of roads, which I wholeheartedly appreciate. But it seems some facts were distorted.
Mr. Kofi Frimpong 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is seriously misleading this House, in the sense that a lot of things go into road construction. There is the surveying and also the mapping out; a lot of engineering work goes into it -- culverts making, re-laying of pipes and whatnots. So if he is talking about just surfacing, that is a different thing. He is showing a lot of ignorance, Mr. Speaker. The other time, that impression was created in this House that road construction is not only the surfacing.
We start with surveying, we start with a lot of ground work, before this thing goes on. Mr. Speaker, for him to come out and say that it is not true means he is seriously misleading this House. It is true; and Mr. Speaker, we want him to go and find out from the contractors the amount of work that has been done and they will tell him that 75 per cent or so is complete; and that is what the hon. Minister has presented to this House. So Mr. Speaker, I think he should take that on board.
Mr. Abayateye 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, from Accra to Aflao is 166 kilometres -- as stated by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning -- and if you have done 51 kilometres of 166, do your own
Dr. A. A. Osei 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think my Colleague is missing the point my hon. Friend just made. That is a technical area. Talking about 78 per cent of physical completion does not mean only surfacing. It is a technical definition that unless you are a road engineer you would not understand. So please, that is the point he is making.
Mr. Abayateye 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, at page 80, paragraph 247 of the Budget Statement, Sogakope-Akatsi-Aflao road is part of Accra-Aflao road. It is part of the Accra-Aflao road and at page 80, paragraph 247, Mr. Speaker, I beg to quote:
“Roads t o be awarded fo r construction and major rehabil- itation include the following . . .”
Dr. Osei 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, in the road construction sector -- the point my hon. Friend is making is that if you have 100 kilometres and you are talking about surfacing, you are only talking of one part of the entire construction which covers culverts and so forth and so on. You do not compute the progress by just looking at the surfacing. That is the point he is making. It appears that he still does not understand it. Please, this is what the technical people are telling us. If he has evidence to the
contrary, he should please produce it and not mislead the House.
Mr. Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Hon. Member, this is the point. You are disagreeing with what is contained therein, is it not?
Mr. Abayateye 12:05 p.m.
Yes, please.
Mr. Speaker 12:05 p.m.
If you have any evidence to support your contention, please bring it up.
Mr. Abayateye 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am using the Financial Policy Statement read and I am saying that at page 74, it says: “The total length of the Accra-Aflao road is --” [Interruptions.]
Mr. Joe Gidisu 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the town's name is “Aflao”, and I want to say with all certainty, as a Member of Parlia-ment who drives through there -- even this morning, I came through the road -- that there is no money for even the completion of the first stretch up to Sogakope -- [Interruptions] -- Like what he is saying, yes, I am speaking on authority as someone who uses the road -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Hon. Member, address the Chair.
Mr. Joe Gidisu 12:05 p.m.
So Mr. Speaker, the point I am making is that even as at now there is no money to complete the stretch from Tema Roundabout to Sogakope because as at now there is no fresh loan agreement which has been -- [Interruption.] The contractor is almost out of the road; the contractor has packed off.
Dr. Osei 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, at issue here is a simple definition of what physical work completed means. It is very clear that my hon. Colleagues who are not experts in road construction cannot -- [Interrup-
tions.] Mr. Speaker, as of now, neither of them has provided concrete evidence as to the understanding of the word “physical completion”. It is only the road sector people who are experts in this area, and I am asking that because they do not have information they should not bore this House with something they do not know anything about; otherwise they should come with the definition.
Mr. Abayateye 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, this is the authority; the Financial Policy Statement is the authority I am using. Please, I am saying that paragraph 233 says that the total length of Accra-Aflao road is 166 kilometres -- [Interruption] -- Please, listen! It is 166 kilometres and this is 78 per cent physical work completed; and page 280, paragraph 247, talks of roads to be awarded for construction and major rehabilitation which includes Sogakope- Akatsi-Aflao road, which is part of the Accra-Aflao road. [Laughter.] This road, Sogakope-Akatsi-Aflao is part of the Accra-Aflao road, so which is it? That is why I am saying that to say that the Accra- Aflao Road is 78 per cent completed is a bit misleading.
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Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member for Old Tafo?
Dr. Osei 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, my dear Colleague is misleading the House by averring that the hon. Minister said it is 78 per cent -- he said the physical work completed, and I am saying that he has not adduced any information to tell us what his understanding of physical work is. He is neither an expert in road construction nor a mechanical engineer.
Unless he has evidence to dispute this concept of physical work, he should

hold his horses; otherwise, he himself is misleading the House. It is a technical definition -- physical work completed. Now, if you are not an engineer, if you are not a contractor, and you cannot define for us what physical completion is, please go on and leave that point alone.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Yes, hon. Member for Sege. You have referred us to 233, which talks about 78 per cent physical work completed; and again you have referred us to 247, but 247 does not talk about percentage of work done or undone.
Mr. Abayateye 12:15 p.m.
It does not talk of percentage of work done, but the point I am making is that that portion of the road, Sogakope-Akatsi-Aflao Road is part of the 166 kilometres. It is part of the 166 kilometres. So that is up to them.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
But the point is that, it is part but it does not talk about percentage of work done or undone. So you go on and forget about the percentage.
Mr. Abayateye 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I will move ahead. I would like to talk on rural water. Mr. Speaker, from the time of the Government of National Democratic Congress (NDC) up to -- [Interruption.]
rose
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, do you have any point of order to raise?
