Odekro | What has your MP done for you?

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker, it is the policy of Government to upgrade at least one senior secondary school in each of the old 110 districts to a model status. The programme is however being implemented in four distinct phases. Under the Phase I, 31 senior secondary schools are currently being upgraded. Selection of consultants for supervision for the Phase II involving 25 schools is in progress and works on them will take off in the third quarter of the year.
Selection of schools for the 3rd and 4th phases of the programme will be done when funding is secured and the 1st phase of the upgrading has been completed. The 1st phase is likely to be completed by the end of January 2006.

Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor

Mr. Speaker, I would want to ask the hon. Minister whether the Aburaman Secondary School is under any of these phases.

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker,
Aburaman Secondary School is not part of the 110, to the best of my knowledge. There is one per district and many districts have more than one secondary school, some as many as seven.

Mr. E. T. Mensah

Mr. Speaker, the Minister indicated in the second paragraph of his Answer that the selection for the 3rd and 4th phases of the programme would be done when funding is secured. The statement is a bit open ended. Does the hon. Minister have any idea about when?

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker, the first 31 are being funded through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund); the second 25 are being funded through the African Development Bank (ADB). We are seeking funding from Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and the World Bank for the next phase, but our surety is that the GETFund is always available to push it. So one would say that when the first is completed, the chances are that funding can be arranged in a composite form to support it.

Mr. c. S. Hodogbey

Mr. Speaker, in the Answer to the Question, the hon. Minister said thirty-one senior secondary schools are currently being upgraded. When specifically did the upgrading start?

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker,
the selection of the one hundred and ten districts were done on the 15th of December 2002. Upgrading of them started in May 2003 after we had gone through the procurement processes. We
expect the first fifteen of these to be completed by December this year, but as I said, by January most of it should be completed.

Mr. Speaker, I
would like to know from the Minister why some of the projects under the GETFund are moving at a very slow pace.

Mr. Speaker

Hon. Member for
Okere, this does not arise out of the main Question. You may come properly.

Mr. G. K. Arthur

Mr. Speaker, it
seems until the five hundred projects are completed, no new project can start but we do not know when it is going to be completed. I want to ask the Minister when the Ministry is supposed to complete the five hundred projects so that new projects can be started.

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker, I
never said that “not until”. I said “to complete a considerable number of them”. Therefore, we are not waiting till the completion of the five hundred, we are waiting until in our judgment and view a considerable number of them have been completed; so it is a continuous process.

Mr. Speaker, it
is about the paucity of the allocation. I say so because when one talks about wiring of schools, sometimes the schools are far away from the main town where the poles are, so one is compelled to buy electric poles. Currently, I have been involved in that and I have to buy the electric poles, meanwhile funds are not available. So I am asking that if the hon. Minister would consider seeing the GETFund Administrators so that they make specific and reasonable allocations for this purpose.

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker,
as I said earlier on in an answer to a question, the Local Government Act makes the districts primarily responsible for the provision of infrastructure to basic schools, and therefore, we as members of the various District Assemblies should make sure that the district takes this as a matter of priority and provide them. So if the hon. Member's is not enough, he should ask the district to put greater part of its Common Fund into it because I consider it to be an important part of infrastructure provision. Therefore, we should put pressure on the district to take wiring as a very important thing.
Salaries of Teachers Recruited in 2003/2004 Academic Year
Q. 234. Mr. Yaw Effah-Baafi asked the Minister for Education and Sports what steps the Ministry is taking to ensure that the salaries of teachers recruited in 2003/2004 academic year are paid in full without further delay.

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker, all
teachers (graduate and pupil teachers) who were recruited within the year in 2003/2004 and had submitted inputs,

Mr. Effah-Baafi

Mr. Speaker, I wish to find out from the hon. Minister when the last tranche of the arrears was released for payment to the affected teachers.

Mr. Speaker

Hon. Member, would
you be kind to repeat your question.

Mr. Effah-Baafi

Mr. Speaker, I
wanted to find out from the hon. Minister when the last tranche of arrears was released for payment to the affected teachers.

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker, to the
best of my knowledge, to date, graduate and diploma teachers numbering eight hundred and fifty have all been paid by end of May. Pupils teachers, three thousand had all been paid by end of May, those who were affected in Techiman were about seventy and they would be paid end of July. The number of newly- trained teachers who have also been upgraded and paid with their back pay amounted to four thousand, six hundred and thirteen were all paid by the end of May. Therefore we have no arrears further except Techiman which would be done at the end of July.

Mr. Effah-Baafi

Mr. Speaker, I further
want to find out from the hon. Minister what factors accounted for the delay in the payment of the arrears aside of delayed submission of inputs.

The other Statement is by the hon. Member of Parliament for Asuogyamam. It is also on the same matter.
Ethnicity and National Integration

Mr. Kofi osei-Ameyaw (NPP - Asuogyaman)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for admitting this Statement pursuant to Order 72 of the Standing Orders of this honourable House.
Mr. Speaker, as a young boy growing up, I came face-to-face with a sweet incident that would forever stick in my memory. A pastor had come to town to bless the marriage of a man and a woman from two distinct ethnic groups; one from the south and the other from the north. The sermon that followed the brief ceremony brought out emotion and nationalism in the celebrants. He said,
“I am happy to be presiding over this holy matrimony. I have been blessed to put together what men would struggle to separate. I thank God for this day.”
Mr. Speaker, just last week, I got glued to a spectacle that I normally would take for granted. In my constituency, Asuogyaman, children as young as five years are capable of switching tongues at will. On a typical day, around the Atimpoku roundabout, a young food vendor would reply you in any language you speak with a gleeful smile. That beauty of linguistic plurality and sense of oneness among these hawkers could make Ghana, our dear nation, a better place.
Mr. Speaker, the nation called Ghana is made up of numerous ethnic groups who had no say in what brought them together. Some had their relations cut off while others had to coexist with their bitter

