Debates of 17 Dec 2010

MADAM SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:35 a.m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:35 a.m.
Madam Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Hon Members, Correction of Votes and Proceedings of Thursday, 16th December, 2010.
Page 1.. .16 [Pause
In the absence of any correction, the Votes and Proceedings of Thursday, 16th December, 2010 is adopted as the true record of proceedings.
Now, we move to the Official Report of Wednesday, 1st December, 2010.
Any corrections?
Dr Ahmed Y. Alhassan 10:35 a.m.
Madam Speaker, on column 2275, paragraph 3,1 wish to correct the figures which read:
“Mr Speaker, Fertilizer Subsidy Programme will cover 150,000 tonnes in 2011 as compared with 60,000 tonnes in 2010.”
It is “ 100,000” tonnes and not “60,000” tonnes.
Madam Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Let me take it again. Column 2275, paragraph 3
Dr Alhassan 10:35 a.m.
The one that starts with
“Mr Speaker, Fertilizer Subsidy Programme will cover 150,000 tonnes in 2011 as compared with 60,000 tonnes in 2010.”
It should be “100,000” tonnes.
Madam Speaker 10:35 a.m.
All right.
Any other corrections?
Hon Members, the Official Report of Wednesday, 1st December, 2010 as corrected, represents the true record of proceedings.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE 10:35 a.m.
Majority Leader/Chairman of Business Committee (Mr Cletus Apul Avoka) 10:35 a.m.
Madam Speaker, the Committee met on Thursday, 16th December, 2010 and arranged Business of the House for the Tenth Week ending Wednesday, 22nd December, 2010.
Madam Speaker, the Committee accordingly submits its Report as follows 10:35 a.m.
Arrangement of Business
Statements
Madam Speaker may allow Statements duly admitted to be made in the House.
Bills, Papers and Reports
Madam Speaker, Bills may be presented to the House for consideration and those already before the House may be taken through the various stages. Papers and committee reports may also be presented during the week.
Motions and Resolutions
Madam Speaker, Motions may be debated and their consequential Resolutions, if any, taken during the week.
Volume of work
Madam Speaker, considering the volume of work pending before the House, it is the respectful view of the
Business Committee that it is most unlikely for tha House to rise on Tuesday, 21st December, 2010 as scheduled.
Consequently, the Business Committee therefore, entreats Hon Members to graciously indulge the House by availing themselves on Wednesday, 22nd December, 2010 to enable the House to conclude and dispose of key outstanding business before we proceed on recess.
Madam Speaker, the House is expected to rise sine die on Wednesday, 22nd December, 2010.
Conclusion
Madam Speaker, in accordance with Standing Order 160 (2), the Committee submits to this Honourable House, the Business of each Sitting of the week and the order in which it shall be taken during the week.

Presentation of Papers

(a) R e p o r t o f t h e F i n a n c e Committee on the Annual Budget Estimates of Other Government Obligations for the year ending 31st December,

2011.

(b) Report of the Finance Committee on the Loan Agreement between the Government of Ghana and Commerzbank AG of Belgium for an amount of eight million, seventy-one thousand, nine hundred and sixteen euros (€8,071,916.00) for the supply of 50 VDL Jonckheere buses and spare parts under Belgian Government Concessionary Finance for the Metro Mass Transit Limited.

(c) Report of the Finance Committee

on the Debt Recovery (Tema Oil

Refinery Company) Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2010

(d) Report of the Finance Committee on the Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) Bill, 2010

(e) Report of the Finance Committee on the Internal Revenue(Amend- ment) Bill,

2010

(f) Report of the Finance Committee on the National Fiscal Stabilisa- tion Levy (Amendment) Bill,

2010

(g) Repor t o f the F inance Committee on the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010

(h) Repor t o f the F inance Committee on the Airport Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Motions

(a) That this Honourable House approves the sum of GH¢1,257,689,807.00 for the services of Other Government Obligations for the year ending 31st December, 2011.

(b) That this Honourable House adopts the Report of the joint Committee on Youth, Sport and Culture and Foreign Affairs on the African Youth Charter.

Consideration Stage of Bills

Petroleum Revenue Management Bill, 2010
Madam Speaker, the Committee accordingly submits its Report as follows 10:35 a.m.


Committee sittings.

Presentation of Papers --

(a) Report of the Auditor-General on the Management and Utilisation of Statutory and the earmarked Funds for the District Assemblies covering the period 1st January, 2005 to 31st December, 2007.

(b) Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Pre-University Educational Institutions) for the biennium ended 31st December,

2007.

(c) Report of the Auditor-General on the Accounts of the District Assemblies for the three financial years ended 31 st December, 2007.

(d) Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Public Boards, Corporations and other Statutory Institutions) for the year ended 31st December,

2007.

(e) Report of the Auditor-General on the Statement of Foreign E x c h a n g e R e c e i p t s a n d Payments of the Bank of Ghana for the second half year ended 31st December, 2009.

Presentation and First Reading of Bills

The Appropriation Bill

Motions (a) Second Reading of Bills

Debt Recovery (Tema Oil Refinery Company) Fund (Amendment) Bill,

2010.

Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) Bill,

2010.

Internal Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Airport Tax (Amendment) Bill,

2010.

(b) Third Reading of Bills --

Petroleum Revenue Manage ment Bill, 2010.

Debt Recovery (Tema Oil Refinery Company) Fund (Amendment) Bill,

2010.

Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) Bill,

2010.

Internal Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Airport Tax (Amendment) Bill,

2010.

(c) Adoption of the Report of the Finance Committee on the Loan Agreement between the Government of Ghana and Commerzbank AG of Belgium for an amount of eight million, seventy-one thousand, nine hundred and sixteen euros (€8,071,916.00) for the supply of 50 VDL Jonckheere buses and spare parts under Belgian Government Concessionary Finance for the Metro Mass Transit Limited.

Consideration Stage of Bills

Debt Recovery (Tema Oil Refinery Company) Fund (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Internal Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010.

Airport Tax (Amendment) Bill,

2010.

Presentation of Papers

Report of the Finance Committee on the Appropriation Bill

Motions

(a) Second Reading of Bills --

Appropriation Bill

(b) Third Reading of Bills --

The Appropriation Bill

Consideration Stage of Bills
-- 10:35 a.m.
THE HOUSE EXPECTED TO 10:35 a.m.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Thank you, Leader of the House.
Any comments?
Yes, Hon Prempeh.
Dr Matthew O. Prempeh 10:45 a.m.
No comment, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
The Business Statement as presented
Dr Anthony A. Osei 10:45 a.m.
Madam Speaker, on page 1 of the Business Statement, Motion (ii), there is a proposed Motion about the other Government Obligations and I understand that yesterday there was a request that the GNPC's issue be brought there. I am hoping that due cognizance has been taken of that request from the House so that it can be looked at. I do not know if the Hon Deputy Minister can respond to that.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon Osei, I think
he did not hear it. Can you repeat it again?
Dr A. A. Osei 10:45 a.m.
My understanding yesterday was that, during the debate on the Ministry of Energy's budget, the issue about GNPC's budget, so to speak, there was a request that it should be brought up under Government Obligations and I just want the assurance from the Hon Minister that, that has been duly taken care of.
Mr Seth Terkpeh 10:45 a.m.
Madam Speaker, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning will provide the information to the Committee on Finance when it considers Government Obligations.
Ms Beatrice B. Boateng 10:45 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I have a little worry about the day for rising. I think this 21st December had been fixed for sometime and because of that Monday and extended Sittings have been included. Today, we have heard that we might not be able to rise on the 21st and it might [Interruptions] we will go on to 22nd. I just want to find out if proper discussions have been done to ensure that we will not come here and say it will not come on on 22nd but we will be rising sometime else. We want to be sure about that.
Mr Avoka 10:45 a.m.
Well, Madam Speaker, I appreciate her concern and sentiment. Everything depends on the amount of work we do and how far we go. All things being equal, we had anticipated that we will conclude work by 21st of December. Nobody will want to stay here a minute longer if the work is accomplished.
So Hon Colleagues, let us co-operate and work hard so that if by 21st December, or 22nd early morning, we have completed the work, we will definitely rise. 1 want to assure you that if we follow the schedule prepared by the Business Committee and we co-operate, we shall rise at the appropriate time of 22nd and not 23rd.
Dr A. A. Osei 10:45 a.m.
Madam Speaker. I believe I share in the sentiments of the Majority Leader. However, he himself has noted that attendance here on both sides and you yourself have recognized it.
Beyond that, Ministers have not made themselves available for us to conduct Government business. So if we are exhorting Members of Parliament (MPs) to be here so that we can do our work, I am hoping that come next week, every Minister that is required to come here will be here and not send their Deputies here , so that we have to go through because this is a very serious matter.
When we started this morning, you can see what is going on; there is a real problem and I am hoping that Leadership, by the end of today, can find time to go to the real cause of the apparent non attendance.

I speak for both sides they are nodding their heads.