Mr. Kofi Frimpong 12:15 p.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. I want my hon. Friend to understand, as our hon. Minister is saying, that one needs to be an engineer or a contractor to understand and interpret what the hon. Minister has said. Mr. Speaker, somebody stood up here and said that doctors pay ¢25 million to train, and the Government would want such doctors to stay.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, I thought we had abandoned that idea following my own intervention. I thought he had abandoned it. Let him continue.
Mr. Abayateye 12:15 p.m.
The NDC Govern- ment did a lot of work on rural water and, thank God, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government is following. On page 106, paragraph 238, it is stated that the Ministry would provide water and sanitation facilities in the Dangme East, Dangme West and North Tongu districts. This is very laudable and I want to urge the Government to take steps to look at the Aveyime Water Project, which has been on the drawing board for so long. And I will encourage the Government to look at it critically. When that project is done, in fact, my constituency would benefit a lot. North Tongu and Shai Osudoku will also benefit. At the moment, drinking water is a problem in my constituency. There are no boreholes and we take water from hand-dug wells; sometimes they get dried up during the dry season. There is a saying that “Water is Life”; and when water is provided, we will not spend much
on health.
When this water issue is taken up, I think it will also help our Agriculture Ministry a lot. It saddens my heart when I see we in Ghana importing onions and tomatoes from Burkina Faso -- a Sahel country. Burkina Faso has done irrigation and we need to do that in our country.
We are blessed with waterways. You look at the Accra plains, land here and there; and we are just a short distance from the Volta River. I want to urge the Government to have a critical look at irrigation. In fact, page 122, paragraph 398 touches on irrigation -- steps to carry out feasibility studies, which have been completed. I want to urge the Government to source funds to carry out the irrigation project, because when this is done -- in my constituency we are blessed with water melon, we are blessed with tomato, we are blessed with pepper, corn, everything. And if the irrigation project is taken on well, we will be self-sufficient. We will rear cattle, we will rear ostriches and everywhere in the country, the country will be the beneficiary. We need to look at irrigation very well.
Again, I want to say that the personal income tax relief which has been granted, benefits only the rich. I have done a little computation and with the base raised from 1.5 to 1.8, which is tax-free, if you take the average of the daily minimum wage of ¢13,500 -- there are people who work 7 days a week in our country -- and you multiply that by 30 days, it makes the minimum wage earner get ¢405,000 a month. And out of this ¢405,000, it is ¢150,000 which is tax-free; he or she pays tax on the remaining ¢12,500.
Therefore, when you compute, out of that, the total amount of money he earns at the end of the month is ¢392,350 from the ¢405,000. Therefore, tax goes into it. So in reality, the income tax relief favours
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng 12:15 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague is misleading the House again. If he looks at the Budget Statement quite carefully, I do not know where he computed his income from, but the lower income earner are going to benefit. It is quite clear. Nobody in Ghana, unless you are in the informal sector -- In most of the formal sector, no one is on the minimum wage. Minimum wage is a legally agreed ceiling that people should not fall below, but in most cases, people are above it; it is just a legal requirement.
For those in the informal sector, yes, you may have one or two examples to give, but in the formal sector, most people are above that minimum wage. And if you look at the ¢1.5 million threshold being moved to ¢1.8 million, then there are a lot more people going to benefit. If he wants us to look at the figures of who are within those income brackets, we can find out, but since he does not have the information, I think he is seriously misleading the House.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, you must conclude.
Mr. Abayateye 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. The point is, I think Dr. Akoto Osei understands what I am saying, because I am saying that, with the minimum wage -- I am using the minimum wage to do the computation, so he knew what I was saying was right -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Osei 12:25 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I am glad my hon. Colleague said I might understand what he is saying. On the contrary, I am so confused; why?

The man says minimum wage is ¢13,500 x 7. Mr. Speaker, in Ghana, the Internal Revenue Service does not calculate your income for seven days, so the basis for making that computation is false, ab initio. So how can he use that and say I agree with him? I do not know the basis; that basis is perfectly false and he should know better.
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the first point that was made by hon. Asamoah- Boateng is also misleading. The fact of the matter is that there are people in the formal sector who earn far below the minimum wage. Indeed, about three days ago there was a publication in the Evening News that even drivers in Parliament were earning less than the approved minimum wage -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Order!
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, they were earning less than the approved minimum wage and if you go to my constituency, the Sene constituency, the labourers at the Sene District Assembly are earning less than the approved minimum wage. So it is not true that employees in the formal sector earn far beyond the minimum wage. That is a fact that must be acknowledged, that must be adopted.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Member for Sege, you have less than a minute to wind up.
Mr. Abayateye 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, it is sad that none of the President's Special Initiatives is in my constituency; but my constituency is noted for cassava production. Cassava production is the major work in my constituency. We use cassava not only for starch; cassava can be processed into gari which can be stored for a number of years; cassava can be processed into starch -- [Interruptions.] -- Cassava can be processed into tapioca. So Mr. Speaker, I wish to use this medium
Mr. Kwabena Okerchiri 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, with your indulgence I think there is a point of information. I think it is very important that we must not leave anyone to get an impression that drivers in this Parliament get less than the minimum wage; it is never true and that impression must not be created at all.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Member, I did not hear that. Were you saying that drivers here earn less than the minimum wage?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, exactly so. If you read the Evening News of last Friday, it was printed on the front page, and with your picture, the Right Hon. Speaker's picture and that of the hon. Majority Leader, saying that our drivers, as Members of Parliament, earn less than the minimum wage. It was printed on the front page of the Evening News of Friday, 4th March 2005.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Member, you being a Member, have you found out whether what is contained is true?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have found out and if you look at what is given to them at the present minimum wage of about ¢13,000, I think it is below the minimum wage.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Member, you would realize this is rather a serious matter and I wish you will go back to make some checks on this. I think you would do yourself a lot of good if you found out whether it was correct or not from the Clerk. I think it is quite a serious matter; I do not have to take part in a debate, but I know the answer myself.