Mr. Kofi osei-Ameyaw (NPP - Asuogyaman)

neighbours during the partitioning. The balkanization of Africa and its attendant problems is history and we should focus on what unites us and ignore what divides us.
Mr. Speaker, we are normally blinded by prejudice born out of some unfounded fear and contempt. Prejudice corrupts the honest, and it can drive the most sensible person to commit unimaginable evil to his fellow man. But the fact that one does not share the same features, language or culture with someone does not make one superior or inferior. It may be a fact that the person looks different but he or she is human and “fearfully and wonderfully made” by the Creator.
Mr. Speaker, the negative exploitation of ethnicity or its rather unfashionable derivative, tribalism has wreaked havoc on the African continent. I dare say that it has cast a shadow of fear, mistrust, poverty, ignorance and superstition on majority of our people. Many countries have suffered this misfortune on the African continent but let me chip in a few points of reference lest we forget this spectre at our own peril.
More than 200,000 people have died in ethnic clashes.
The Sudan, the theatre of Africa's longest civil war has failed to bridge its ethnic and racial divide recording more horrors and deaths in the process. More than 180,000 people have died in the Darfur Region alone. The number of people forced into eternity in clashes between the Government and the SPLA runs into millions.
Mr. Speaker, in Rwanda, the notorious privately run Radio Tele Libre Mille Collines (RTLM) served as a vehicle for virulent anti-Tutsi propaganda. Some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were massacred in 100 days. It is unthinkable and no doubt the worst form of genocide
in recent human history after the”Jewish Hell” in Hitler's Germany.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has become a beggar when it has everything that makes a nation a donor. This paradox was constructed by wars and political instability brewed in negative exploitation of ethnicity.

Mr. Speaker, our dearest neighbour, Nigeria has had its share of ethnic clashes and death. In 1962, a typical Nigerian census fuelled ethnic clashes that left several people lifeless. Again, in 1967 a bitter civil war with ethnic underpinning engulfed that nation, resulting in its worst nightmare.

The hitherto peaceful la Cote d'Ivoire broke into two as a result of this curse. The exclusion of a popular politician who some wanted to be seen as foreigner laid the foundation for that country's implosion. Reports of ethnic violence- related deaths run through the news wires and on television everyday, making la Cote d'Ivoire, an otherwise African success story, a non-fiction dracula tale.

Ghana has had its share of ethnic- inspired senseless wars and clashes.

Mr. Speaker, Ghanaians are blessed to have had Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as our first leader. He did not bother about what people thought he was. He only wanted to be seen as “an African domiciled in Ghana”. He erased ethnicity to the root and championed national unity, cohesion and development; any form of disunity was a recipe for national disaster.

Successive leaders including President J. A. Kufuor have equally blazed the trail. From the Avoidance of Discrimination Act, 1958 through various national policies to the 1992 Constitution, Ghana has tried to avoid a large scale war and

Alhaji M. M. Mubarak (NDc - Asawase)

Mr. Speaker, I think this Statement has to be taken very seriously by all well-meaning Ghanaians. What we are saying is very, very true. It has to be implemented by almost all of us. How many of us sincerely, let us just ask ourselves, would want to consider someone without finding out whether he belongs to one's tribe or religion or region? Many times almost every one of us sitting here would find himself guilty of one thing

Alhaji M. M. Mubarak (NDc - Asawase)

or the other because we deliberately or sometimes unconsciously try to find the background of whoever we meet on the streets.
Some of us have a multicultural background. I was born in Kumasi, bred in Kumasi; I speak Twi better than my mother tongue. I am a Dagomba by tribe. In Tamale Secondary School sometimes I got shocked that my colleague Dagombas would say, “Oh, this is a Kumasi boy”. At the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), a course mate would tell me “go to a university in your hometown”. These are the realities and there is no way we can run away from this unless we all stop immediately asking people the first time we meet them, “Oh what tribe are you? Which religion do you belong to?” These are the beginning of most of the things that we are talking of.
We would have to be able to fight together to create a voice for the voiceless as Ghanaians, create opportunity for our people, and create security for all Ghanaians regardless of colour, religion, tribe or party. It is only when we do this that this country would move forward.
Mr. Speaker, I thank you very much for allowing me to contribute to this Statement.
Deputy Minister for Tourism and Modernisation of the capital city (Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng): Mr. Speaker, thank you for allowing me to contribute to this Statement by my hon. Colleague from Asuogyaman. It is a very powerful and important Statement for us to take account of.
Mr. Speaker, division in this country would not take us anywhere. Mr. Speaker,
we have a country that we can all be proud of and we need to maintain that unity amongst us. We may be having political differences and opinions but this country belongs to all of us, and as much as we can, we must strive to avoid ethnicity, and division that do not augur well for all of us.
Mr. Speaker, I myself was born a Fante by mother and an Ashanti by father. I have lived in almost every part of this country. I had a step-father who was a police officer and was transferred to almost every part of this country and I learnt different cultures, different tribal leanings; and there are beautiful things that we can learn from each one of us.
Diversity must bring us together so that we can learn from each other rather than letting it divide us. The beauty of it is that we all learn and progress together and we pick the goodness of one another's tribe and make it advantageous and beneficial to all of us.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is nice for us to talk about this, not necessarily to sweep under the carpet the strong division that sometimes rears its head when it comes to political activities. On both sides of the House, I will urge that we try and sink that kind of urge which comes up sometimes to win votes. But after winning the votes, we need to go back to the same people and work with them.

So as my hon. Colleagues have contributed, I do not want to dwell too much on it but to lend my support to the fact that we should all stand together and fight divisionism and ethnicity that do not augur well for all of us. On this note, I lend my support to that Statement.

Prof. A. Wayo Seini (NDc -- Tamale central)

Mr. Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the two Statements on the floor. Mr.
Speaker, I think both Statements have been very well written; they are excellent and have touched on a very important issue, that is ethnicity. Mr. Speaker, even in the Quran, it is stated that, “We made you into different tribes and colours, so that you can identify each other”.
Identifying each other means that we are people from different tribes, but it does not mean that we cannot live together under one roof. Mr. Speaker, in his book, “Africa and the Nation State”, Basil Davidson argued that Africa was at the stage of nation formation when somebody put a pencil and divided us into different countries.
Mr. Speaker, I remember at one stage, I met some two Nigerians way back in August 1971 who were just returning from England, from Stanhurst or so. I was then returning from Wales. They were very happy that their civil war was over and I told them that the civil war was over but there was still one more civil war to be fought, that is the war to unite the whole of West Africa. Mr. Speaker, I say so because West Africa is blessed with different tribes. Different tribes because we have variety, and if we can bring that variety together, it is something which will aid our developmental efforts, not to divide us.
Mr. Speaker, variety is something which is required in the developmental process, and I was particularly happy when the hon. Member for Asuogyaman said that in his area people speak so many languages. It is also true that in Europe or the continent, there are people who speak so many languages. Language is a unifying factor and that is why in our educational system we should encourage the learning of languages as much as possible.