I thank you.
Mr Avoka 10:45 a.m.
I take note of that; no response beyond that.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
But have you noted what he said?
Mr Avoka 10:45 a.m.
Yes, Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
And that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we will have all Members here, so that we can transact business.
Mr Avoka 10:45 a.m.
Matters are under control [Laughter]
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Yes, thank you.
So the Business Statement as presented is adopted.
Shall we now move on to item 4. Item 4 no Statements today.
Item 5 then.
Dr A. A. Osei 10:45 a.m.
Madam Speaker, sometime last week, I believe we got a report on the status of the University of Ghana Bill and I was hoping that since Leadership had made recommendations, that we will move to quickly dispose of that matter so that we can put it to rest, I did not see anything on it on the business agenda.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Yes, Leader, I thought we agreed that
Mr Avoka 10:45 a.m.
We will take note of that.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
All right. We now move to item 5 presentation of Papers.
Hon Leader, 5(a) (i)?
Mr Avoka 10:45 a.m.
Madam Speaker, may I, with your kind permission, apply for the Hon Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning to lay these Papers for and on behalf of the substantive Minister who is not available this morning due to other urgent national assignments.
Madam Speaker 10:45 a.m.
If there is no objection, can we have the Hon Deputy Minister to lay the Papers?
PAPERS 10:55 a.m.
Mr Frederick Opare-Ansah 10:55 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I have actually been on my feet for sometime
Madam Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Well, I had to finish with this one.
Mr Opare-Ansah 10:55 a.m.
Yes. It was after the laying of item 5(a) (i). I wanted to find out from the Hon Deputy Minister laying the Papers when Nsawam became a city. It is so close to Suhum; we enjoy the same status and now he has started describing Nsawam as a city. [Interruptions.] When did it become a city? And “the region north of the capital Accra”. Is that Eastern Region or is it some other regional description of what kind of region is this?
Madam Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minister, “the facility for the city of Nsawam and region north of capital of Accra”, is it tagging on to the Nsawam — there is a comma there before “and the region.” Is it a description of Nsawam? I think that is what he wanted to find out.
Mr Terkpeh 10:55 a.m.
Madam Speaker, it is the description of Nsawam.
Madam Speaker 10:55 a.m.
That Nsawam is north of Accra? That is what it says?
Mr Terkpeh 10:55 a.m.
The facility is supposed to service Nsawam and its environs.
Madam Speaker 10:55 a.m.
So the environs of Nsawam?
Mr Opare-Ansah 10:55 a.m.
Madam Speaker, so my understanding then is that, Nsawam and its immediate environs is what he is
describing as the region north of Accra.
Madam Speaker 10:55 a.m.
That is what he says.
Mr Opare-Ansah 10:55 a.m.
But he was silent also about the city of Nsawam.
Madam Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minister, they needed clarity. 1 think he is asking for clarity of the area.
Mr Terkpeh 10:55 a.m.
Madam Speaker, the context is the area, not region in the sense in which we know it.
Madam Speaker 10:55 a.m.
All right. Can we move on then to item 5(b)?
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Special Budget Committee on the Annual Budget Estimates of Parliament for the year ending 31 * December,
2011.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Special Budget Committee on the Annual Budge t Es t imates o f the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Special Budget Committee on the Annual Budget Estimates of the Electoral Commission (EC) for the year ending 31st December 2011.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Finance Committee on the request for waiver of Stamp Duty on offshore syn- dicated receivables-backed Trade Finance Facil i ty of
US$1,500,000,000 for 2010/2011 Cocoa Purchases by Ghana Cocoa Board.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Finance Committee on the Debt Recovery (Tema Oil Refinery Company) Fund (Amend- ment) Bill. 2010.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Finance Committee on the Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) (Amendment) Bill, 2010.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Finance Committee on the In te rna l Revenue (Amendment) Bill, 2010.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Finance Committee o n t h e N a t i o n a l F i s c a l Stabilisation Levy (Amendment) Bill, 2010
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Finance Committee on the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010.
By the Chairman of the Committee
Report of the Finance Committee on the Airport Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2010.
MrAvoka 11:05 a.m.
Madam Speaker, we will start with the Motions for this morning and I am happy to inform the House that the Hon Ministers of Defence and Interior are available to start with their Motions, followed by the Hon Minister for Information. So we will start with Motion number 6 on the Order Paper, page 3.
[LT. GEN. SMITH][LT. GEN. SMITH]
ANNUAL ESTIMATES 11:05 a.m.
Minister for Defence (Lt Gen. J. H. Smith (retd) 11:05 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I beg to move, that this Honourable House approves the sum of GH02O5,48O,761.00 for the services of the Ministry of Defence for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
Madam Speaker, the mission for the Ministry of Defence is to proactively promote national defence interest through first, effective formulation, co-ordination, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes. Secondly, maintain the Ghana Armed Forces in a high state of preparedness for national and international engagements. And thirdly, active involvement in the promotion of peace and stability in the country and the sub-region.
Madam Speaker, the strategic objective being pursued in realisation of our stated goals, mission and vision are as follows:
a) to promote the state of combat readiness of the Ghana Armed Forces;
b) to support national effort aimed at sustaining economic growth and accelerating poverty reduction, especially the vulnerable and the excluded;
c) to promote logistics and infras- tructure facilities;
d) to improve human resource capacity and staff utilisation; and finally,
(e) to improve civil-military relations.
The following financial and human resources constraints, challenges, have adversely affected our performance in the year 2010, particularly our housing projects. These include inadequate funds, delays in release of funds, reduction in cash ceilings, inadequate equipment and logistic support for operations, inadequate personnel, reduced level of technical co- operation for our training institutions.
Madam Speaker, we need not take for granted the relative peaceful and stable environment that Ghana continues to enjoy over the years in the sub- region. The defence of our democratic dispensation has now become increasingly expensive. The 2011 total allocation of GH¢205,480,761.00 out of which Government of Ghana component amounted to GH¢146.86 million for our operational and maintenance expenditure is woefully inadequate.
I wish therefore to appeal for the support of this august House to facilitate the provision of additional budgetary resources amounting to GH¢70.352 million, representing
a) outstanding bills for the year 2010,amounting to GH¢21.976 million;
b) additional funds for major programmes and activities in 2011 amounting to GH¢48.376 million.
Madam Speaker, the Ministry of Defence will continue to assist civil authorities to ensure safe and secure environment for sustained economic growth and development.
Major programmes and activities planned for 2011 are also detailed in the Report.
To conclude, Madam Speaker, the Ministry of Defence appreciates efforts by Government to provide funding within our limited resources to support the operations of the Ghana Armed Forces. This level of support has enabled us provide credible deterrents and safeguarding the territorial
integrity of our country.
However, our budgetary shortfall of GH¢70.352 million needs to be addressed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning as soon as possible to enable us meet operational and maintenance expenditures in the year 2011.
Madam Speake r, I u rge t h i s Honourable House to approve the sum of GH¢705,480,761.00.
I thank you for your attention and cooperation.
Question proposed.
M r Avoka: Madam Speaker, permit me, before the Hon Chairman supports the Motion, to indicate that in the light of the schedule that we have, we will take two contributions from each side of the House, including the Hon Chairman and the Hon Ranking Member. So besides the Hon Chairman and the Hon Ranking Member, we will have each side introducing one more contribution from an Hon Member. So two from this caucus and two from the other side, so that we can expedite action.
I hope Hon Members can appreciate the exigencies of the situation.
Chairman of the Committee (Alhaji Sumani Abukari) 11:05 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I rise to support the Motion moved by the able Hon Minister for Defence. And in doing so, I want to present the Report of the Committee on Defence on the Budget Estimates for 2010.
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for the 2011 fiscal year was presented toParliament by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor on the authority of H. E. the President onWednesday, 18th November, 2010 in accordance with article 179 (1) and (2) of the Constitution, 1992.
1.2 Subsequently, the 2011 Annual
Budget Estimates of the Ministry of Defence were referred to the Committee on Defence and Interior for consideration and report in accordance with the Standing Orders of the House.
2.0 Deliberations
The Committee met with the Minister for Defence, Hon Lt Gen. Joseph H. Smith (retd) and officials of the Ministry of Defence to discuss the Estimates. In attendance were officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
The Committee is grateful to all the officials for assisting in its deliberations.
3.0 Reference documents
The Committee made reference to the following documents in its deliberations:
i. The 1992 Constitution of the Fourth Republic;
ii. The Standing Orders of the House; and
iii. The Budget Statement and the Economic Pol icy of Government for the 2011 fiscal year.
4.0 Mission of the Ministry of Defence
The mission of the Ministry of Defence is to develop highly professional, effective and efficient armed forces capable of protecting by land, sea and air, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ghana against external aggression and incidentally assist the Ghana Police Service in the preservation of internal security under joint operations.
5.0 Objectives
The objectives of the Minmistry are to:
i. forestall external aggression, safeguard territorial integrity and contribute to International peace-keeping missions;
ii. conduct intensive sea and air patrols;
Chairman of the Committee (Alhaji Sumani Abukari) 11:05 a.m.


iii. improve on the infrastructural base of the Ghana Armed Forces;

iv. develop the capacity of officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces; and

v. improve on civilian/military relations.

6 . 0 P e r f o r m a n c e o f t h e 2 0 1 0 Approved Budget

The Ministry achieved the following in the year 2010:

i. intensified joint military and police internal security operations to combat crime, especially armed robbery, drug trafficking and crimes relating to environmental degradation;

ii. continued to provide strategic equipment and logistics to the

the Ghana Armed Forces to meet the challenges of modern- times; iii. delivered and inaugurated the

Executive Jet, Falcon 900; iv. deployment of 2,000 troops

daily to aid civil authorities on all internal security operations;

v. deployment of 5,000 troops for external peace keeping operations;

vi. the Ghana Navy conducted limited sea patrols to protect the nation's resources, especially in the fishery grounds and new oilfields; and

vii. the Ghana Armed Forces conducted aerial patrols in

addition to VVIP transport duties and pilot training.

7.0 Analysis of the 2010 Budget A total of one hundred and eighty

million, three hundred and twenty-five thousand, one hundred and sixty-one Ghana cedis (GH¢180,325,161.00) was allocated to the Ministry of Defence for its activities for the 2010 fiscal year. However, an amount of GH¢

Table 2: Details of the 2011 Annual Budget Estimates for the Ministry of Defence

(Space for Table -PAGE 10-11.05 A.M.)

Included in the total allocation is an IGF of two million, six hundred and sixty-one thousand, two hundred and ten Ghana cedis (GH¢2,661,210.00) and a donor component of fifty-five million, nine hundred and fifty-seven thousand, five hundred and sixty-four Ghana cedis

(GH¢55,957,564.00).

10.0 Observations and recommendations

10.1 The Committee observed that out of the total of three hundred and ninety-nine million, eight hundred and twenty-five thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢399,825,000.00) requested by the Ministry of Defence, only two hundred and five million, four hundred and eighty thousand, seven hundred and sixty- one Ghana cedis (GH¢205,480,761.00) (representing 51.1 per cent) was granted. This has created a shortfall of one hundred and ninety-four million, three hundred and forty thousand, four hundred and seventy Ghana cedis (GH¢194,340,470).

The Committee was of the opinion that the Ghana Armed Forces is expected to play a critical role in the oil and gas production scheduled to commence by the end of the year.

10.2 Included in the shortfalls is the amount of twenty-one million, nine hundred and seventy-six thousand Ghana cedis (GH¢21,976,000.00) being the outstanding bills and commitments due to be paid by the Ministry. These outstanding bills relate to medical bills, feeding expenses, cost of aircraft and ship spare parts and training package for the Navy and the Air Force.

It was revealed to the Committee that a request of twenty-one million, nine hundred and seventy-six thousand (GH¢21,976,000.00) was submitted to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for consideration into the 2011 Estimates but was not honoured. This situation has accounted for the outstanding bills.

10.3 In view of the above, the Committee strongly recommends that an additional amount of one hundred and ninety-four million, three hundred and forty thousand, four hundred and seventy Ghana cedis (GH¢194,340,470.00) be provided for the Ministry of Defence to enable it meet critical expenditures relating to major programmes and activities in the year 2011.

10.4 The Committee observed that the planned commencement of oil production in December, 2010 poses a new security challenge. The Committee was of the opinion that the surest way to protect the country's oil resource for optimum utilization is to adequately equip the Ghana Armed Forces to be able to sufficiently protect it and the country as a whole. 11.0 Conclusion

Undoubtedly, the scheduled com- mencement of oil production in December, 2010 places a greater responsibility on the Ghana Armed Forces.

Issues of political instability around the world, especially within the sub-region also present another onerous challenge to the Ghana Armed Forces.