Mr. Okerchiri 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, in the
circumstance he must withdraw it. He can come back when he has that information categorically.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Members, this thing is being recorded and we do not have to give a very wrong information to the public about what we are dong here. I think it may be advisable at this stage to take a certain course and come back properly.
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I gave two instances, about the labourer in my constituency and that our brothers here; and the fact of the matter is that we all see it appear on our pay slips; I do not need to go and consult anybody. I am saying it as a matter of fact and if it is not believed by the House, I think the House Committee -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
You are talking about Parliament?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Yes.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
So you say the point you are making is that you have evidence to support your contention that drivers here earn less than the minimum wage?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Exactly so, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Pardon? I just want to get you right that you have the evidence that the drivers here earn less than the minimum wage.
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, there is a difference between the drivers employed by Parliament -- maybe if I may inform you -- and then the drivers that we hire as Members of Parliament. If you look at our pay slips, the allowances for our drivers are boldly printed on it; and if you calculate and divide them by thirty, there is no way it is going to meet what our drivers will take by way of salary; and that is exactly the point I am making that they are underpaid.
rose
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Member, you want to assist him? Yes, maybe you have to.
Mr. Agbotse 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the new minimum wage takes effect from the end of March, so he cannot use that one to calculate the present minimum wage of anybody. We are all on the old one until March; and March pay has not come yet.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Member for Ho West, we are talking about minimum pay; whether it was last year or this year, the minimum pay is what we are talking about.
Mr. Agbotse 12:25 p.m.
What I am saying is, Mr. Speaker, if he is using the ¢13,500 then we have not come to it; nobody has received that yet. So we cannot say that we are below the minimum wage of ¢13,500.
Dr. Osei 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I want to appeal to my dear Friend that since he is using somebody's opinion to indict this august House, it is in his interest that as of now he should withdraw that statement. Because he is impugning the integrity of the Leadership of this House including his own people; and were it to be found out that he is misleading the House, we would have impugned our integrity. I think that as of now the basis is quite suspect and I would gladly appeal to him that it is in the interest of this House that for now he withdraws this statement. Clearly, even if I have a driver who does not work for Parliament, then it is no basis. The matter goes to drivers who work for the Parliamentary Service Board. On that note, I think it is incorrect. I do not want to indict him; I think it is incorrect and I think it is better that he withdraws at this point so that our integrity is not impugned.
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Hon. Member, let us talk
about Parliament as an institution.
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member was not in this House during the last Parliament but if he could recall, what happened was that, that category of people he is talking about were indeed, and if I may tell him, supposed to receive their salaries straight from Parliament. What happened was that because they were not properly documented for them to receive such allowances, we were told as Members, to take it and give it to them.
So if they are employed as our drivers and they are taking far less than the minimum wage, I think we have every cause -- And as I said, I referred you to the Evening News of Friday, that is, 4th March 2005. And it was boldly printed there -- that is the source -- It was boldly printed there that drivers of Parliamen-tarians earn far less than the minimum wage. So if you are talking about the formal sector, let us look at the source. This is also part of the formal sector. They are employed by some of us and they work for us. If they can earn anything less than the minimum wage, I think we have every reason to speak about it and to make sure that they are duly paid.
rose
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Do you want to come to his aid, hon. Member?
Dr. Ampofo 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to clarify the situation. I just calculated it -- I have a calculator here -- and I think some people are misleading the House. If what is stated on our pay slips that go to the drivers -- Let us take it to be ¢800,000 and you divide it by the 30, you get ¢26,667, which is twice the minimum wage of ¢13,500.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, what do you say to this so that we progress? What honourable course do you want to take?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I need to take another look because he is calling for my pay slip and I do not think I am here with my pay slip; and when I think I am wrong I would want to withdraw. But for now I still stand by it.
Mr. Okerchiri 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is a second-timer in Parliament. He is experienced enough; he knows the rules of this House.
Mr. Speaker, the journey that he embarked upon is very dangerous for the integrity of Parliamentarians and Parliament as an institution. If he cannot adduce any conclusive evidence to contradict at least what the hon. Member has hinted on, what he has to do is to please withdraw and then come back later when he thinks his evidence is very solid.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, what do you say to that?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier on, I need to take another look at the pay slip and then make sure that whatever I have said here, I can back it with evidence. For now, people are making certain calculations that I have not personally looked at. The hon. Member who made the proposals does not even have the pay slip at hand so I wonder where he got those figures from. Once I get the figures, and if he is right, I will withdraw my statement.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
So what are you saying now, hon. Member? I did not hear what you said.
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I said for now I still stand by what I said.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, with the greatest respect to you, I did not hear what you said. I did not hear it.