Mr. S. K. Manu (NPP -- Ahafo Ano South)

Mr. Speaker, I rise to contribute to the Statement on the floor of the House and in doing so I want to underscore the fact that the phenomenon of ethnicity in itself is not a bad thing. Mr. Speaker, God, who created us, knew why he created the Basari man, the Ashanti man, the Anlo man and the White man. So in itself, ethnicity is not bad, it is what we men on earth make of

Mr. Manu

Mr. Speaker, we have lived harmoniously; and I stand here as an example. I am from the North, everybody knows, but I hold my seat in Ashanti Region -- [Hear! Hear!] -- in the heart of Ashanti. They have not discriminated against me. The ethnic tendencies that are leading us to chaos are of recent development. Mr. Speaker, it is of recent development when some politicians tried to whip up ethnic sentiments to achieve political gains, which unfortunately did not work. And they have not stopped; they continue to whip up ethnic sentiments and that is where as Ghanaians we must all come out and condemn.
Mr. Speaker, I was glad when I went to Elmina and I saw a suburb in Elmina called Bantama. The hon. Member for Elimina is here, he can bear me witness. If one goes to Kumasi, there are areas called Moshie-Zongo, Anloga, and Fante Newtown; they are all in the heart of Kumasi -- [Hear! Hear!] These people have lived harmoniously without any problem.
The Baba Yara Stadium is in Kumasi -- [Hear! Hear!] The Ohene Djan Stadium is in Accra -- [Hear! Hear!] What problems have these caused? It is we,
the politicians, the unscrupulous ones, of course -- [Laughter] -- who have tried, vainly though, to use ethnicity to achieve their selfish political ends. And it is these people that we must tell to move away from the question of ethnicity.

Mr. John D. Mahama (NDc -- Bole/Bamboi)

Mr. Speaker, I wish to start by commending the courage of the makers of these two Statements. As the last hon. Member who contributed said, ethnicity in itself is not the problem; it is ethnocentrism that creates the problem. Ethnocentrism, stereotyping and ethnic prejudice create the problem; ethnicity by itself is God-given. [Interruptions.]

Mr. Speaker

Order! Order!

Mr. Mahama

We were all born into various cultural environments and that is what makes up our ethnicity. Mr. Speaker, ethnocentrism is a sensitive subject that often people are very reluctant to discuss it. And that is why I say I commend the makers of the Statements for having the courage to bring this subject onto the floor of this House; for what better place is there to discuss the issue of ethnocentrism than the Parliament of Ghana?
Mr. Speaker, I do not agree that Ghana is in danger of descending into ethnic strife. I do think that Ghana has very good social support mechanisms that intervene whenever we have a danger on the horizon. And once these early warning systems trigger in, one finds religious leaders, traditional rulers, and civil society groups all coming into the fray and we are able to resolve whatever problems are
likely to arise.

So I do not believe that we are in danger of descending into ethnics trife, but it does not mean that we should let down our guard. We have the example of our neighbour, la Cote d'Ivoire to guide us. La Cote d'Ivoire, I am sure, twenty years ago could never have envisaged that today the country would be so divided. And so even though we are not in immediate danger of ethnic strife in this country, we must still make sure that we do not let down our guard and continue to do the things that will prevent this from happening.

Mr. Speaker, we must think of ourselves as Ghanaians first and after that we can look at what parts of the country we come from; but first and foremost, we are all Ghanaians, equal under the laws of this country.

Mr. Speaker, part of the problem we are having in terms of slight ethnic friction is because of the collapse of the former boarding school system. Mr. Speaker, in the past, most of the Ghana Education Trust Schools, which were the main secondary schools to which children from all parts of this country congregated before they went on to tertiary education, were boarding schools. And aside from that, we all took one single examination called the Common Entrance Examination and one made the choice of school one wanted to go to.

Mr. Speaker, depending on how you performed, one could find one self being sent from one corner of the country to another. And so a child from Axim could find himself sent to Bawku Secondary School to go and pursue secondary education. Mr. Speaker, children from the north could find themselves coming to Achimota to pursue secondary education.

Mr. Speaker, in those schools that we attended, our colleagues came from all parts of the country and we saw ourselves as one; we learnt to live together without our parents; we learnt each other's culture and wherever it was that we found ourselves in secondary school, we began to learn the language of the area that the school was. Mr. Speaker, this was a very good system.

Unfortunately, the educational reform system has changed all that. We have a concept of what we call community- based secondary schools and so in most cases children start primary schools in their own locality. When they finish primary school, they continue straight into junior secondary schools (JSS) in their own locality; when they finish the JSS, they most likely will continue into the community-based secondary school within the district in which they are. And so that kind of intermingling and cross- transfer of people unfortunately no longer exist. So we need to find safeguards to replace that system.

Mr. Speaker, in the past, as hon. Asamoah-Boateng said, his father was a policeman; they were the most transferred people in the public service. Policemen, teachers, soldiers and headmasters could be transferred to any part of this country and so you found that the children of policemen, soldiers and teachers could speak multiple languages because they spent parts of their childhood in almost every part of this country.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, as a result of various problems that arose, the rate of transfers that take place in our public service now is not as high as it used to be in the past. But we must find ways of trying to put in things that will make us come together and understand each other; and I believe that in this the President and Government must show leadership.

Mr. Speaker, as hon. Kwaku Balado Manu said, intermarriage is one of them. How many people here can beat their chests and say that their wives come from a different ethnic group than they themselves come from? [Hear! Hear!] Mr. Speaker, my wife comes from the Brong Ahafo Region and I come from the north. Mr. Speaker, we should encourage our children to marry outside our ethnic groups. Mr. Speaker, when marriage is contracted, it brings two families together and if the families come from different ethnic groups they have grandchildren together and they learn to see that they are one and the same people.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank, very much, the makers of this Statement and to encourage them to continue to address such bold topics.

Order! Order! Hon. Member for South Dayi, continue.