183,348,587.54 had been released to the Ministry as at end of November, 2010. The details of the expenditure are provided as follows:

Item 1 - -

GH¢116,961,010.56

Item 2 - -

GH¢56,477,858.96

Item 3 - -

GH¢5,799,778.20

Item 4 - -

GH¢4,109,939.82

Total -- GH¢183,348,587.54

8.0 Outlook for 2011

The Ministry intends to undertake the following activities in the year 2011:

i. intensify training programmes in modern security and intelligence capabilities and upgrade the Engineer Corps to support the country's infrastructural deve- lopment;

ii. intensify air and sea patrols in the country's air space and territorial waters to protect the oil fields and the nation's marine asssets;

iii. deploy officers and men for internal security and peace- keeping operations;

iv. establish a Petroleum Security Co-ordinating Centre (PSCC) to undertake functions in accordance with the national oil security plan;

v. rehabilitate the Takoradi Naval Shipway to facilitate the refit
Chairman of the Committee (Alhaji Sumani Abukari) 11:15 a.m.
These challenges require the continuous presence of the Ghana Armed Forces at sea, in the air and on land to effectively and efficiently protect the country to create the peaceful environment necessary for the socio-economic development of the country.
In view of the foregoing, the Committee's request to the Minister to assure the payment of the following dependent on availability of funds:
a. GH¢21 million arrears;
b. To top up the shortfall or provide extra budgeting funding to upgrade the 2011 level to that of 2010.
The Committee further recommends to the House for the approval of the amount of two hundred and five million, four hundred and eighty thousand, seven hundred and sixty-one Ghana cedis (GH¢205,480,761.00) for the activities of the Ministry of Defence for the 2011 fiscal year.
Respectfully submitted.

Question Proposed.
Mr William Ofori Boafo(NPP - Akropong) 11:15 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I rise to second the motion ably moved by the Hon Minister for Defence.
Madam Speaker, we are all aware
about the immense contribution that the Ghana Armed Forces are making to the development of this country and also the reputation they have won for us in the peace-keeping operations and the internal security issues with regard to the joint operations they have been conducting together with the Ghana Police Service.
Madam Speaker, we also know that now having regard to the oil fine, they have another task ahead of them. So there

is the need for us to ensure that they are well equipped both in terms of the material equipments and also their well fare equally taken care of.

Madam Speaker, if you look at the votes for Administration and Service, they are very low and during our meeting we were told that this is going to seriously affect the operations of the Ghana Armed Forces. This is because they find it difficult to pay for the suppliers of food for the feeding of the soldiers when they are on duty. And also the low figures for Administration and Service will equally affect their training programmes and we know that there is the need for us to strengthen the capacity building of the Ghana Armed Forces. This is going to affect the reduction of training programmes in China, India, USA, Britain and other countries.

Madam Speaker, we are also equally aware of the fact that the Ghana Armed Forces have been made directly responsible to cater for the Kofi Annan Peace-keeping Training Centre and the Staff Training College, as well as the old institution of the Military Academy and Training School (MATS).

Madam Speaker, with these low

figures, it is going to be difficult for them to run these institutions efficiently. These are local training institutions for peacekeeping operations, as well as for internal improvement of capacity at the MATS and then the Staff College. So we urge the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning to find extra budgetary money to assist the Military to upgrade their training skills.

Madam Speaker, there is also the need for us to maybe caution the Government that if they continue to cut the Defence budget, they will be resorting to undertake certain projects on their own; to find money to run the Ministry. This may in the long run affect the core operational requirements of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Now they are going to set up a Defence industry; they are also trying to solicit jobs for the 48 and as well as the 49 Engineering Regiments. Madam Speaker, the danger is that if they are deprived of such essential funds, they may take on them so many jobs and then they may even end up by competing with the private sector and this is not very healthy for us. So we are urging the Government to take this into account and look at the Defence budget seriously. We would also like to encourage them not to follow the global trend of cuts in the Defence Budget.

Madam Speaker, I would like to add my voice to my Chairman's call for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to find money to pay for the outstanding bills of about GH¢21 million plus.

M a d a m S p e a k e r , t h e s e a r e commitments for the year 2010 and the practice is that they owe these people, suppliers included, so when releases for 2011 are given to them, they have to meet these outstanding bills for 2010 from the 2011 budget. Madam Speaker, that will equally affect the allocation for 2011 and make the running of the Ghana Armed Forces or the Ministry of Defence more difficult.

Madam Speaker, the general recom- mendation that I would like to send the Ministry to His Excellency the President, who is the Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces through the Hon Minister is that, indeed, if year 2011 has been declared as an action year, we would like it to be reflected in the allocation that they are giving to the security agencies so that we will not be saying one thing and be doing a different thing. We would like to see that 2011 is an action year and not in words but in deed. He should walk his talk of 2011 being an action year.

With these few words, I support the motion.
Mr Mathias K. Ntow (NDC - Aowin) 11:25 a.m.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to the motion on the floor to approve the budget for the Ministry of Defence.
Madam Speaker, there is one aspect of the report that is very appalling to me and with your indulgence I want to read a little from page 7 of the Committee's Report.
“7.1 The Committee observed a general shortfall in allocations with only 25 per cent of actual requirements in respect of items 1 4 being granted.”
It continues,
“The amount is woefully inadequate to meet the minimum operational needs especially in the face of the current crime rate, chieftaincy/land disputes and the drug menace in the country”.
I would like to use this medium and appeal to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning that we are all involved, we are all at risk if the Ministry of Defence is not well resourced to first ensure the safety of the country, of our territorial waters and even the citizenry. As my Senior Colleague had already said, they should go back and maybe, prepare a supplementary budget to ensure that the shortfall of about 81 per cent, which is very alarming, be considered so that the Ministry will be well resourced. We are all aware of the oil flow tht is coming to the country.
The pirates are watching; they are
around and we need to solidify or consolidate our strength on sea and land and even in the air so that these pirates do not use an undue advantage to intrude into the country. So it is our corporate responsibility, including Parliament,
Mr Mathias K. Ntow (NDC - Aowin) 11:25 a.m.


that we ensure that this Ministry is well resources to meet their requirements so that they could do their work more efficiently.

With these few words, I want to thank you once more for allowing me to contribute and I would urge all other Hon Colleagues to support the Motion to approve the budget for the Ministry of Defence.
Mr Seth K. Acheampong (NPP - Mpraeso) 11:25 a.m.
Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the opportunity to add my voice to the approval of the Estimates for the Ministry of Defence for the year 2011.
Madam Speaker, looking at the
Estimates, as has been pointed out by Hon Members who earlier spoke, you notice that we have been decreasing the allocations to the Ministry year after year. Special mention, for me, is on the investment item. If you look at the outline on the year 2010, item 4, the Ministry was offered GH¢4 million. This year, if you look at Table 2 of your Committee's Report, you find Investment quoted as 59.
Madam Speaker, this is so worrying to me, because out of the GH¢59,743,685.00 quoted there, the Report states in the preceding paragraph after the table that GH¢55,957,564.00 is donor funds.
Madam Speaker, we are talking about security here. The security of this State cannot be left in the hands of our donor partners. I would want to add my voice to Hon Members who spoke earlier and call for a special policy by this country to ensure that we create a special fund. We have been talking about our oil find. If you listen to the Committee's Chairman, when he presented his Report, not too long ago our country's economy was rebased and then we are being told we rank in the level of a lower middle income country.
Madam Speaker, oil find is offshore
and not too long ago, we all heard -- and it is still in progress -- about disputes of boundaries offshore. And we are not resourcing our men to protect these areas adequately for the State. I would want to call on the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to look at this and the President who happens to be the Commander-in-Chief of this land to seriously protect this country and ensure that adequate resources are found for our men to provide us with the necessary protection that we require.
Madam Speaker, I will move on to talk about the welfare of our Military. Not too long ago, this House approved an amount we had from our development partners, the EDI to help spread military healthcare in respect of the Northern Command.
Madam Speaker, if you look at this year's Budget, you will notice that it is being reassigned to the 37 Military Hospital, based on pressures expressed by the Minister to the Committee that the Military Hospital is having too much pressure and as a result of that an amount which had been approved by this House for them to erect another base for the Northern Command is coming down South. This will go to add to my earlier call that we have to make sure that we create a special fund for the managers of our security in this country.
Madam Speaker, I would really want to add that it would be very necessary that the Ministry really comes back to this House to discuss and negotiate with this House. This is because the said approval with the grant was granted in this House specifically for the Northern Command and once there has been a re-arrangement, it would be prudent we got this thing sorted out in that arrangement.
Madam Speaker, mention is made in the 2010 Budget, which was a crucial matter here for the sector Minister in respect of the cancellation of recruits. Madam Speaker, in the 2010 Budget,
paragraph 795 said that 1,200 young men and women of this country were denied of recruitment.
I am a bit challenged because the 2011 Budget never made mention of it. And to add on, I would want to plead with the Minister for Defence that these young men and women are considered in the nearest recruitment exercise which is coming up. And I believe this would help them also and their families.
Madam Speaker, I would want to say in this House that the Military has been a very good support for our local and internal security. If you look at Operation Calm Life, as we all drive around the country and even in the urban communities, we see the enormous support the military is offering our police with regard to internal security. If we are not able to offer them the necessary support in terms of funding, as was expressed earlier, in terms of service activity, Madam Speaker, I do not think we are having our priorities right.
I would want to call on the President and the Executive again to re-look at how the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning looks into the ceiling of the Ministry of Defence budget.
Madam Speaker, with these few words, I would want to end my submission. Thank you very much.
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:25 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I am not going to contribute. I think the Hon Colleague who last spoke raised a very pertinent issue relating to a loan that has been approved by this House, which is now being relocated from the Northern Command to the 37 Military Hospital. Of course, it is still going to be within the ambit of the Military. But if that is so, it cannot be so vired. It will mean the Hon Minister will have to bring it back to Parliament for Parliament to approve of it for its use.
So we cannot use this medium to approve of that; it cannot be done. If we have to approve the allocation for the Ministry, it will have to exempt that one for the Hon Minister to come back to this House and then it will be ceded to the 37 Military Hospital. That is how it should be done. But it cannot be done using this vehicle.
Madam Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Hon Member, I
believe we have had the “two-two”?
Mr Dominic A. Azumah 11:25 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I just wanted to find out whether the two --
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
It includes the Chairman from what I hear.
Yes, Hon Minister, can you wind up now?
Lt Gen. Smith (retd): Madam
Speaker, I would like to inform the august House that all the points that have been raised have been noted and I thank them sincerely for accepting our budget for 2011.
I would also like to use this opportunity
to wish the House a Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year.
Madam Speaker, I indicated that I will
be back in the House to respond to the issue on the hospital.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
The points raised, he says he is coming back.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:35 a.m.
Madam
Speaker, I understand what the Hon Minister is talking about. But the point is, it cannot then be included in this as relocating or vired to 37 Military Hospital. It cannot be done because this House has already approved of that facility for the Northern Command.
So if we have to approve of this, it
would have to be frozen and then he would come back and it would be relocated to the 37 Military Hospital. So subject to that, we would then approve of the budget.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
All right, so we
move on then. We stand this down and move on.
Yes, Leader, we have finished with a Motion, which I hear will come back with the proper figures. So what is the next Motion? Is it Motion number 7?
Yes, I got the impression that the point
raised was that, the amount that was asked for would have to be vired before we approve. But if not, then I would put the Question. That is the impression I got, that he should come back with the proper figures.
Dr A. A. Osei 11:35 a.m.
Madam Speaker, the consultation was to suggest that following from what our Leader has said, it would be better for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to increase their budget by that amount, so that the Ministry of Defence's amount goes down and when it comes back, then it would be part of the Government Obligations.
B u t i f w e a p p r o v e t h e GH¢205,480,761.00, it already includes the amount we are talking about. But a switch to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would then escrow the amount appropriately and then when he comes back, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning can release it to them appropriately.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
So we can put the
Question?
Dr A. A. Osei 11:35 a.m.
So we reduce it by the
donor amount, the equivalent.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
And approve the
amount asked for?
Alhaji Abukari 11:35 a.m.
Madam Speaker, in
fact, we discussed this; the Hon Minister and myself discussed this problem before it was raised by the Hon Minority Leader. I made him understand that we would have to withdraw that one and use it as part of the shortfalls, while we come back later to seek, if we still want to relocate the hospital to ask the permission of the House to do that. Otherwise, we cannot do it and it should therefore, not be considered as not part of his statement to the House.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
In other
words, we can put the Question on the
GH¢205,480,761.00?
Dr A. A. Osei 11:35 a.m.
Yes, the Question can
be put less the specific amount, so that the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning can appropriately add that to his budget. So if you can note the amount.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Yes, all right. I
will -
Mr Edwrd K. D. Adjaho 11:35 a.m.
Then if
we have to take what the Hon Member for Old Tafo is saying, you would have to call on the Hon Minister to move to amend the Motion accordingly by deducting that amount from the original figure, otherwise, what Question would be put?
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
That is the point.
Mr Adjaho 11:35 a.m.
This is because the
Motion for the figure stands in the Hon Minister's name. So the Hon Minister has to move and amend the Motion on the Order Paper less the figure which is in doubt.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
That was what I thought. We would stand it down and then with the proper figures, we put the
Question.
Alhaji Abukari 11:35 a.m.
Madam Speaker, this
facility is to be done on annual instalment basis, and for this year, they had for around GH¢7 million to commence the hospital project here in Accra. But we would say that the budget figure as it stands now, the GH¢205,480,761.00 should now come to read GH¢205,480,761.00 minus GH¢7 million as would have been allocated to that project.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Yes, so what is
the correct figure that you are moving for acceptance by this House? Shall we stand it down and -
Mr Avoka 11:35 a.m.
Yes, I will suggest humbly, that we defer this for the next five minutes and then the Chairman of the Committee and the Hon Minister would meet the Ranking Member on Finance and then sort it out.
In the interim, they can move the Motion on the Ministry of the Interior.
Madam Speaker 11:35 a.m.
All right, so we
move on to Motion number 7. We stand this down and move to Motion number 7. Hon Minister, can you move the Motion?
ANNUAL STIMATES 11:45 a.m.
Chairman of the Committee (Alhaji Sumani Abukari) 11:45 a.m.
Madam Speaker, I rise to support the Motion as moved by the Hon Minister for the Interior on the Budget for the Ministry of the Interior.
Madam Speaker, I think we all notice that the Hon Minister has made a very comprehensive Motion; this is because he has several agencies under him - the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana Prisons Service, the Ghana National Fire Service, the Ghana Immigration Service, and the National Disaster Management Organization which I, by mistake, mentioned under the budget of Defence and the Narcotics Control Board.
Madam Speaker, I made that mistake because they work hand in hand with the military every time there is a serious disaster; the labour does not come in here.
Additionally, the Ministry has an oversight responsibility over the National Peace Council, Migration Unit, Ghana Refugee Board, Ghana National Commission on Small Arms and the Gaming Board. This is a very daunting task for the Ministry and one would have thought that because they are all important -- in fact , I consider all of them important even though some of them look more outstanding than others, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning would
Chairman of the Committee (Alhaji Sumani Abukari) 11:45 a.m.