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I said in view of what my other hon. Colleague has said, I do not have the pay slip personally now before me and so if indeed that is the case, then I would want to withdraw; but if that is not the case, I would want to take another look at the pay slip. [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, are you saying you are withdrawing what you said?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have not said that I am withdrawing, but in view of the evidence that he has given, if indeed that is the case, then I said I would want to withdraw my statement.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, I would want to hear you clearly on this. Are you withdrawing what you said that drivers here receive less than the minimum wage? Are you withdrawing it?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was taking my source from this publication and I am saying that -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, are you withdrawing or not?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, what I am saying is that people are giving certain evidences that I have not seen myself. If indeed what they are saying is the fact of the matter then I withdraw. But I would still want to urge your good office to investigate the matter and let us see if indeed they are taking less or more than what they are due.
Mr. Dan Abodakpi 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think this particular issue is rather unfortunate. I have just seen the Evening News, and it is saying that our drivers are claiming that they are being underpaid.
On our pay slips the allowance for drivers is 888,486.00. If we do not give all that money to the drivers then it is our individual problem. So for us not to have cross-checked and put that on the floor of the House is indicting every Member of Parliament. And I think that we should do the right thing.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Thank you very much. Hon. Member, let us make progress.
Mr. Okerchiri 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think it is the withdrawal. As far as I am concerned, he is approbating and reprobating.
Mr. Speaker, he made a statement that drivers were not being paid up to at least the minimum wage. That is what he said. So he must withdraw that categorically and let us hear; and he should stop playing hanky-panky with us.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, are you withdrawing unconditionally?
Mr. Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have withdrawn unconditionally.
Mr. Robert Sarfo-Mensah (NPP -- Asunafo North) 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the motion on the floor of the House, that this honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December, 2005.
Mr. Speaker, I could not agree with the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning (Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu) more in describing the Budget as a Budget of hope.
Mr. Speaker, considering the plans and programmes outlined in the Budget, one can safely say that Ghana, our nation, is moving forward. Having said that, Mr.
Speaker, I would like to look at some of the programmes in the Budget which I believe are unique and important for accelerated growth.
Mr. Speaker, one thing which has not been given keen attention is career guidance and counselling. As we are all aware, Mr. Speaker, human resource development is dear to the heart of this Government. In developing our human resource, we have to take into consideration the products our training institutions turn out. We need quality human resource which will be ready for the job market. To be able to achieve that we need to assist the learning children to be able to identify their areas of interest early. And if we are able to do that, it will go a very long way to enhance their learning.
But what I have realised is that even though the Ministry of Education and Sports has been trying its best to establish some of these centres, we do not have enough, especially at our basic school level. If you go to the junior secondary schools (JSSs) we do not have these counselling centres and the few centres that we have are not even well resourced. So it is very gratifying that this year serious attention is being paid to career guidance and counselling. I believe it will go a very long way to assist our kids to learn.
Another area I would want to look at, Mr. Speaker, is the plans outlined in the Budget to come out with schemes to assist farmers to acquire decent houses as well as cars. I think it is a very noble idea because coming from a constituency where the bulk of my constituents are farmers, I believe if they are assisted to own houses before they retire as farmers, it will go a long way to assist them.
This is because sometimes it is very pathetic if you look at our farmers during
Mr. Robert Sarfo-Mensah (NPP -- Asunafo North) 12:45 p.m.
their old age. They live a very wretched life and it looks as if the nation is not paying them for what they have done to support us, as farmers. So if the Government is coming up with programmes to enable the farmers acquire decent houses as well as cars, I think it is a very noble idea.
Mr. Speaker, I would want to suggest that the Government should come out with a special pension scheme for farmers. If that too is done, having a house as well as a car plus a better pension scheme, our farmers will be better off. And I believe if that is done, most people will also be interested in farming and our youth may leave the streets to go into farming.

Mr. Speaker, I think our land tenure system should also be looked at so that those who want to go into farming may have easy access to land, to attract them to that sector of our economy. I believe that if the programme eventually takes off, the hardworking farmers in my constituency, Asunafo North, would not be left out.

Mr. Speaker, we all believe that for a nation to be self-sustaining, we need to put in more effort to generate more funds internally; and I am happy that our revenue agencies have been doing well.

According to the Financial Policy, last year, all the revenue agencies exceeded their targets. I believe that if the agencies are well motivated, if the personnel are well remunerated, and serious measures are put in place, we would be able to generate more revenue so that we would not be running a deficit budget as has always been the case, where we always rely on our donors to help us carry through our policies in our Budget.

I therefore want to suggest that personnel in our revenue agencies should

be looked at critically; their conditions of service and other things should be considered so that they will be able to rope in more internally-generated revenue. It has become a problem; I think it is a global problem that a lot of people want to run away from the payment of tax.

You can even go further by labelling some of the physical projects we use the money to develop, like we do with the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) fund. For instance, like the GETFund and so on, if we come out with a physical project, we can label it like “VAT Benefit” or something like “Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Benefit”, at least, some few of them, so that our taxpayers would see that the monies that they are paying are being used for developmental projects. This is because a lot of them are quite sceptical about what the monies we generate are used for.
Mr. Okerchiri 12:45 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, it looks like our hon. Friend is misleading this House. There are situations where the Government has embarked on projects and has indicated even the source of the projects. I remember that along a road going up the mountains in Kwahu it is indicated, ‘This is what your “Road Fund …”' So it is not as if that is not being done at all and that what he is proposing is a novelty.
Mr. Speaker 12:45 p.m.
Hon. Member, continue.
Mr. Sarfo-Mensah 12:45 p.m.