Dr. Ampofo

Mr. Speaker, I think I am doing very well because initially, I used to pronounce Fumesua, as Fremesu -- [Laughter.] But now I have made progress and, at least, I said Fumesua.
But Mr. Speaker, the most important thing is that I am extremely proud to be married to an Ashanti woman -- [Hear! Hear! ] -- And we live in total harmony and peace in the house. In fact, we speak all types of languages in the house. We speak Twi when we feel like speaking Twi, Ga, Ewe, and of course, English. So what I am trying to say is that ethnicity, when it becomes a problem -- And I think it has been said already. It is when the link between it and politics is made. I have often asked my wife and children that should there be a crisis based on ethnicity, what are we going to do? Where are we going to run?
Are we going to run to Ashanti or are we going to run to the Volta Region? So the best thing to do is that this country is fortunate enough that there are a lot of inter-ethnic marriages. These must be glamorized and encouraged because it is through these types of marriages that we mix up as a nation with one identity.
Mr. Speaker, I think the problem can also be resolved through education as the hon. Member for Bole-Bamboi has eloquently expressed; and I would not want to belabour the point. But I would add one more point to it that we should also try to discourage what we have called tribal marks. During Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's era, it was discouraged; gradually, it is seeping

Mr. Speaker

Item 5 -- Presentation and First Reading of Bills, Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines?

Mr. Speaker, Leadership had had a look at the Bill intended to be laid and we seem to become convinced that the Bill that is going to be laid may not be able to cure the disease that it is supposed to cure in the sense that the original Bill has indicated that there could be this fund up to ¢640 per litre. If we go to pass this Bill, then it means we have blocked the instantaneous decision that needs to be taken whenever there is the need to reduce this amount by the passage but they need to lay a document here, a Legislative Instrument for 21 Parliamentary days.
In fact, Leadership is convinced that we

Mr. E. K. D. Adjaho

Mr. Speaker, that is the understanding we have reached because if you look at the parent Act (Act 642) of 2003, we gave discretion to the levy, up to ¢640 per litre on specified pretroleum products in the Act.
My understanding is that the object of the Bill as I have been informed is to reduce it. Mr. Speaker, if it is to increase it then we cannot use a Legislative Instrument because the power granted to this House under article 174 of the Constitution in terms of matters of taxation would then have been taken away by the Legislative Instrument. But if it is for purposes -- In that case, it would have to come by a proper Bill before this House. If it is to be increased, they cannot do it by Legislative Instrument.
On the other hand, if the object is to reduce it, then they do not need that because we have given a discretion from ¢0 up to ¢640 per litre with regard to those specified petroleum products and to that extent therefore we think that once it is by way of reduction and it will not exceed the ¢640 per litre per gallon that we have given to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to levy, there is no need for such a Bill to be brought to this House.
Mr. Speaker, I therefore support the submission of the hon. Majority Leader.

Mr. Speaker, I beg to second the motion, with liberty to come back under Order 86 of the Standing Orders.
Question proposed.
Mr. P. c. Appiah-ofori (NPP
-- Asikuma-odoben-Brakwa): Mr.

Mr. E. K. D. Adjaho (NDc -- Avenor/ Ave)

Speaker, I would wish to make a brief intervention. Under the Constitution, it is the duty of the Auditor-General to take adequate steps to ensure that financial regulations are complied with in order to safeguard the resources of Ghana, at least, the public services. So if the Auditor- General in his own department would sit down unconcerned for such lapses to take place, then Ghana is in trouble -- [Laughter.] Such shortcomings should not go unpunished.
We must try and find a way to safeguard the resources of the country for the Government to access enough funds to execute its programmes for the country.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to refer you to L.I. 1234, Regulation 125- 127; and with your permission, I quote:
“It is the duty of the head of department to ensure that the financial business of his department is so organised that proper supervision is exercised over the work of subordinate officers . . .”
It goes on to 126 (1):
“Where the circumstances of public financial business so allow, financial and accounting duties would be so arranged that the work of each person shall be subject to the scrutiny of at least one other person . . .”
127(2):
“… failure to do so shall render him liable to prosecution under section 76(1)(e) of the Financial Administration Decree, 1979 . . .”
And this provision reads as follows:
“Every officer or person acting in any office or employment connected with the collection, management or disbursement of public and trust moneys or with the control of government stores who --
x x x x
( e ) h a v i n g k n o w l e d g e o r information of the violation of any financial law by any person, or fraud committed by any person against the Government under any law relating to public finance for the time being in force, fails to report such knowledge or information to his senior officer; . . .
commits an offence, and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding three times the amount so offered or accepted, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to both.”

Mr. Speaker, if the Auditor-General had actually arranged the business of his department so that other officers were overseeing other people's work, the loss of one hundred and sixty-five million cedis would have been detected earlier, because the money was not taken at a go, it was taken piecemeal. If he had complied with this strategic provision, he would have prevented the loss but because he did not do that the cashier took piecemeal a total sum of one hundred and sixty-five million cedis and went away with it.

Mr. Speaker, the proper thing he should have done was to ensure that every morning, an officer above the cashier would go to his cage to do what we call cash count. He would count the physical cash and also tabulate the values of the total payment vouchers with it. The two together should be equal to the imprest

Ms. Akua Sena Dansua (NDc -- North Dayi)

Mr. Speaker, I am going to be very brief. Generally, when one looks at the report before us, it paints a very negative picture of the Auditor-General's Department. But I do not think that we should blame them too much since this is the first time they have been audited. We can give them some leeway to operate, but it is my hope that in the next report that would be presented to this House all the lapses that have been noted would have been rectified.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to say that if

Alhaji Malik A. Yakubu (NPP -- Yendi)