For the year 2011, it seeks to undertake

among others, the following:

5.1 The Ghana Police Service will implement measures to ensure adequate protection of life and property. Adequate logistics will therefore be needed to facilitate effective and efficient crime prevention and detection.

5.2 The Ghana Prisons Service

intends to turn the James Camp Prison into a Remand Prison and rehabilitate cell blocks at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison. It intends to provide Inmates Database Management System in all Central Prisons.

5.3 The Ghana National Fire

Service will enhance its physical infrastructure and acquire adequate logistics to support its operations. It will install Early Fire Alarm Warning System in all MDAs and Government buildings and increase the issuance of fire certificates so as to generate revenue

5.4 The Ghana Immigration Service intends to maintain a secured yet open border with our neighbours by increasing and expanding intelligence operations with improved fraud

detection facilities. It will arm itself against all cross-border crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking and smuggling associated with the influx of all categories of foreigners attracted to Ghana due to the Oil and Gas operations amongst others.

5.5 NACOB needs to recruit more officers to augment its staff level, continue with its sustained preventive and educational programmes all over the country.

6.0 Estimates for fiscal year 2011

The Ministry of the Interior has been granted a total sum of three hundred and one million, nine hundred and thirty-three thousand, hree hundred and ninety-two Ghana cedis (GH¢301,933,392.00) for the 2011 financial year, made up of:

2011 Allocation of Funds for the Ministry:

Breakdown of budgetary allocation of GH¢301,933,392 to Ministry and its agencies 7.0 Observations

The Committee observed that, the duty of ensuring peace, safety, security and stability for accelerated socio-economic development is so vital that it cannot be

SPACE FOR TABLE 1 - PAGE

14 - 11.45 A.M.
Mr Dramani-Sakande Adamu (NPP -- Bawku Central) 11:55 a.m.
Thank you Madam Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion and support it.
Much has been said about the lack of resources to the Ministry of the Interior. In fact, it has become like a yearly ritual where we sit and bemoan the fact that resources are inadequate to all the agencies that struggle. And I would wish to take just a few areas and highlight them and hope that with the subsequent years, we would have a different attitude towards this all important Ministry.
SPACE FOR TABLE 2 - PAGE
14 - 11.45 A.M.

The general trend globally has been for a refocusing of attention in terms of resources to its security agencies, but it appears that we are not backing that trend. We appear to come over and complain and then they somehow manage through the season, through the year, through the financial year and that is it, and we assume that, that is all right.

We are all aware that the Ghana Police Sercive is seeing the rising incidence of crime. The Ghana Prisons Service, we have had incidences of jail breaks and all that. The Ghana National Fire Service, the often frustrating incidences of fire outbreaks. As for the Immigration Unit, the less said about them the better. This is because, for example, they requested for GH¢220,500,000.00 and they got only GH¢28,000,000.00 plus, which is a shortfall of GH¢192,000,000.00 plus. That is a very sad and unfortunate indictment on our attitude to these very important sectors which are very, very important in terms of securing us and keeping us safe.

When we come to the Ghana Police Service for example, the issue of ration is very important. We have complained incessantly about how poor and ill-fed our security services who go on operations are put through. Unfortunately, it appears we are deaf to these kinds of complaints that come through from this sector.

The issue of ration is very much connected and related to the issue of morale. It would be unfortunate that we put mostly the Ghana Police Service in
Mr Dominic A. Azumah (NDC -- Garu/Tempane) 12:05 p.m.
Madam Speaker, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity, very briefly, to make a few comments.
Madam Speaker, I am up because I appreciate the challenges facing the Ministry of the Interior and I am making these statements because having experiences on the ground in Bawku, I thought that I should make a few comments.
Madam Speaker, the responsibilities or functions of the Ministry of the Interior are very enormous. Currently, police personnel on the ground in Bawku are working under trying conditions, very trying and challenging conditions but nonetheless, with the support of the Ministry, they have been able, to a large extent, stabilise the situation. I think everybody from that area appreciates what the joint police and military are doing in Bawku and we must commend them for the effective work they are delivering.
I know but for them, even though the inter-ethnic peace committees are
engaging themselves, it is with the support of the police and the military that has brought relative peace to Bawku for now. And I want to urge the Ministry to keep with their activity; they have been able to engage the National Peace Council to engage with the factions in Bawku and that is producing enormous results and I want to commend the Minister and the Ministry for that.
Secondly, Madam Speaker, my concern is about crime and the provision of vehicles to police stations to fight crime. Definitely, with logistics, you need the means to be able to combat crime and vehicles are number one in all the game you want to play. This is because once you get the information about crime, you must get there very promptly to react to it but most of these police stations in our country, especially those in the rural areas lack the ability to handle this aspect because of lack of vehicles.
I know the constraints; relying on the budget for 2011 might not be able to provide them these. So I want to urge the Hon Minister on his own, to initiate moves to explore the opportunities of securing loans that can help him get these vehicles for distribution to very deprived areas that need them to fight crime. Madam Speaker, I think it is very important.
Thi rd ly, Madam Speaker, the population numbers are growing; there are new settlements coming up and that will require the police to re-zone their operations such that they can identify combat areas and provide them with new police stations. If we have to fight crime
effectively, there will be the need to see whether we can create new police stations that can help us fight these crimes.
I am aware of the challenges but nonetheless, I want to urge the Hon Minister to do everything under his power so that together, we can fight crime and bring it to the bearest minimum in this country.
On that note, Madam Speaker, I urge this House to support the Motion and approve the budget for 2011 for the Ministry of the Interior.
I thank you so much, Madam Speaker.
Ranking Member of the Committee (Mr William O. Boaf): Madam Speaker, I rise to support the Motion moved by the Hon Minister for the Interior.
Madam Speaker, the amount voted for the Ministry for the year 2011 is woefully inadequate, having regard to the immense obligations being imposed on the Ministry by the security needs of the entire country.
Madam Speaker, we all know the rate of crime going on on the highways and various households. But Madam Speaker, it appears that for the whole year, I believe the number of vehicles which have been given to the police will not exceed 50 -- they are about between 24 and 50, which have been given to the police and they are very, very inadequate.
Madam Speaker, a time has come for us to ensure that the vehicles that we procure for the police provide them with some protection; this is because it is very difficult to imagine a situation where the police are sent on patrol duties in open
Madam Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Thank you, Hon Member. This concludes the debate.
I will call on the Hon Minister to wind up.
Mr Amidu 12:15 p.m.
Madam Speaker, I have noted the points raised and I wish to assure this august House that we would take every point into consideration and that the Ministry will try to ensure that the requisite level of peace and security is maintained so that economic activity can take place.
We are very grateful to this august House for approving our budget and we wish to use this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year in advance.