I thank him very much, Mr. Speaker, for that information. But what I am trying to say is that we should see more of those, especially like the HIPC Fund, I think the signboard would indicate that the project being carried out is a HIPC project. At the same time it is on the structure itself that this is HIPC benefit. So I thank him very much, Mr. Speaker.
Having said that, I want to say something about the payment of bonuses to cocoa farmers which has been ongoing. I believe that the Government can do more by ensuring that the payment is done with ease. This is because this year, for instance, COCOBOD has come out with a system that is a bit cumbersome and most farmers are complaining. But I believe that the Government can go further by enforcing what has been going on in previous years, where the bonus is given to the produce buying clerks to deal directly with the farmers. By so doing the complaints of farmers and so on would go down. I am saying all this because our hardworking farmers have actually contributed their quota towards the development of this nation.
Mr. Speaker, having said that, I think the Budget is good. All of us must support it and make sure that it works because if we support it and the policies are fully implemented, it would go a long way to move Ghana forward.
Alhaji Collins Dauda (NDC -- Asutifi South) 12:45 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the motion.
Mr. Speaker, I would restrict myself to the forestry sector or sub-sector. First of all, I want to refer to page 140 of the Budget Statement, and with your permission, I would read paragraph 45.6, the second point:
“Off-Reserve timber revenue is now 60 per cent for resource owners, etc. and 40 per cent for the Forestry Commission respectively as against the previous 40 per cent for Resource owners, and 60 per cent for the Forestry Commission.”
It continues to say,
“The new sharing formula is as follows:
Farmers -- 40 per cent;
Forestry Commission -- 40 per cent;
Traditional Authorities -- 15 per cent;
Community -- 5 per cent.”
Mr. Speaker, I have a problem with the sharing formula. Off-reserve timber revenue or off-reserve timber are mostly harvested from stool lands, and stool land revenues are to be collected by an institution which is established under the 1992 Constitution. I am talking about the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands; that mandate has been vested in this institution under article 267 of the Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, beyond the collection of the revenues, a sharing formula is also provided in the Constitution and that can be found in article 267(6), and Mr. Speaker, with your permission I would read:
“Ten per cent of the revenue accruing from stool lands shall be paid to the Office of the Administrator of Stool Lands to cover administrative expenses; and the remaining revenue shall be disbursed in the following proportions:
(a) twenty-five per cent to the stool through the traditional authority for the main- tenance of the stool in
Alhaji Collins Dauda (NDC -- Asutifi South) 12:55 p.m.
keeping with its status;
(b) twenty per cent to the traditional authority; and
(c) fifty-five per cent to the District Assembly, within the area of authority of which the stool lands are situated.”
Mr. Speaker, this being the consti- tutional position, I have difficulty appreciating the formula that is put up in the Budget. Is it a clear departure from what is provided in the Constitution or is it a deliberate indulgence in illegality or unconstitutionality? We need to know this.
Mr. Speaker, when issues like these are raised or when a budget is discussed, one would have thought that Ministers would be available in this House to offer some responses so that we see our way very clear. Unfortunately, I cannot see my Minister here; I have seen hon. Theresa Tagoe. So Mr. Speaker, my difficulty has to do with this new formula that runs against the provisions of our Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, the other anomaly in the Budget is also about the last paragraph of page 141 of the Budget Statement. Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I would read:
“Two successful competitive biddings and auctions under the Timber Utilisation Contracts for natural forests were held in 2004. The revenue to be realised from these auctions amount to ¢27.324 billion out of which ¢2.980 billion has so far been collected in accordance with the agreed payment schedule.”

Mr. Speaker, I am glad to hear that

two successful competitive biddings have taken place in this country, and I believe contractors who won the contracts are working in these Timber Utilisation Contracts (TUCs). But Mr. Speaker, I am afraid something is wrong. There is a phenomenon in the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines that has to be checked because, Mr. Speaker, they continue to show disregard for this House.

Mr. Speaker, article 268 (1) of the Constitution says as follows -- and with your indulgence, I quote:

“Any transaction, contract or undertaking involving the grant of a right or concession by or on behalf of any person including the Government of Ghana, to any other person or body of persons howsoever described, for the exploitation of any mineral, water or other natural resource of Ghana made or entered into after the coming into force of this Constitution shall be subject to ratification by Parliament.”
Ms. Theresa A. Tagoe 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member who has made himself an expert in lands and forestry matters is misleading this House. He knows, according to the article he is reading, I do not have it here to quote -- that after the initial agreement and initial approval by this House, you go to Cabinet, and when it is agreed you do not need to come back to Parliament because Cabinet has agreed with you and the Minister has the right to go on with it -- That is the law. [Hear! Hear!] I am sorry I have forgotten it; it is article 15 or so of the Constitution;
please read that.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Deputy Minister is confusing an issue with what I am raising here. Mr. Speaker, I believe the hon. Deputy Minister is referring to the cancelled TUCs; that is where they keep holding on to the fact that section 15 of the Timber Resource Management Act, Act 547, allows for withdrawal and replacement; that is not what I am talking about. Mr. Speaker, that is a substantive issue that, with your indulgence, I will come to this floor properly on.
Ms. Tagoe 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, what he is saying, as I have said, he has been repeating this thing all the time. He has been counselled several times but he has made up his mind to be talking about that all the time because he is not in charge. But it is true that we had agreement and approval from Cabinet and we are supposed to do it with Cabinet's approval but we do not need to come back to seek approval from here after the initial approval by Parliament. Then he wants to tell me that every one second we want to have bidding, we should come here. That is how he is interpreting it; that is not the law.