Mr. Speaker, I am a member of the Public Accounts Committee and I am rising to support the Report.
Mr. Speaker, it is indeed a very good thing that Parliament finally took action to appoint an auditor for the Auditor- General's Department. The failure of Parliament to do so in the past, we discovered, was a pity because a lot of wrong things that had taken place would have been corrected much earlier.
Mr. Speaker, the auditors that were appointed to audit the Auditor-General's Department have done a very good job. They have done such a good job that virtually nobody complains or has any serious reservations about the findings in their report.
Mr. Speaker, as has been very well captured by the hon. Chairman of the Committee in his Report, a very bad picture was painted. He has listed some of them. Hon. P. C. Appiah-Ofori has also referred to some of them and therefore I do not need to repeat them; but the case we were facing when we handled this report was like the physician who should see to treating patients abandoning all measures of good health himself and yet preaching to others to take measures that would ensure their good health.
Mr. Speaker, the good thing that was heart-warming was that the current Auditor-General admitted without any equivocation that the picture that was sketched in the auditor's report was a
sordid one and he himself when he was asked what his feeling was, said he felt bad about the kind of picture that he saw at the Auditor-General's Department. And we were reassured that not only has he admitted that all was not well at the Auditor-General's Department, but that steps were being taken and actually some were being implemented as at the time he appeared before the Committee. We had no doubt in our minds that the very bad accounting procedures that were recorded at the Auditor-General's Department would no more be the case; and that was very reassuring.
Mr. Speaker, I hope that Parliament would take timely action either to reappoint the current auditors or appoint another auditor so that there would not be undue time lapse in carrying out his work.
With these few remarks, Mr. Speaker, I support the motion.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu (NDc -- Tamale South)

Mr. Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this Report; with your indulgence, Mr. Speaker, I refer to your Committee's Report, page 10. That would form the basis of my contribution and comments.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to refer to article 179 (8) of our Constitution which, in my view, is what the Members of the Committee drew the attention of Parliament to -- our inability, together with the Executive, to honour article 179 (8) of the Constitution which states, and

Mr. Speaker, with your permission I quote

“Where, in respect of a financial year, it is found that the amount
of moneys appropriated by the Appropriation Act for any purpose is insufficient or that a need has arisen for expenditure for a purpose for which no sums of money has been appropriated by that Act, a supplementary estimate showing the sum of money required, shall be laid before Parliament for its approval.”
Mr. Speaker, while we commend the Committee, and particularly this Parliament for taking the unprecedented step in ensuring that auditors were appointed for the first time -- indeed the previous NDC Government lapsed in this particular endeavour in ensuring that what was appropriate was done in this direction -- I think that if we want to protect our public heads, it is important that the Auditor General, as an institution, he and his staff are encouraged at all times. I cannot fathom why for this period of eight years we did not give the Auditor- General the right hand to be able to go into its accounts.
But Mr. Speaker, whilst acknowledging the wrongs of the past, it should be noted that there are many other forensic reports that the Auditor-General has conducted and this House is not privy to the outcome and findings of those forensic audits. I think it will do us a lot of good if the Auditor-General could facilitate that all those forensic audits conducted into Ghana Airways, GNPC, the Trade and Investment Facility Programme and bring them to this House for scrutiny.
Mr. Speaker, my other comment has to do with page 11, item 28, where the Committee observed that the GETFund and District Assemblies Common Fund have accumulated arrears of two hundred and thirty-five point eight billion (¢235.8 billion) and one hundred and seventy billion (¢170 billion) respectively.
Mr. Speaker, it is important once again to acknowledge the recommendation --

Mr. Speaker, with your permission I quote

chairman of the committee (Mr. Sallas-Mensah) -- rose --

Mr. Speaker

Chairman of the Committee, do you have a point of order to raise?

Mr. Sallas-Mensah

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it looks like the hon. Member from Tamale South is jumping into one of our Committee's Reports, which has not been laid in the House yet. It has been laid though, but the motion on it has not yet been moved. This particular motion is being moved on the Report on the audit of the accounts of the Auditor-General and not the Consolidated Fund for 2002. He should check his records, please.

Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, that notwith- standing 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 Second Reading of the Human Trafficking Bill may be moved today.

Mr. Speaker

Any seconder?

Mrs. cecilia Abena Dapaah

Mr. Speaker, I beg to second the motion.
Question put and motion agreed to.
Resolved accordingly.

BILLS -- SEcoND READING

Human Trafficking Bill

Minister for Women and children's Affairs (Hajia Alima Mahama)

Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, That the Human Trafficking Bill be now read a Second time. And in so doing, Mr. Speaker, I beg to make the following submissions.
Mr. Speaker, trafficked persons, mainly women and children, are found in dehumanizing situations through no fault of their own. They become domestic workers, head porters, fisher boys and girls and engage in commercial sex work among other forms of labour.
Mr. Speaker, human trafficking has an internal and cross-border dimension. Our country serves as a supplier, receiver and transit point for human trafficking. The root causes of human trafficking are poverty, the demand for labour and other socio-cultural and economic factors. Mr. Speaker, child labour in particular and forced labour of young women is attractive because they are paid low wages, if paid at all, and they are not in a situation to complain.
Mr. Speaker, currently, there is no specific law against trafficking. The Children's Act has provisions on apprenticeship and child labour to protect the best interest of the child; but the Act does not capture trafficking. The Criminal Code, Act 29 does not make specific reference to the term “trafficking” although it does contain provisions which create offences related to the topic such as abduction, slave dealing and kidnapping. However, provisions on kidnapping

Minister for Women and children's Affairs (Hajia Alima Mahama)

covers the person who physically removes the victim and not necessarily the other persons who aid, abet or otherwise participate in the process.
Mr. Speaker, in situations of abduction
and child stealing, the consent of the parent is seen as a defence. However, the Human Trafficking Bill seeks to negate the consent of the parents. Mr. Speaker, the Republic, that is, Ghana has ratified the worst forms of child labour convention, that is, the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 182 and this Convention calls upon countries to prohibit the most abhorrent forms of child labour with immediate effect. The worst form of child labour comprise all forms of slavery and practices similar to slavery and include the sale and trafficking of children.
Mr. Speaker, at the international level, we are obliged by the Convention that we have signed and though we have not ratified the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recommendations on the principles and guidance on human rights and human trafficking -- that indicates a gap in our ability to conform to international standards. However, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Declaration on the Fight against Trafficking and the ECOWAS Plan of Action against Trafficking in Persons commit us to take action in this direction.
Mr. Speaker, the Bill seeks to prevent, suppress and punish human trafficking. It is set out in six sections. Section 1 prohibits the offence, section 2 lays the procedures for complaints as well as arrests. Section 3, Mr. Speaker, focuses on rescue, rehabilitation and re-integration. Section 3 recognizes that the rights of victims are fundamental; this is a human issue and it involves violations of the fundamental human rights of victims,

especially women and children who constitute the majority of trafficked persons. The Bill therefore seeks to ensure that the capacity of victims to cope is enhanced and that assistance and services is provided to trafficked persons as well as potential trafficked persons and that this should be a State obligation.