Question put and Motion agreed to.

Resolved:

That this Honourable House approves the sum of GH¢301,933,392.00 for the services of the Ministry of the Interior for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
Mr Avoka 12:15 p.m.
Madam Speaker, with
your kind permission, the issue that arose following the budget of the Ministry of Defence has been sorted out by the parties. It is my prayer that once it has been sorted out, the Hon Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning will explain and apply for the consequential amendments, so that we can take the Motion before you take leave of us.
Madam Speaker 12:15 p.m.
We had already finished debating it. Should I put the Question on Motion number 6 for the figure which appears there?
  • [Resumption of debete from column 3827]
    • Mr Seth Terkpeh 12:15 p.m.
    Madam Speaker, pending the re-allocation of the use of the funds, in line with appropriate procedures for the House, for the purposes specified in paragraphs 819 and 820 on page 199 of the Budget Statement, I wish to apply to amend the Estimates for the Ministry of Defence to reflect its original use for the Northern Command.
    Madam Speaker, I beg to move.
    Madam Speaker 12:15 p.m.
    I can see it is not

    But before he comes, which Motion are we moving now? Which number?
    Mr Avoka 12:15 p.m.
    Madam Speaker, Motion number 8 on Ministry of Information.
    ANNUAL ESTIMATES 12:15 p.m.
    Minister for Information (Mr John Tia Akologu) 12:15 p.m.
    Madam Speaker, I beg to move, that this Honourable House approves the sum of GH¢32,861,104.00 for the services of the Ministry of Information for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
    Madam Speaker, in doing so, I would like the House to take note of the Committee's Report which borders on the various agencies under the Ministry, its vision and mission and the achievements it chalked in the year 2010.
    Madam Speaker, the Ministry's planned activities for 2011 have also been adequately captured in the Committee's Report and I would want to associate myself with them and for the sake of brevity and time.
    Madam Speaker, I will, however, raise
    a few challenges that the Ministry faces for the consideration of the august House.
    Madam Speaker, the Ministry's transportation fleet is seriously inadequate, moreso, when we have twenty-five new districts without vehicles and offices. We have lack of equipment such as computers, printers, fax machines and internet modems to facilitate dissemination of information.
    Madam Speaker, the Ministry's accommodation situation is also very deplorable.
    12.22 P.M. -- MR FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER
    Mr Akologu 12:15 p.m.
    We need more finances to be able to rehabilitate most of these buildings which were put up in early 1960s.
    I did not know that the Speakership had changed. [Interruption.] Mr Speaker, sorry, I try to make you a woman.
    Mr Speaker, we also faced a problem of replacement of some FM and TV transmitters and then also, we are able to launch the digital terrestrial transmission. So far, about twenty sites have been completed. We have another twenty to complete in the year 2011 to make it have a national coverage.
    Mr Speaker, the Ministry requested for GH¢123,491,866.28 but the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning allocated only GH¢32,861,104.00, leading to a shortfall of over GH¢91million. I wish to appeal to this august House to impress upon the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to consider the difference for allocation to the Ministry in any future supplementary budget, if it is contemplating one.
    Question proposed.
    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Felix Twumasi-Appiah) 12:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Motion numbered 8 on the Order Paper, that this Honourable House approves the sum of GH¢32,861,104.00 for the services of the Ministry of Information for the year ending 31st December, 2011 and also wish to present your Committee's Report.
    Mr Speaker, before I move on, I
    wish to make a correction here on paragraph 7.1, sub-paragraph 2 on page 7 of the Committee's Report, that the amount that was stated on your Report as GH¢17,779,234.00 excludes the IGF which added to it, brings the figure to GH¢32,861,104.00 as stated on the Order Paper.
    1.0 Introduction
    The Annual Estimates of the Ministry of Information (MOI) were referred to the Select Committee on Communications for consideration and report in accordance with Orders 140 (4) and 182 of the Standing Orders of the House. This followed the presentation of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for 2011 to the House by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, in accordance with article 179 of the Constitution and Order 140 (1) of the Standing Orders of the House.
    The Committee met to consider the referral and was assisted by the Hon Minister for Information, Mr John Tia Akologu, accompanied by officials of the Ministry and its agencies. The sitting was also attended by officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MOFEP) and the Audit Service.

    2. Reference documents

    i. Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, 1992;

    ii. The Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana;

    iii. The Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2011 Financial Year; and

    iv. Report of the Select Committee on Communications on the Annual Estimates of the Ministry of Information for 2010.

    3. Mission Statement and Medium Term Objectives

    The vision of the Ministry of Information is to achieve “a free, united, informed and prosperous society with good governance through Development Communication (DevCom).”

    The mission of the Ministry is therefore to facilitate the creation of an effective two-way free flow of timely and reliable information and feedback between the Government and its publics, to develop a national communication policy, co- ordinate, monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and activities of its agencies.

    It also exists to create the right environment to generate the necessary understanding and support of the public for the policies and programmes of Government and to facilitate their realization through adequately trained, motivated and committed staff.

    In pursuit of this mission, the Ministry has the following objectives under its medium-term plan:

    i. to strengthen institutional capacity for effective policy formulation and
    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Felix Twumasi-Appiah) 12:25 p.m.


    execution;

    ii. to ensure free flow of relevant public information in pursuance of the open government policy;

    iii. to effectively and efficiently monitor and evaluate public responses to government policy, programmes and activities and provide timely feedback to Government;

    iv. to provide human resource development programmes to facilitate increased efficiency in the media; and

    v. to project the image of the country, in collaboration with other government agenc ies to a t t rac t fo re ign investment in consonance with government policy of promoting social equity.

    4.0 Agencies and institutions under the Ministry

    The Ministry has responsibility for the following agencies and institutions:

    i. Information Services Department

    (ISD);

    ii. Ghana News Agency (GNA);

    iii. Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC); and

    iv. National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI).

    The Ministry also has oversight responsibilities over the following public Institutions:

    i. Ghana Publishing Corporation

    (GPC);

    ii. New Times Corporation (NTC);

    iii.The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCG); and

    iv. GAMA Films.

    5.0 2010 in Retrospect

    A sum of GH¢17,821,544.00 was

    approved by this Honourable House for the operations of the Ministry in 2010 under GoG. This was supplemented by the IGF which some agencies are authorized to retain. According to the Ministry, it has not received anything from HIPC this year for its programmes. Generally, the low levels of budgetary resources approved coupled with late release of funds resulted in the non-performance of some activities planned by the Ministry for 2009. However, the Ministry was able to carry out the following activities, among others:

    i. The MoI organized the first ever National Policy Fair in April 2010 in which 70 MDAs and MMDAs participated. The Committee noted that:

    the first ever National Policy Fair organized by the Ministry helped to bring governance closer to the people and has gone a long way to strengthen government's policy of transparent and accountable governance;

    the Policy Fair provided the opportunity for investors, in particular, and the general public to have an insight into the workings of government;

    it also provided an avenue for i n t e n s i v e d i s c u s s i o n s a n d brainstorming on government policies and programmes;

    it showcased the opportunities that have been created by government

    to better the lives of the people of Ghana, especially the youth;

    laudable ini t ia t ives such as the Biometr ic Passport , the Constitutional Review, Revenue Management, Youth-in-Agric, increase in Rice Production, new trends and achievements in the fight against the drug menace as well as other important policy initiatives received an overwhelming public attention as a result of the National Policy Fair.

    ii. Organized regional/district tours

    especially to the Ashanti, Western, Upper West, Upper East, Northern and Brong- Ahafo Regions during which government policies and programmes were thoroughly explained to the people at the grass-roots level and feedback also gathered for Government --

    This programme provided an opportunity for the Ministry to interact with all public sector workers in the Regions/Districts to know their challenges, the general working conditions and also to encourage them to contribute their quota towards the attainment of the Better Ghana Agenda.

    It helped in educating the people at the grass-roots level on Government policies, projects and programmes, such as the establishment of two public universities in both Volta and Brong Ahafo Regions; buffer stock arrangements, mechanized agriculture, afforestation projects, free school uniforms and exercise books, removal of schools from under trees, construction of additional classrooms and dormitory blocks for SHS to facil i tate

    enrollment into SHS One, increase in the capitation grant, the one-time premium payment under the NHIS and implementation of the SSSS.

    iii. Organized meet-the-press sessions for the following Ministries: Education, Communications, Defence, Women and Children's Affairs, Youth and Sports, Environment, Science and Technology, Employment and Social Welfare and Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration. This programme:

    helped in better explanation of the various MDA projects and pro- grammes to the general public;

    facilitated closer interaction be- tween government and the media;

    brought about better appreciation of Government policies and activities through the mass media;

    iv. The following regions have also had their turn: Ashanti, Brong-Ahafo, Eastern, Central, Western, Northern, Upper East and Upper West.

    v. Embarked on institutional/individual capacity building through the formation and inauguration of the Ministerial Advisory Board, establishment of a technical committee for the finalization of the Broadcasting Bill, inauguration of the Cinematography Board and training programmes for staff.

    vi. Participated in internationally organized programmes abroad to market the country to attract foreign investment:

    helped in projecting the image of Ghana abroad thereby providing avenues for Foreign Direct In- vestment; and

    helped in the acquisit ion of knowledge regarding best practices
    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Felix Twumasi-Appiah) 12:25 p.m.


    elsewhere;

    Helped in deepening Ghana's relationship with other countries.

    vii. Published 10,000 copies each of “Ghana Today Magazine”, “Know Your Ministers” posters, “Know your Council of State Members” and newsletters.

    viii. Produced and broadcast National events such as: Parliamentary Sittings, Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Anniversary celebrations, Independence Day cele- celebration, President Obama's visit to Ghana, sporting events such as CAN 2010 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup, et cetera.

    ix. Appearance of the Hon Minister and

    Deputies on TV and radio programmes to discuss and to throw more light on Government policies, projects and programmes.

    x. Disseminated public information on national issues and undertook public education on urgent national policies and programmes such as free school uniforms and exercise books, one time premium payment under the NHIS, removal of schools under trees, additional classroom and dormitory blocks for SHS, STX Housing Project for public sector workers, especially the security services, H1N1, the annual national Budget, et cetera.

    xi. Established a Multi Channel Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) platform with capacity for twenty (20) channels covering Accra , Kumasi and some parts of Eastern and Central Regions.

    xii. Improved TV coverage through the provision of Gap Filling Transmitters at Obuasi, Koforidua, Ho and Akim Oda.

    xiii. The Ministry has also turned out the seventh batch of thirty (30) students and has also admitted forty-six (46) as its twelfth intake under NAFTI's four-year degree programme.

    6.0 Outlook for 2011

    In 2011, the Ministry will continue to ensure free flow of relevant information in pursuance of the transparent and accountable governance policy. It will also continue to effectively and efficiently monitor and evaluate public responses to Government policies, programmes and activities in addition to providing timely feedback to Government.