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Hon. Member, the point you are making is that Timber Utilisation Contracts, whatever they are, must be brought to Parliament for ratification by virtue of article 268 of the Constitution;
is it not?
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, that is so.
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
You have made your point, continue.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, in view of the provisions of article 268, the Minister is enjoined to bring the contracts to this Parliament for Parliament to peruse and ratify them to make the contracts complete. Until that is done, Mr. Speaker, I want to think that anybody who is working in such contracts must be indulging in some patapaa act or some illegal act or some unconstitutional act, and I will call on the Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines to parcel all these contracts that he has entered into on behalf of the Republic of Ghana and some individuals to this Parliament for Parliament to ratify. After all, Mr. Speaker, what is his fear? They have the numbers; they can always have their way. So let him bring the contracts, we would look at the contracts and at the end of the day, we would vote on them; and they will always have their way. So what are they afraid of? Why are they not bringing the contracts to this House for ratification?
Ms. Tagoe 12:55 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, he made a very serious accusation; he said “You have the numbers so what are you afraid of?” He wants to tell us that we are robots; that NPP people, are robots? That everything that NPP brings, then we have to agree with it? Please, Mr. Speaker, he should withdraw it. We are not robots; we have intelligent people like us with all sorts of qualifications, and yet he wants to tell us we are robots?
Please, Mr. Speaker, he should withdraw it. We are not robots; we think. Last week, did NPP not vote against an NPP programme in this House -- a Majority programme? He cannot tell us
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Hon. Member for Asutifi South, was that the impression that you wanted to create?
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am surprised at my hon. Colleague. I did not use the word “robot”; I did not use that word. It has never occurred to me to use it.
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
I asked whether that was the impression you wanted to create.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I thought that in this House we make statements of facts; we do not create impressions here. I made statements of fact. I have referred to the provisions of the Constitution and that is what I stand by; I do not create impressions.
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Hon. Member, you know, not necessarily -- You can also say certain things by implication.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I did not imply that. I said that the Minister should bring the contracts to the House and I believe, with the numbers, Parliament will ratify the TUCs for the Minister, it is as simple as that.
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Yes, hon. Member, I have just asked you a very simple question.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
The numbers are here, that is, both sides -- [Laughter] -- I did not say numbers of the Majority; I said numbers here. [Laughter.]
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
That is a very simple question -- whether you wanted to create that impression.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have answered that, no.
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Hon. Members, we do not have to go into law here but -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Osei 12:55 p.m.
On a point of order. I need to be guided by you as to whether my good Friend might be an authority on forestry. I am wondering if this House needs to be subject to somebody who pretends to be the Supreme Court. On matters of the interpretation of the Constitution, it is very clear who has the authority, but for my good Friend to start lecturing us as if he were a Supreme Court Justice -- I mean he should limit himself to his authority. If he has an issue with the interpretation of the Constitution, there is a proper place to place that.
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Hon. Member, you have made a point, continue. If you feel strongly about it, you know what you should do.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, at any point in time, Collins Dauda knows what to do. If I have to go to the Supreme Court, I will do so, but if I have to raise an issue on the floor of Parliament, I have to do so; and that is exactly what I am doing. Mr. Speaker -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Hon. Member, nobody is preventing you at all.
Alhaji Dauda 12:55 p.m.
No, he raised a point of order and I thought that I should respond appropriately; and that is exactly what I am doing, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, the other issue I want to touch upon is this important issue of afforestation. Mr. Speaker, in this country, we have witnessed forest degradation and therefore it behoves all of us to assist in whatever way possible to ensure that Ghana is green again.
Dr. Osei 1:05 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, hon. Alhaji Dauda is misleading the House. The Minister cited one area of afforestation, which was funded by HIPC. He should please read on. It is not true, what is saying. So I beg him to withdraw.
Mr. Speaker 1:05 p.m.
Hon. Member, if you want to refer to the Financial Policy Statement, you might do so to support the contention which you were making.
Alhaji Dauda 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was saying that in this document, Government has reported on plantation development as having been supported by HIPC -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker, page 141, the last but one paragraph of the Budget Statement reads as follows:
“In line with the Government's strategy for the management of forest resources including plan- tation development programme, MLFM in 2004 nursed 90,200,000 seedlings and devloped 8,550 hectares of plantation using HIPC Funds. This created about 88,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Forestry Services Division (FSD)
also developed 15,080 hectares of plantation using the Modified Taungya System.”
Mr. Speaker, the point I am making is that this is a report on plantation and I am told that this House promulgated a law that established the Plantation Development Fund; and that fund is supposed to be used in developing plantations. I am just requesting that that fund must also be reported upon so that we know how that fund is being managed, how that fund is being used to promote plantations. Mr. Speaker, the Modified Taungya System is a system where an area is declared a degraded forest area and farmers who live on the fringes of the forest are given some parcels in the forest reserve to be planted. Mr. Speaker, this one is not about Plantation Development Fund. I am saying that Government must report on the use of the Plantation Development Fund; it is as simple as that.
Dr. Osei 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on that same page 141, the second paragraph talks about --
“To encourage the development of Plantation Timber the text of a Contract Agreement to be concluded between Government of Ghana and plantation owners was submitted to the Attorney-General's Department for vetting and advice.”
The next paragraph says:
“The Community Forestry Mana- gement Development Programme to rehabilitate degraded forests to increase the acreage of plantation programme started in 2004.”