Mr. Speaker, we had a situation where the previous laws focuses on the offender rather than the victim. Section 3 seeks to fill in this gap to ensure that the trafficked person have services at his or her disposal and to ensure that the person is integrated into the community. Section 4, Mr. Speaker, focuses on financing and it seeks to establish a Human Trafficking Fund so that the issues of rescue and rehabilitation will be addressed. Issues of implementing the provisions of the law, if it is so passed, will also have some funding element that will enable us deal with the issues of human trafficking in the country.

Mr. Speaker, section 5 recognizes that the nature of trafficking -- [Pause] -- Mr. Speaker, part 5 of the Bill -- [Interruption.]

Mr. Adjaho

Mr. Speaker, I am getting a little bit confused. The hon. Minister for Women and Children's Affairs keeps on referring to sections but there is no section. We talk about clauses if it is a Bill, then we know that we are all using the same document. Otherwise, it appears there is an Act and we are holding the Bill. We want to be sure that we are talking about the same document.
Hajia Mahama: Mr. Speaker, it is the
same document. The document has five parts although it is written in the Bill as sections. But at this point in time, I should refer to them as parts.
Mr. Speaker, part 5 recognizes the
nature of trafficking and it seeks to prevent as well as deal with the fact that trafficking requires co-ordinated and collaborative response by all stakeholders. It therefore provides for a task force on human trafficking to enable all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that are involved in matters of rescue, in matters of rehabilitation, in matters of re-integration as well as in matters of enforcement to come together, deliberate on issues and provide recommendations for implementation if this Bill is passed into law.
Mr. Speaker, it is incumbent on us as a country to criminalize trafficking and address the rights of victims of trafficking, to rescue, reintegrate and rehabilitate the victims. First, because it is desirable to do so at the domestic level from a human rights point of view; and second, also to conform to international standards.
Mr. Speaker, for our women, our children and the few men who also get trafficked along the line, I beg that the House considers and consequently pass this Bill into a law. Mr. Speaker, I so move.

Mr. Speaker

Any seconder to the motion?

chairman of the committee (Mrs. Esther obeng-Dappah): Mr. Speaker, I rise to present the Committee's Report.

Mr. Speaker, the Human Trafficking Bill was presented and read the First

[HAJIA MAHAMA] time in the House on Friday, 17th June 2005. It was referred to the Committee on Gender and Children for consideration and report in accordance with Order 175 of the Standing Orders of Parliament.

2. Background

Trafficking in persons is a violation of many international laws and Human Rights Protocols. Human trafficking is conducted by persons or group of persons who may operate within national or across international borders.

The victims of human trafficking are often denied their basic freedoms and forced to work as prostitutes, labourers, domestic servants, child soldiers, fisher boys and girls to mention a few. The victims may be routinely raped, tortured and brutalized.

However, in Ghana there is no specific legislation against this dehumanising practice and therefore there is a need for a passage of this Bill.

3. References

The Committee in its deliberations made reference to the following documents:

The Const i tut ion of the Republic of Ghana;

The Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana; The Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (Act 30);

The Children's Act, 1998 (Act

560);

Labour Act, 2003 (Act 651);

West African States Agreement on Plan to Combat Human Trafficking (27th December

2001);

C182 Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999; and

Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention a g a i n s t Tr a n s n a t i o n a l Organised Crime.

4.0 Deliberations

In considering the Bill, the Committee held a number of meetings and workshops at Elmina and Akosombo respectively where the hon. Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, Hajia Alima Mahama, her deputy, the Deputy Minister for Manpower Development, Youth and Employment and other resource persons briefed hon. Members of the Committee on the Bill.

M r. S p e a k e r, i n v i e w o f the importance of the Bill, the Committee invited memoranda and held discussions with many stakeholders. The following stakeholders submitted memoranda to your Committee:

(a) Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA), Ghana

(b) Ghana Immigration Service

( c ) B r i t i s h C o u n c i l , Commonwealth Human Right

Initiative (d) LAWA-Ghana

(e) UNICEF, Ghana

(f) US Embassy

(g) Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD)

(h) Centre for Social Policy and Studies (CSPC)

( i ) Internat ional Labour Organisation (ILO)

(j) International Organisation for Migration (IOM)

(k) NGO Coalition on the Right of the Child

(l) Ghana Employers Association

(GEA)

(m) The Ark Foundation, Ghana

(n) Ghana Parliamentary Centre.

5.0 Acknowledgements

The Committee wishes to express its gratitude to the immense contributions of the Minister for Women and Children's Affairs, hon. Hajia Alima Mahama and her Deputy, hon. Mr. J. B. Danquah Adu, and the Deputy Minister for Manpower Development, Youth and Employment, hon. Mrs. Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, the Chief Directors, Legal and Technical Officers and all other resource persons, for their invaluable contributions during its deliberations.

The Committee as required by Standing Order 175 accordingly

presents the following report: 6.0 Purpose of the Bill

The Bill seeks to prevent, suppress and punish persons or group of persons who engage in Human Trafficking. The Committee considered the Bill clause-by-clause and presents the topical issues as follows:

7.0 Provisions of the Bill

7.1. The Committee recommends that the short title of the Bill should be “Anti-Human Trafficking Act”.

7.2. Clause 1

(a) Subclause (1)

T h e m e a n i n g o f “ H u m a n Trafficking” has been expanded and redrafted to include trafficking of persons within and across national borders as follows:

“(1) human trafficking means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring, trading or receipt of persons within and across national borders by:

(a) the use of threats, force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power or exploitation of vulnerability,

(b ) g iv ing o r rece iv ing payments and eg benefits to achieve consent.”

(b) Subclause (2)

The Committee proposes a new rendition with the deletion of “people smuggling” and “human beings” to read as follows:

“(2) Exploitation shall include, ‘at the minimum' induced prostitution and other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs ‘for sale or for ritual purposes'.”

The deletion of “human beings” is to avoid repetition, since “prostitution” automatically does not refer to any other living thing. People smuggling on the other hand is a cross-national border activity, while trafficking in persons takes place both within and across national borders. The new rendition therefore makes the subclause more meaningful.