    The following activities are slated by the Ministry for 2011, among others:

    i. Organization of national and four (4) regional policy fairs to continue with the showcasing of Government policies, projects and Programmes by MDAs, RCCs and MMDAs and also to attract effective partnership from the private sector.

    ii. Continuation with the organization of the Meet-the-Press series and other media interactions to ensure timely free flow of relevant public information and also to ensure that Ghanaians continue to remain integral part of the governance system.

    iii. Organization of regional/district tours for effective interaction with traditional authorities, public sector workers, civil society organizations, women's groups and non-govern- mental organizations for better explanation of Government policies, to solicit their support for the policies and also to take direct feedback to Government.

    iv. Organization of town hall meetings and durbars to bring governance closer to the people and also as a boost for the transparent and accountable governance policy.
    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Felix Twumasi-Appiah) 12:25 p.m.


    The Committee wondered on what basis the Ministry of Finance and Econoic Planning made such significant reductions considering the crucial impact of the list of activities outlined by the Ministry for the 2011 financial year on the flow of vital information relevant for social cohesion and the economic stability of the country.

    7.1.1 Investment

    The Committee observed that the GH¢396,000.00 provided for Investment for the year under consideration was 50 per cent less than the value approved for the past year. This was found to be far inadequate for meeting the Investment activities planned for the year having regard to the tall list of Investment expenditure that the Ministry intends to undertake in the course of the year to free the wheels of information flow for good governance and development.

    i. Cross-Country vehicles

    The Committee underscored the need for key officers of the Ministry to travel across the length and breadth of the country to ensure the production and dissemination of information for the benefit of the entire country. In this regard, the Committee learnt with dismay the rather bad state in which the few vehicles available to the Ministry were noting that in the absence of any action in the foreseeable future to replace the old vehicles, the Ministry would be unable to travel to discharge its

    responsibilities. Of particular need is the provision of means of transport for the Minister and his Deputies.

    i i . R e h a b i l i t a t i o n o f o f f i c e accommodation

    The Committee also observed the need to release sufficient funds to the Investment allocation of the Ministry to enable it carry out the needed repairs and maintenance works on its office accommodation facilities. The Committee made this observation having regard to the heavy losses the country had suffered in the past for reason of the destruction to property and documentary information occasioned by fire outbreaks and other unnatural disasters which could have been prevented if maintenance had been given the priority it deserved.

    Ministerial block

    Among the buildings that need urgent renovation is the Ministerial Block which, the Committee learnt, had not seen any major renovation since its construction in the 1960s and had been the target of many fire outbreaks.

    Office building of the GNA

    The office buildings of the GNA are among those which need serious maintenance attention if they must continue to provide the needed shelter to facilitate the work of the Agency.

    Rehabilitation of studios and retooling of NAFTI

    Also, three of the studios of NAFTI need urgent repairs while its obsolete tools and equipment need to be replaced. The Committee was displeased to note the 99 per cent reduction of NAFTI's Investment projection from GH¢30,517,000.00 to a GoG ceiling of GH¢124,740.00 which would mean the Institute's inability to transform itself into an institution of excellence to be able to attract students from the continent and the world at large in spite of having the advantage of being one of the only two institutions of that calibre in Africa south of the Sahara.

    i i i . G h a n a B r o a d c a s t i n g Corporation (GBC)

    Another most affected in terms of low Investment allocation, the Committee observed, was GBC which apart from suffering major reductions in other areas was denied the entire request made for Investment. The Investment request totalling GH¢54,474,509.04 is to enable the GBC prepare transmitting sites for ushering in the Digital Terrestrial Transmission which has a global ultimatum of 2015; the replacement of FM and TV transmitters; and the launch of the Digital Terrestrial Transmission with forty sites to achieve national coverage. The future of these laudable projects remain in a balance, the Committee observed.

    iv. Information Service Department

    (ISD)

    The Information Service Department needs to rewire its head office block and printing session as well as the residence of the Information Officers in London to ensure the safety of lives and property.

    The Department will also need to procure 25 new mobile cinema vans and other critical equipment such as computers, printers, fax machines and internet modems to facilitate the production and dissemination of information across the length and breadth of the country.

    v. Creation of an Edutainment and an Oil and Gas Recreational Centre

    The Committee was informed about the intention of the Ministry to construct an Edutainment and an Oil and Gas Recreational Centre in Accra and Sekondi Takoradi. The project which is a combination of educational resource and recreation centres was found to be rather proactive as it related to educating tourists and the general public about developments in the oil industry in an attempt to promote transparency and accountability in the sector.

    The Committee believes that the project is laudable given that its completion will not only create jobs but will also facilitate quick dissemination of information on the oil and gas industry and also promote tourism and thereby bring about the rapid development of the country.

    The Committee observed that all the aforementioned investment activities outlined by the Ministry are laudable and necessary for the effective performance of the Ministry. The low investment allocation therefore represents a major threat to their actualization which would negatively affect information flow in the country. The Committee accordingly recommends to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to, as a matter of urgency, secure additional funds in

    SPACE TABLE I - PAGE 8 -
    -- GBC 12:25 p.m.
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, not to contribute but to really make a very happy observation.
    Three days ago when my Colleague,
    the Hon Member for Sene got up to make a presentation, we were amazed at the bungling and fumbling and the pretext was that he was not wearing his glasses. Today he is not wearing his glasses yet he has been able to deliver so well.
    I may want to appeal to the Hon
    Majority Leader to cause the constitution of, maybe, a one-man committee to investigate what occurred.
    Mr Twumasi-Appiah 12:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, maybe, the Hon Minority Leader, with a great deal of respect for him, still is living in the C14th. You can be wearing glasses without being seen like his. We have contact lenses in this world that do the same thing as the pair of glasses that he is wearing does. So those who know me know very well and that is what they are talking about it.
    His is a different one. I might be wearing the C21st pair of glasses.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:25 p.m.
    Am I also

    Ranking Member of the Committee (Mr Joe Baidoe-Ansah): Mr Speaker, I want to support the Motion that has been moved by the Hon Minister for Information.

    Going through the Budget, we observed

    that although the President has promised that next year is going to be an action year, the budget of the Ministry, currently, is a shadow of what they got in the previous year. The budget has been cut by 50 per cent of what they got the previous year. So in the action year we are going to have the Ministry of Information performing half what they did in an inaction year.

    Mr Speaker, we think it is important

    that we walk the talk and that the Ministry of Information should be given enough money to reflect the action year that is supposed to be next year.

    We also observed that - [Interruption] -- Our Committee and I - We also observed that the Ghana News Agency (GNA) which is one of the agencies under the Ministry of Information has been neglected. Most of their offices are so dilapidated that in certain places, it constitutes a danger to the lives of the workers that work in those buildings. We

    are asking that the internally generated funds (IGFs) for the Agency, that is, the GNA, must be released hundred per cent to enable them re-inject it into their programmes.

    Mr Speaker, there is also a problem with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). GBC as we stand, as we are here today, is owing banks because they have to take money, loans, to pay the GBC workers. It is the Government's responsibility to ensure that the staff of the GBC are well catered for, especially at this time that we have stopped virtually, collecting television licencing fees because of the magnitude of money that is needed to collect.

    The amount of money needed to collect the television licensing fees is more than the amount to be derived from that activity. So we are asking that we relook at it and ensure that we do not allow GBC to go into the dark, that is, to mean that one day if we do not take care, some people, some banks, will go and auction GBC because of the loans they have taken.

    Mr Speaker, NAFTI is another

    insti tution under the Ministry of Information. The problem with NAFTI now is that, previously, Frederich Ebert Foundation and the German Government were supporting them. Now funds have run out; there is a new administration at the institution, and they are finding it very difficult to make ends meet, that is to say, in terms of servicing the salaries of the staff, in terms of equipment - they have very obsolete equipment, and also everything that has got to do with the school.

    Previously, people from all over the

    world were coming to NAFTI. NAFTI used to be an institution that was very attractive. They were making foreign