That is another example of afforestation that is being talked about. I am surprised that he is saying that Government is trying to give the impression that it is only the
Mr. Speaker 1:05 p.m.
Hon. Member, you must be winding up.
Alhaji Dauda 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think you will have to add injury time, in view of the heckling. Again, Mr. Speaker, I thought that Ranking Members are given twenty minutes -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 1:05 p.m.
That was why I said you have about five minutes.
Alhaji Dauda 1:05 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so as I was saying, it is important for the Government to put all these resources together to ensure plantation development because that is the way to save the situation in this country. Mr. Speaker, if that is not done, if we do not aggressively handle plantation development in this country and approach it the way we are doing, where small pockets of lands are developed, Mr. Speaker, I am afraid, we may not get anywhere.
Mr. Speaker, if you go to South Africa, or la Cote d'Ivoire, there are silviculture companies -- internationally recognised silviculture companies that are used in doing this exercise. If you go to la Cote d'Ivoire, the amount of plantations that you can see is marvellous and the same applies to South Africa. I will want a situation where the Government of Ghana would attract these silviculture companies to the country and map out a very large area for them to plant for this country.
If an area like that is given to these silviculture companies, in no time we will see Ghana green and I want to invite
Ms. T. A. Tagoe 1:05 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, it gives me an idea that since God sent Lucifer out of Heaven, he never praised God; and this is exactly what he is doing. He is referring to this or that because he was not able to do that and so he does not appreciate what the Ghana Government has done now in the area of afforestation. Even he does not appreciate what has been done in his own sector. Lucifer should sometimes think of Ghana.
Alhaji Dauda 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, at least, it is important to know that now we have a prophetess of Lucifer in this House -- [Hear! Hear!] Mr. Speaker, finally, I would want to move on to the cocoa sector.
Mr. Speaker 1:05 p.m.
Please, you must wind up.
Alhaji Dauda 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, there is an important issue about bonus payment. Mr. Speaker, some hon. Members who spoke before me made mention of the way bonuses have been paid to cocoa farmers in this country. Mr. Speaker, it is so pathetic. I was in my constituency over the weekend and I cannot count the number of cocoa farmers who walked up to me to find out why they have been treated this way this year.
Mr. Speaker, it is important also to note that this bonus that is supposed to be paid to the farmers is the cocoa farmers' own money. Mr. Speaker, Government deducts money from every metric tonne of cocoa and puts that money aside to be paid to the cocoa farmer by way of bonus. So bonus payment is the right of the cocoa farmer.
Therefore, Mr. Speaker, because this thing has continued from the year 2001 up to today, it is just fair that Government
accounts for bonus that it has deducted from cocoa farmers' cocoa. Because what is happening is that Government does not account for the bonus beside how much he pays to the cocoa farmer. To be fair to the cocoa farmer, Government must account for bonuses deducted from the cocoa farmers' own cocoa and make the farmer appreciate what the Government is doing for him.
Mr. Armah 1:05 p.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. I will want to ask my hon. Friend which is better, for a Government to pay bonuses or for a Government to refuse to pay bonuses? [Hear! Hear!]
Alhaji Dauda 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, this year's Budget is a Budget that does not inspire. It is a Budget that for me, has no hope and therefore can be described as a hopeless Budget, a Budget that was eaten out even before it was born.
On this note, Mr. Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity.
Mr. Kwadwo Agyei-Addo (NPP -- Fanteakwa) 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am most grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the motion on the floor and to support the motion, that this honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December, 2005, which motion was superbly moved by the hon. Minister for
Finance and Economic Planning (Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu).
Mr. Speaker, we are told on page 111 of the Budget Statement that over 60 per cent of our people are into agriculture or depend one way or the other on agriculture. Mr. Speaker, agriculture as a sector contributes 36 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and as acknowledged by the former Minister for Food and Agriculture and the current Minister for Health (Maj. Courage Quashigah), agriculture bears the singular responsibility to bring respite to the economy and the populace. This is the case in my constituency -- Fanteakwa -- where dependency on agriculture is well over 70 per cent.
However, there is an interesting paradox. In business management, we are told that all things being equal, the more you sell, the better your chances of making returns on your investment. But in economics, the laws of demand and supply operate to ensure that abundant yield creates a situation where prices fall though this need not necessarily be the case. But for us in Fanteakwa, our farmers are always looking forward to lean yields. Unfortunately, lean yields produce overall fall in total income, which invariably worsens poverty level.
For us in Fanteakwa, therefore, it is gratifying to note that the Government, as stated in year 2005 Budget is determined through various interventions to develop the rural economy through modernization, processing, improved marketing system, thereby ultimately reducing post-harvest losses.
Mr. Speaker, these intentions when supported by government policy to establish three industries in each region
Alhaji Dauda 1:15 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend has stated that in his constituency some women get raped by Fulani herdsmen. I just want to find out whether there is any evidence.
Mr. Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, proceed.
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was on the point of saying that the prevalence rate in my constituency is 7.6 per cent and it is second only to the Lower Manya (Mr. M. T. Nyaunu) constituency's 9.2 per cent recorded at Agormonya. There are numerous reports of the police illegally -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Lee Ocran 1:15 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member who just spoke said that the Fulani men go in for their juiciest women. I wonder which women are juicy. Which of them are juicy and which are not juicy?