7.3. Clause 2 (1) (a) and (b)

The Committee proposes a redraft of paragraph (a) of subclause (1) to read as follows:

“(1) a person shall not traffick another person within the meaning of clause (1) or acts as an intermediary for the trafficking of a person.”

The prohibition of trafficking as contained in the subclause (1) does not convey the exact meaning in clause 1 (1), hence the amendment.

Clause 3 (1)

The Committee proposes that the

Mr. Speaker

Society Organisations (CSO).”

The subclause has been expanded to include bodies other than the police to receive information or reports on human trafficking.

7.5. Clause 9 (5)

The Committee proposes an amendment to the subclause by inserting the words “the next of kin or” after the word “by” in line 2.

This is to ensure that the next of kin of the deceased should be one important person who can lodge a complaint before any other person.

7.6. Clause 10 (2)

The Committee is of the view that another avenue should be created for redress for a complainant. Consequently the Committee proposes the following amendments:

after “shall” insert “on a report filed by the complainant to a superior officer”.

Ms. Akua Sena Dansua (NDc - North Dayi)

Mr. Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to speak in support of the Bill and in doing so I wish to state that I fully support the intent, purpose and principle of this Bill. And I think that it is high time Ghana had its own law to combat this dehumanizing practice.
But Mr. Speaker, I would like to place on record the perception that some people hold that human trafficking is very endemic in this country.
Mr. Speaker, in the consideration of this Bill, we have had access to reports and documentation on human trafficking in various parts of the world and we think that in Ghana the situation is not as bad as people would want us to believe. And in a situation, for instance, where fully-fledged adults agree to pay moneys to obtain visa to go into countries that they know definitely that they cannot easily find work to do and for which reason some of them are compelled to go into prostitution, this cannot be defined as human trafficking and we need to correct that impression.
Mr. Speaker, that is not to say that we should not make the law; we need to make this law to check the little pockets of human trafficking that we have in Ghana before the situation gets out of hand.
Mr. Speaker, having said that, I think there is still some work to be done on this Bill to make it effective so that when eventually it is passed into law the implementers would not have any problem to work with it.

Ms. Akua Sena Dansua (NDc - North Dayi)

The first point I have to make is that in the memorandum we are told that Ghana is yet to ratify the UN Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish human trafficking in persons which, we were made to understand, supplements the UN Convention against transnational organized crime.

Mr. Speaker, no reason was provided us for the inability of Ghana to ratify this Convention and we think that it is high time we did so. Because if we do not put the foundations right, even though we may have the national law to work with, we may not have the moral guts to defend ourselves when we go outside into the larger UN family, for instance. And so I think that we need to ratify this Protocol as soon as possible.

Mr. Speaker, there are also certain drafting problems with the Bill generally. We noted, for instance, that clauses 12 and 13 and then 26 and 28 are not in conformity with the existing laws such as the Criminal Procedure Code and we think that the draftsperson should relook at these clauses and make them consistent with our existing laws.

Mr. Speaker, there is also this problem with the composition of the human trafficking task force which we recommend should be changed to a management board. The problem is that the hon. Minister under whose ambit this board is supposed to work has been made the Chairperson. In our view, we do not think it is right that the hon. Minister chairs the board that normally should be advising her on issues relating to human trafficking. And so we think that if we should retain the proposal as the Committee has made then this board should rather advise the Government of Ghana on issues of trafficking instead of

advising the hon. Minister under whom they are supposed to work.

Mr. Speaker, we think also that we should include an official of the National Security Council. This is because at that level they are able to intercept intelligence earlier than all the other security agencies. And we think that somebody from the National Security Council would be more useful, and effective to the work on this National Human Trafficking Management Board than any other person.

Mr. Speaker, I am speaking also as a media person. I think in this matter the inclusion of a media person on the board will not be out of place because we need information to work with. We need to publicize the work of this board and also human trafficking issues generally in Ghana. And I think that it would be worthwhile if we added somebody, that is, a media practitioner on the board.

Mr. Speaker, I noted also that the -- I should have spoken about it earlier but pardon me. The definition of the Bill itself is problematic. And I am saying this because the definition does not take care of the socio-cultural dynamics of the Ghanaian society which makes it imperative on well-to-do members of the family to cater for or foster children or relatives who are in very deprived situations. I am saying this because under clause 2 -- I think it is clause 2 -- I am not sure. But there is a clause which provides that the consent of a parent or a guardian in a situation where somebody is taken from an area to another is not a defect against prosecution.

If we approve this Bill in this form, then it means that most of us in Ghana will be guilty of this thing and so instead of solving one problem, we are going to perpetuate poverty in our various areas we come from, in our various families. I

Ms. Akua Sena Dansua (NDc - North Dayi)

am saying this because if I am going to be prosecuted for offering a helping hand to a family member who normally would not have got the kind of care that he or she would get back home, then I might as well not go in to offer this helping hand. And I think that we should not totally neglect or ignore our socio-cultural dynamics; there is need for us to capture this so that we would make the law implementable and also help to maintain some of the good practices that we have in our socio-cultural system.

Mr. Speaker, the other problem that we had was that we did not hold a very exhaustive consultation with the necessary stakeholders. I am saying this because all the agencies, the documents that we relied upon to discuss this Bill were secondhand information. We had wanted to tour some of the identifiable sites where human trafficking is practised in this country, speak to the victims and also speak to the perpetrators, but unfortunately the Committee was not resourced to do this kind of work, and I think that this is not too good for us.

We think that the issue of human trafficking should have been given the necessary support as has been given to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee. Mr. Speaker, we on the Committee thought that the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs -- [Interruption.] Why?

Mr. Speaker

Hon. Member, continue.

Ms. Dansua

Mr. Speaker, all I am saying is that the Committee did not get the necessary support as we should have been given to enable us do our work because in the same way that the
Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has been resourced to do a national consultation on the People's Representation (Amendment) Bill, we also thought that the same assistance should have been given us to enable us do a very exhaustive work but this did not happen and I think that next time the Leadership of Parliament should try as much as possible to give equal support to committees to enable them do their work.