    exchange but currently, because of their situation, because of the kind of studios and the kind of equipment that they have, nobody is interested in coming to NAFTI. This is the time that NAFTI needs Government support to ensure that it lives up to the ideals of a better Ghana. That a better Ghana and an action year like next year, we should see something very positive for NAFTI.
    Mr Twumasi-Appiah 12:35 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is grossly misleading this House. Mr Speaker, we are discussing your Committee's Report, and at the committee level, there was nowhere that somebody said that someone with a dubious character either went to the Ministry or anywhere else to collect money on the Ministry's
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    Hon Member, they think the use of the words “dubious character” is rather strong.
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am not saying “dubious character”; I said “dubious credentials” -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    It is the same; they think it is rather strong.
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I said that the person had “dubious credentials”.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    I am saying that they think it is rather strong.
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    Hon Member, take it easy; they think that the use of that language is rather strong. So if you have to explain what you mean, you just explain and they will understand and they might -
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, what I mean is that, somebody who is not operating in any official capacity, went to the Ministry, took money from the State vote, we were told, on behalf of the Ministry of Information.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    Hon Member, I cannot take a point of order on a point of order. The Hon Member is explaining, so let him explain. If you have an information, I will call you but not when he is on his feet.
    The Hon Chairman raised a point of order, he is trying to explain why he used those words; so let us hear from him. If after that you want to provide some information, I might or might not call you.
    Hon Member, have you finished explaining?
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes, but my problem is, he does not have any capacity to do that and in this country, you cannot allow anybody to go --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    His standing in the Ministry is questionable?
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Yes. Very dubious credentials; he had no locus.
    Mr Akologu 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, under normal circumstances, I would have waited for the comments before --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    Hon Minister, you would be winding up.
    Mr Akologu 12:35 p.m.
    Yes, but these are things we should not go -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    Very well, let us hear you. I thought that if you were winding up, you could explain but you have the floor.
    Mr Akologu 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I said under normal circumstances, I would wait till when I am winding up, but there is a problem in this country. Once the information gets out there, it becomes the first impression and people receive it as such. So we have to deal with it immediately.
    Mr Speaker, first of all, I am not aware
    of any dubious member of staff in my office. I am not also aware that there is anybody in my Ministry with dubious credentials and there are no dubious acts that have come to my notice. I am not aware.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    The issue is that, has any money of that nature been collected which has not been approved by the House? That is the gravamen of the point being raised. Has anybody collected GH¢160,000, which according to him, has not been approved by this House? That is the point that they are making.
    Mr Akologu 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, that also is not true. [Interruption.] Any money that came to the Ministry of Information that passed through the hands of the Hon Minister and administration was approved for. This amount they are mentioning forms part of over GH¢300,000 that was allocated under public education for the Ministry. It forms part of it, and there is an audit report now on the management report, which is being finalized by the Auditor-General. That is what we know about in the Ministry. There has never been any money taken for that period that is outside the budgetary allocation.
    Mr Ambrose P. Dery 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I think that I would crave your indulgence that we allow our Hon Colleagues to make their interventions, especially where a Minister has the chance to respond. He said that he was doing so now because the first information that goes out is going to be believed but the media sitting here will report at the end of everything when he has responded.
    Mr Speaker, we have a lot of work to do and this sort of intervention, knee-jerk reaction from time to time is not doing us any good. So Mr Speaker, I think that what
    I am doing is trying to help us streamline our submissions in this matter.
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the person who took the money is called Stanislav Dogbe; the person with the dubious credentials is called Stanislav Dogbe and he had no locus to have appeared in any Ministry to collect money on behalf of the Ministry to do whatever he wanted to do with it. Mr Speaker, he took GH¢160,000. [Interruptions.]
    Alhaji Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo -- rose
    -- 12:35 p.m.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    Hon Deputy Majority Leader, let us allow the debate to flow; we will give you the chance to respond, so that you can respond appropriately to these matters. But you have --
    Alhaji Pelpuo 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, he has just mentioned somebody's name. Officially, we do not have any investigation in the life of that person to prove that he is dubious, he took that money and it is an official document that can be put in the public domain. Mr Speaker, the man is not here to defend himself.
    Mr Speaker, I crave your indulgence to rule him out of order and to ask him to withdraw the aspect where he mentioned the name of the gentleman. It is unfair; when something is done against Parliament, we often would say we would drag people to the Privileges Committee. This is a situation where we have to show diligence regarding the mention of the names of people and attacking their personalities when they are not present in the House.
    So Mr Speaker, I think he should withdraw it and apologize to the House and to the gentleman.
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:35 p.m.
    The general attitude of the House is that, as much as possible, people who do not have the audience to defend themselves on the floor, we try as much as possible not to -- and when you make a categorical statement as you did mention his name, ordinarily, one would have got a certain document supporting your claim, that either he has been investigated by a certain body confirming that he actually did take that money. Do you understand?
    If you had made it in the realms of allegation, it remains an allegation but you are very emphatic. Hon Joe Baidoe- Ansah, you made it very emphatic and ordinarily, one would have expected you to get something to establish the matter, then it becomes a statement of fact by quoting an authority. Therefore, I think that --
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, at the
    committee level, the Hon Minister said he was a Presidential Aide. That was what the Hon Minister said. And I found that he has dubious credentials because he is not a Presidential Aide. [Interruptions.] Yes, that was what he said, that he was
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:45 p.m.
    I am not
    going to call anybody except the Minister because they made an allusion to the Minister and maybe, the Chairman of the Committee. Are you a member of the Committee?
    Hon Minister, yes, because they made reference to you. After that I will call the Chairman only on this matter.
    Mr Akologu 12:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I never,
    repeat, never accepted at the committee level that Stanislav Dogbe took any money. The question or the issue that the Hon Member raised at the committee level was that, the person he is talking about, Stanislav Dogbe, took the money in some bags and I said I did not know about that. I never accepted it.
    I also said at the committee level that the Minister was the one responsible for all moneys allocated for the Ministry, and that the only thing I saw that came through the Auditor-General's Report, the management report to me for my comments was that, yes, they had cited a receipt that had been signed by Stanislav Dogbe for and on behalf of the Minister.
    But he said at the committee level categorically that Stanislav Dogbe collected the money in sacks -- [Interruptions] -- Ghana must go” bags and I said I do not know of that. So I never accepted at any point that Stanislav Dogbe took money.
    There was a receipt that he signed for and on behalf of the Minister; fine, but to whether he actually took the money physically or not, I did not know anything about that, and the Auditor-General has not found anything to the contrary. And
    the Auditor-General's Report to me for my comments was that my predecessor should explain the expenditure of that GH¢160,000.00 which formed part of an allocation of over GH¢300,000 for public education for that year on the Budget, 2009. So this is what we are dealing with.
    M r F i r s t D e p u t y S p e a k e r :
    GH¢30,000.00 or GH¢300,000.00?
    Mr Akologu 12:45 p.m.
    GH¢300,000.00 for
    public education. [Interruptions.] We have on record also that, even before that, that figure had come back drastically low because some other people before, received over 60 billion old Ghana cedis; GH¢600,000 and over -- some people received earlier. So that figure for 2009 was even lower, far, far lower than what I have even released. But it was an allocation to the Ministry, not to an individual.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:45 p.m.
    Hon
    Members, we should try and veer away from this matter because according to the information available -- Listen, Hon Members, we have been told that this is a subject matter of an audit process and this audit process will finally end in this House. That process will end in this House, so we should veer away from it.
    We are not in a position to conclude this matter whether he took the money or not on dubious grounds but what you will know is that, there are a lot of avenues both within and outside this House for this matter to be established beyond all reasonable doubt. So let us veer away from it and continue.
    Mr Dery 12:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I want to
    clarify this thing. The Member has not said he took it for dubious purposes. [Interruptions.] Please, please, the position is that, his identity within the
    Ministry to have taken that money, that is all that he is talking about, not dubious character, no. If he signed on behalf of the Minister, is he the appropriate person to sign? If he is not, then what he is talking about -- his identity there is dubious -- and the credentials because if there is no Minister, it is the Deputy Minister who signs. We understand it is the Chief Director who signs; we understand. But none of these was the person who signed for these monies. It is in that context that he is talking about he having a position that is dubious, not that he is of dubious character nor used the amount for something dubious. Get the matter straight.
    Mr Avoka 12:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Deputy
    Minority Leader is further misleading the House. Mr Speaker, the Hon Member for Kwesimintsim did not lay foundation in this House that there is a specific procedure to sign for money in the Ministry of Information -- [Inter-ruptions]-- He did not. Therefore, he cannot say that the fellow who is alleged to have signed for this money is the wrong fellow or adopted the wrong procedure by signing for that money; there is nothing before this House. So to get up and propose a new theory and procedure for the Ministry of Information when he has not indicated the right procedure, therefore, and to allege that the procedure was dubious, is wrong.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:45 p.m.
    Hon
    Members, I have guided this debate. The reason I am saying that if you listened to the Hon Minister carefully, he said that the person involved signed for the Minister; therefore, his predecessor has been asked by the auditors to respond to this. I am saying that, at the end of the day, the Auditor-General's Report will come to this House. Even if we do not want to wait for the Auditor-General's Report, there are a lot of processes at the disposal of any Member or any citizen, including Members of this House to pursue that matter within this House and outside
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:55 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for confirming that they have still not identified who the person is. The identity is what I am talking about.
    Mr Speaker, in the Ministries, the spending officer of every Ministry is the Chief Director. So I have laid the foundation that the person who took the money - I cannot ask my wife to come to the Ministry and take money on my behalf as a Minister.
    So my position is that, you cannot ask any person to take money from anywhere, especially money from the Consolidated Fund on behalf of the State if the person is not a State functionary. That is what I am talking about -- [Hear! Hear!] So the issue is not an issue of somebody who is being audited --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Member, you may disagree with my guidance and directions. You may disagree with my directions but if you want to disagree and go your own way, there are processes and procedures under the Standing Orders that you have to use. I am not supporting anybody.
    All that I am saying is that, the Minister says that the matter is being investigated by the Auditor-General's Department and that somebody signed for the Minister's predecessor. This matter has been referred. It is an on-going process, and I am saying that within this House, you can use all the mechanisms at your disposal to pursue this matter. That is all that I am saying.
    You have made your point, another Member has also made his point, so proceed now with the debate. That is what I am saying.
    Mr Baidoo-Ansah 12:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, with these few words, I support the Motion. [Hear! Hear!]
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Thank you too for supporting the Motion -- [Laughter.]
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 12:55 p.m.
    None

    Some Hon Members - Sit down!
    Mr Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Member for Ablekuma South, the “cool heads” is -
    Mr Fritz Baffour 12:55 p.m.
    That is all. Mr Speaker, you need a light heart to do the right things.
    I am a little worried about the kind of monies allocated to the Ministry in terms of Investment. This is because the various agencies under the Ministry of Information - Information Services Department (ISD), GMA, NAFTI, GBC and the Ministry itself in terms of Investment, lack a lot of amenities and facilities, and it is about time the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning realized that at the hub of all Government policies and any implementation of those policies is information to the people of the Republic of Ghana.
    In doing so, the Ministry has to have the right kind of facilities, equipment and accessories to do its work. We have to make sure that ISD can disseminate information because that is its role.
    We all remember the cinema vans of old which toured the rural areas and gave

    information on Government activity and public activity. With GMA, it is a very credible organization despite the fact that they are woefully underfunded and woefully equipped.

    If you go to GMA, it is pretty sad that in this 21st Century, they are still using manual typewriters and their premises are not much to be desired at all and that the equipment, however, obsolete, is at the mercy of the weather. This is an organization that gives out credible information day by day and that is taken by all the newspaper and radio stations in this country.

    NAFTI, as the Hon Joe Baidoe-Ansah said, has been an institution that has served the continent of Africa and the rest of the world. Most of its alumini have excelled in the world of media and communications, yet the kind of equipment they have dates back to the time of Fritz Green who founded the cinema industry. I think it is about time we looked at that because it is very important that in this ICT age, people who disseminate information use the right kind of equipment and learn the proper skills in order to do so.

    For GBC, we realize that it has got a problem in terms of underfunding when it comes to Investment. Those transmitters are important. We are going to do the digital migration and it is important that we actually invest in it in a proper way.

    When it comes to the Ministry, the Ministry's building is a very sad sight. It is an edifice that is crumbling. It does not befit the country that we have that and we are saying that we are going ahead, we have a “better Ghana agenda” and this is where you go for the information. It is really bad. We talked about the places of convenience, we talked about the poor equipment and so we have to really do something about it and I think that though

    we have erred on the side of prudence, we should actually reconsider and help the Ministry in terms of their Investment funds.