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I thought that the hon. Member for Jomoro used to work for Pepsi Cola company so he would know what “juicy” means. As I
was saying before I was interrupted by the hon. Member for Jomoro, I would want to believe that our people have the right to the uninterrupted use and quiet enjoyment of their farm produce. As the Government continually frees budgetary resources from the petroleum sector, there are bound to be hardships arising from price increases. But in academics, there are no miracles, only laws and economic realities leave hardly any alternative.
To move this country forward, the Government ought to take very drastic but necessary decisions; and in our President's own words -- and Mr. Speaker, with your permission I quote:
“We agonize over fuel prices but the truth is that the step is a necessary evil.”
Ms. Theresa Tagoe 1:15 p.m.
On a point of order. I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Member who just spoke. He said ‘the juiciest woman'-- What is “juciest”? Please, he should withdraw. Does he mean a pretty woman, intelligent woman or what? How does he know a woman is juicy? Mr. Speaker, he should withdraw; that is a very serious indictment on women.
Mr. Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, unfortunately, my attention was not drawn to it at that time.
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, hon. Theresa Tagoe is my constituent so I will grant her any point of order.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Member for Fanteakwa, I thought you should have proceeded but since you did not, she is raising objection at this stage so what do you say to that?
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, if hon. Theresa Tagoe feels very strongly about the word “juiciest”, I want to withdraw that. Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, every economy takes after the character of its leader. Our leader is a gentle giant; he is not an over-ambitious -- [Interruption.]
Alhaji Sumani Abukari 1:25 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I heard my hon. Colleague there say something like, hon. “Theresa Tagoe is my constituent and I would grant her point of order at anytime”. I do not know whether he has the power to grant points of order. Maybe, he did not know what he was saying but we do not have any such powers, please. It is only the Rt. Hon. Mr. Speaker who can say whether there is a point of order or not and not him. So he should please get that on board.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Member, thank you but you are out of order. [Laughter.] Let him proceed.
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the English language is such a beautiful thing -- Thank you. Very well, I will proceed. Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, every economy takes after the character
of its leader. We have a gentle giant who is not an over-ambitious leader. We would therefore not expect an over-ambitious and unrealistic growth rate. Mr. Speaker, any nation whose leader's pastime is overturning taxis and assaulting elder statesmen, that nation will come to grief as was the case in the year 2000 in this country.
Alhaji Amadu B. Sorogho 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am surprised to hear what my hon. Colleague is saying. I think we are here as hon. Members, yet he has been making a lot of uncomplimentary remarks. I think this one cannot go unnoticed. He is trying to compare and he started by praising the President who nobody would find fault with. By going on and referring to Presidents who have passed and even giving a time, points to only one President. Mr. Speaker, with your kind permission, I do not think the President who was there before the current President fits into the description that he is giving and he must withdraw.
Mr. Speaker, he must withdraw what he is saying. It is a serious thing. He mentioned a particular time and as at that time there was only one President in Ghana and it definitely means he is referring to that President. Mr. Speaker, as honourable men we are not here to go into those things and start castigating our past Presidents. We must respect them. He must therefore withdraw and apologise.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Member for Fanteakwa, I did not hear what you said. What were you saying?
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, all that I said was that every economy takes after the character of its leader. Mr. Speaker, we as Ghanaians, may stroll, we may stride, we may stagger --[Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Member for Fanteakwa, honestly I did not hear what you said. Could you repeat what you said?
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, very well. What I said was that every economy takes after the character of its leader. I also said that our leader is a gentle giant and also said he is not over-ambitious. I also said we would therefore not expect an over-ambitious and unrealistic growth rate in our Budget. I also said any nation whose leader's pastime is overturning taxis and assaulting elder statesmen, that nation will come to grief as was the case in the year 2000.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Yes, hon. Member for Abokobi-Madina, can you make the point you were making.
Alhaji Sorogho 1:25 p.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, that is exactly the point. If he had not mentioned the time and the year and described in a very derogatory way the President who was in office at that time, I would not have had any problem with him. I think he should withdraw and apologise to the whole House unreservedly.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Member for Fanteakwa, what was the point in bringing in 2000?
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:25 p.m.
I was just trying to support the first premise that I made that any nation takes after the character of its Head of State.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon. Member, I will kindly advise you to leave out personalities. Are you withdrawing the reference that you made with 2000?
Mr. Agyei-Addo 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the offending portion is hereby withdrawn. Mr. Speaker, we as Ghanaians may stroll, we may stride, we may stagger, we may
hurtle, waddle, trudge, totter or even hop, step and jump, and we will still come to the conclusion that the Budget Statement of His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor as delivered by hon. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, is a Budget of hope, a Budget which Prof. Ernest Aryeetey of the Institute of Social, Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER) says is extremely informative and shows that considerable research work was put into the preparation of the Budget.
Mr. Speaker, the NPP Government is on track and certainly this is the time to be a Ghanaian and we should be proud to be Ghanaians. Mr. Speaker, those who have eyes to see, let them see, but eyes or no eyes, Ghana would move forward.
Mr. Speaker, on this note, I humbly beg earnestly to support the motion on the floor as moved and supported. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
At this stage, does the Leadership have any indications?
Mr. K.A. Okerchiri 1:25 p.m.
There being a lot of committee meetings and having accomplished a lot for today, I hereby beg to move that this House do now adjourn till tomorrow 10 o'clock in the forenoon.
Mr. F. A. Agbotse 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I beg to second the motion.
Question put and motion agreed to.
ADJOURNMENT 1:25 p.m.
  • The House was accordingly adjourned at 1.35 p.m. till 9th March, 2005 at 10.00 a.m.