Mr. Speaker, I beg to move, that this honourable House adopts the Report of the Committee of the Whole on the Utilisation of HIPC Funds for the year 2005.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to present the Committee's Report by just referring to the relevant portions and request that the Hansard captures the whole Report.
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Appropriation Act, 2005, Act 688 stipulates in section 3 that “HIPC financed expenditure shall be classified under programmes or activities (other than Personal Emoluments (that is Item 1)) and submitted to Parliament for approval”.
Pursuant to this requirement and in accordance with article 179 (2) of the Constitution, the proposals for the Utilisation of Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Funds was laid in the House on Thursday, 21st July 2005 by hon. Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning on behalf of the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning.
The Paper was subsequently referred by Mr. Speaker to the Committee of the Whole in accordance with the Constitution and Standing Orders of the House for consideration and report.
1.2 The Committee held one sitting to consider the proposed allocations and benefited from further clarifications by
the Deputy Minister, hon. Dr. A. A. Osei.
2.0 Reference Documents
i. The Appropriation Act, 2005, Act 688
ii. The Official Report (of the House), Friday, 18th March 2005
iii. Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992
iv. Standing Orders of the House
3.0 Projected HIPc Receipts and Proposed Allocations
The total receipts for the HIPC Fund in 2005 is projected at ¢1,992.9 billion, made up of various debt relief amounts from creditors. It is meant to be additional budgetary support for the implementation of programmes/activities linked to targets set under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The memorandum submitted to the House set out the global percentage allocations of the HIPC Funds as follows:
Programme Proposed Percentage
Allocation (¢bn) Allocation
1. Domestic Debt Interest Payment
398.6
20
2. Sectoral Programmes/Activities
1,195.7 60
3. District Assemblies
199.3 10
4. Contingency
199.3
10
Total
1,992.9 100
Below is a graph presentation of the allocations.
The memorandum further detailed out the allocations by Sectoral Programmes/ Activities as follows:
Sectoral Programmes/Activities Allocations (¢bn)
1. Trade and Industry

Debates of 26 Jul 2005

PRAYERS 10:05 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:05 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:05 a.m.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION 10:05 a.m.

AND SPORTS 10:05 a.m.

Minister for Education and Sports (Mr. Yaw osafo-Maafo) 10:05 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:05 a.m.

Mr. A. E. Amoah 10:05 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:05 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:05 a.m.

Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor 10:05 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:05 a.m.

Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:05 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:05 a.m.

Mr. c. S. Hodogbey 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:15 a.m.

Mr. S. K. B. Manu 10:15 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.

Mr. Manu 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:15 a.m.

Mr. Manu 10:15 a.m.

Mr. I. Z. Alidu 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:15 a.m.

Mr. cobbina 10:15 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.

Mr. cobbina 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:15 a.m.

Mr. S. M. E. K. Ackah 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:15 a.m.

Mr. B. D. K. Adu 10:15 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.

Mr. G. K. Arthur 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:15 a.m.

Mr. Joe Gidisu 10:15 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:25 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:25 a.m.

Mr. Yaw osafo-Maafo 10:25 a.m.

Mr. A. E. Amoah 10:25 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:25 a.m.

Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:25 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:25 a.m.

Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:25 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:25 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:25 a.m.

Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:25 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:25 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:25 a.m.

Mr. Effah-Baafi 10:35 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:35 a.m.

Mr. Effah-Baafi 10:35 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:35 a.m.

Mr. Effah-Baafi 10:35 a.m.

Mr. Simons Addai 10:35 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:35 a.m.

Mr. S. A. Kwao 10:35 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:35 a.m.

Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:35 a.m.

Mr. osafo-Maafo 10:35 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:35 a.m.

STATEMENTS 10:35 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, I will identify some of these shadows 10:45 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.

Mr. Kofi osei-Ameyaw (NPP - Asuogyaman) 10:45 a.m.

Mr. Kofi osei-Ameyaw (NPP - Asuogyaman) 10:55 a.m.

Alhaji M. M. Mubarak (NDc - Asawase) 10:55 a.m.

Alhaji M. M. Mubarak (NDc - Asawase) 11:05 a.m.

Prof. A. Wayo Seini (NDc -- Tamale central) 11:05 a.m.

Mr. S. K. Manu (NPP -- Ahafo Ano South) 11:05 a.m.

Mr. Manu 11:05 a.m.

Mr. John D. Mahama (NDc -- Bole/Bamboi) 11:05 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.

Mr. Mahama 11:15 a.m.

Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah (NPP -- Asokwa) 11:15 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.

Mr. Mahama 11:15 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.

Mr. Jumah 11:15 a.m.

Dr. Kwame Ampofo (NDc -- South Dayi) 11:25 a.m.

PRAYERS

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Speaker

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

AND SPORTS

Minister for Education and Sports (Mr. Yaw osafo-Maafo)

Mr. Speaker

Mr. A. E. Amoah

Mr. Speaker

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. E. T. Mensah

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. c. S. Hodogbey

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. S. K. B. Manu

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Manu

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Manu

Mr. I. Z. Alidu

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. cobbina

Mr. Speaker

Mr. cobbina

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. S. M. E. K. Ackah

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. B. D. K. Adu

Mr. Speaker

Mr. G. K. Arthur

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Joe Gidisu

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Yaw osafo-Maafo

Mr. A. E. Amoah

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. E. T. Mensah

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. E. T. Mensah

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker

Mr. E. T. Mensah

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Effah-Baafi

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Effah-Baafi

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Effah-Baafi

Mr. Simons Addai

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. S. A. Kwao

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. E. T. Mensah

Mr. osafo-Maafo

Mr. Speaker

STATEMENTS

Mr. Speaker, I will identify some of these shadows

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Kofi osei-Ameyaw (NPP - Asuogyaman)

Mr. Kofi osei-Ameyaw (NPP - Asuogyaman)

Alhaji M. M. Mubarak (NDc - Asawase)

Alhaji M. M. Mubarak (NDc - Asawase)

Prof. A. Wayo Seini (NDc -- Tamale central)

Mr. S. K. Manu (NPP -- Ahafo Ano South)

Mr. Manu

Mr. John D. Mahama (NDc -- Bole/Bamboi)

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Mahama

Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah (NPP -- Asokwa)

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Mahama

Mr. Speaker

Mr. Jumah

Dr. Kwame Ampofo (NDc -- South Dayi)

Mr. Speaker