    I support the Motion.
    Mrs Catherine A. Afeku (NPP - Evalue Gwira) 1:05 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I rise to support the sum we are seeking to approve for the services of the Ministry of Information for the year ending December
    31, 2011.
    Mr Speaker, I am a bit saddened that today, in the information age, the Ministry of Information has actually got its budget slashed. Maybe, a few observations that are made from your Committee would give us the reasons this budget is slashed. It should be changed as a matter of urgency.
    Mr Speaker, during the 2010 fiscal year, we voted sums of money for the Ministry. As little as it was, we were promised that they would develop a new and national communication policy. I looked through the “2011 Outlook” and the national policy fair was touted; the Ministry itself mandated to disseminate information, did not, I repeat, did not showcase how it created its own communication policy.
    As we speak, there was no inclination; there was no iota of information on the national communication policy that the Ministry was mandated to undertake. Is it any wonder that the money keeps reducing every year?
    Mr Speaker, I would not want to tread the line my senior Colleague took but I would be grateful if the Auditor-General's Report would also tell us the publicity campaign made on the Budget with ¢4 billion old Ghana cedis, that I am not sure is in the Auditor-General's Report. As much as we are debating the Budget Estimates, we want the rest of the nation to know what is in the Budget, especially the high taxes. It would be prudent to use
    - 1:05 p.m.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    Hon Member, conclude.
    Mrs Afeku 1:05 p.m.
    -- to share his vision. In conclusion, Mr Speaker, the town
    hall -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    You are entitled to five minutes; you have exceeded it but I was allowing you to go on.
    Mrs Afeku 1:05 p.m.
    I thank you for your generosity.
    In concluding, the town hall assemblies that were actually in the Budget and we all supported that they get money to exercise that mandate to meet the people, has not happened; it has not happened. And we are hoping that this year's Budget, as we seek to endorse and approve, they would get extra money, so that they will go round the nation and explain Government policies, and explain what has really happened.
    Please, this is the mandate of the Ministry; it has nothing to do with propaganda; we are only trying to support them so that they avail themselves to the good people of Ghana to know really what the Government has achieved.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    Hon Minister, you may wind up.
    Mr Akologu 1:05 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I want to thank my Hon Colleagues for all the comments they have made and for the support they have expressed for the Ministry.
    Mr Speaker, however, I want to take the opportunity of winding up to respond to a few issues that I consider, maybe, as a result of lack of information or lack of appreciation of the information or lack of understanding or out of sheer malice or mischief - [Interruption] - on which the statements were made -- [Interruption.]
    Mr Dery 1:05 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, a point of order. He is ascribing to us - he knows he is an experienced Member of Parliament - “malice”, that is bad faith. All the other words he used, he is entitled to, but to ascribe to us malice, especially when
    Mr Akologu 1:05 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, even though I would just concede because he is my junior Brother to withdraw that one, I used it cautiously and wisely. I said, I thanked Hon Colleagues for their support for the Ministry. And I said some issues, some statements they made - So I did not say all. I said some. I am aware of the support. So please, the word “malice” is withdrawn.
    Mr Speaker, it is important to put on record that Mr Stanislav Dogbe is a Presidential Aide duly appointed so by the President and he has -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    Hon Members, you should use “the gentleman involved” and delete the name “Stanislav Dogbe”. So all mention of “Stanislav Dogbe” should be expunged from the record; you should say “the gentleman involved”.
    Continue.
    Mr Akologu 1:05 p.m.
    The gentleman involved was duly appointed by the President and he has an appointment letter to that effect. Mr Speaker -
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 1:05 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr Speaker, I am up because this specifically refers to what I said --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    Whom are you referring to?
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 1:05 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I came up with the name and said that he has a dubious credential and now he is
    saying that the person in question is a Presidential Aide. Mr Speaker, what you have just done is to contradict; to say that what I said was not correct. Mr Speaker, I want to officially present the report from the President to this House. It is the Annual Report to Parliament on Presidential Office Staff, January to December 2009. Mr Speaker, I want this to appear in our public record. In this -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    You mean the gentleman involved is not there?
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 1:05 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in this Report signed by the President, the President has made it very clear that he does not know the person - [Uproar] - The President does not know the person; he does not work for the President. Mr Speaker, I want to present this to the Table Office. This is for the public record - [Interruption.]
    Mr Speaker, it is a report that the President signed under oath.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    Why is the Report under oath?
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 1:05 p.m.
    Yes, the report is under oath -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:05 p.m.
    Hon Members, the Report is not under oath.
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 1:05 p.m.
    It is under oath, Mr Speaker.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
    Hon Member, ask your Deputy Minority Leader to guide you in those circumstances.
    Mr Baidoe-Ansah 1:15 p.m.
    I asked whether the President signed. The oath that the President signed in the capacity of President -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
    Oh! No! That report is not signed under oath.
    Hon Minister, the Ranking Member is saying that Mr Stanislav Dogbe - the gentleman involved is not known to the Office of the President. That is what Hon Joe Baidoe-Ansah is saying.
    Mr Akologu 1:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I did not know that this will come up because it was not a major issue at the discussion. When he raised it, we mentioned to him that it was not part of the budget, so I will produce the appointment letter of Mr Stanislav Dogbe in due course. I will produce it in due course. [Interruption.] Please, please!
    Our Government is very transparent and will not take anybody into - I am telling you, it is not a document that you can rely on. If we want to dissect this -- Please, do not let us engage in personal - this thing --
    Mr Speaker, I also want to state that the issue about the ministerial building, yes, it is true, it is dilapidated, it needs renovation but to say that there are no toilet facilities and so on, is out of the -- this thing. The Journalist who wrote about this issue was -- he did so on that day because there was a press conference and there was no water flowing in the block and the toilets were thus locked. Because if people used them, they would mess up the place. Then, the Journalist just went and wrote that there were no toilet facilities. There are toilet facilities, there is no dispute that the building needs renovation but there are toilet facilities.
    I would want those who throw stones to be very careful because they are also living in glass houses.
    I have referred to the Auditor-General's Report on this matter. And then - [Interruption] -- It is not all right; let me say it. When the auditors finalize the Report, it would come here and I will urge my Colleagues to speak to it candidly as

    they see it.

    Mr Speaker, again, the issue of the --

    [Interruption.] - I am winding up, I have to clarify some issues.

    On the issue of the foreign mission staff, the two staff who have complained about this, the practice has been that if you are going on retirement, you are recalled three months before retirement.

    In the case of one of them, he was recalled to report back in Ghana in February, 2010. As at June, he remained in office and he personally called me and complained about the dislocation of his children's education if he left. That is why he was hanging on and I said that was not my business.

    The Ministry will always facilitate the repayment of all expenses made to such officers when they put in a claim and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning will pay. This Officer refused to do that; he is sitting and saying that the money should be sent to him before he comes.
    Mr Dery 1:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I think the rule should apply always. Mr Speaker, you said we should leave this matter, that we do not have people here to comment. Even in the case where there was a receipt, you ruled that we should leave it, so the Hon Minister should not be making statements against persons who are not here to respond.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
    I entirely agree with you.
    Mr Akologu 1:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, on the
    issue of the -- [Interruption] - Ministry of Information carrying out education on one-time payment on National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the question we asked ourselves was, is it a government policy or not? Is the Ministry of Information to inform the people about government policies and programmes or not? The other point is that, is there a debate on it or not? The Ministry of Information has to tell the people what is involved.
    Again, Mr Speaker, the media freedom that the Hon Member espoused that the Ministry should help pressmen to come out of certain difficulties is taken on board as a complementary effort to the National Media Commission's functions.
    Mr Dery 1:15 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think the Hon Information Minister is so used to his job that he has forgotten that the purpose of this whole Motion is to get his budget approved. He suddenly has forgotten and it is his main business of trying to give us a lecture in this House.
    We have other Motions that we have to consider and I will advise that he should just wind up so that we deal with other matters.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
    Hon Minister, I think that you should wind up; you are winding up?
    Mr Akologu 1:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much. I am happy that when the -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
    Hon Minister --
    Mr Akologu 1:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, when the heat is on them, they do not want to take it.
    I want to thank all Hon Members for their support and hope that they will urge the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to consider the deficit that the Ministry is suffering now in the supplementary budget.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
    Hon Members, the documents submitted by Hon Joe Baidoe-Ansah was a document submitted to this House from the Office of the President, which was duly laid in this House. So, this document is in the custody of this House, which the appropriate committee of the House is supposed to report on at the appropriate time. I thought that I should just draw your attention to the document. Every Hon Member is supposed to have these documents.
    Hon Members, in doing whatever I do, I listened to the contribution very much from the Ranking Members and their deputies. And I know that they have all in their submissions said they support the Motion.
    Question put and Motion agreed to.
    Resolved: That this Honourable House approves the sum of GH¢32,861,104 for the services of the Ministry of Information for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
    l.25 p.m.
    ANNUAL ESTIMATES 1:15 p.m.
    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Alfred K. Agbesi) 1:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I support the Motion and in doing so, I wish to submit the Report of your Committee for the consideration of this House. 1.0 Introduction
    1.1 The Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for the 2011 fiscal year was presented to Parliament by the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, on the authority of
    H.E the President on Thursday, 18th November, 2010 in accordance with article 179 (1) and (2) of the 1992 Constitution.
    1.2 Following the presentation, the Draft Annual Budget Estimates of the Judicial Service was laid in the House on Monday, 23rd November, 2010 pursuant to article 179 (4) and (5) of the Constitution and subsequently referred to the Judiciary Committee for consideration and report.
    2.0 Deliberations
    2.1 The Committee met with the Judicial Secretary, Justice A. B. Poku- Acheampong and other officials of the Judicial Service to consider the Estimates. In attendance were officials from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP).
    3.0 Reference documents
    3.1 The following documents were referred to by the Committee during its deliberations:
    i. The 1992 Constitution;
    ii. The Standing Orders of the House;
    i i i . The Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government for the
    2011 fiscal year; and iv. Comments from His Excellency
    the President on the 2011 Annual Budget Estimates of the Judicial Service --
    4.0 Mission of the Judicial Service
    4.1 The Mission of the Judicial Service is to promote, among other
    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Alfred K. Agbesi) 1:15 p.m.
    functions, efficient and effective system of administration of justice acceptable to all manner of persons, including the poor and the vulnerable without fear or favour or ill-will, thereby creating an enabling environment for good governance.
    5.0 Objectives of the Judicial Service
    5.1 The objectives of the Service are to:
    i. promote the rule of law, transparency, efficiency and speedy administration of justice;
    ii. improve access to justice especially to the vulnerable and the excluded;
    iii. improve human and institutional capacity especially towards the protection of the vulnerable and the excluded;
    iv. improve the public image and confidence in the Service; and
    v. remove the perception of corruption in the Service.
    6.0 Analysis of the 2010 Budget
    6.1 A total amount of fifty-two million, seven hundred and forty-one thousand, eight hundred and ninety Ghana cedis (GH¢52,741,890.00) was approved for the Judicial Service for its activities for the 2010 fiscal year. Out of this amount, thirty-nine million, two hundred and ninety-five thousand, seven hundred and forty-nine Ghana cedis, seventy-two pesewas (GH¢39,295,749.72) had been released to the Judicial Service as at the end of October, 2010. The breakdown is shown in Table 1.
    Table1: Details of expenditure of the Judicial Service as at the end of October, 2010
    6.2 The Judicial Service during year 2010 intensified efforts to propagate the principles of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to reduce the backlog of cases in the courts and to mainstream ADR into the courts system. It also undertook pre-consultancy works on the 34-courtroom complex project.
    6.3 The Judicial Service continued with the construction of the Asante Asokore Circuit Court building, the Anyinam Magistrate Court building and the Wa Court Complex. Installation of air- conditioners at the Kumasi Court of Appeal has been completed. Furniture has also been provided for the Kumasi Court of Appeal.
    7.0 Outlook for 2011
    7.1 The Service in year 2011, will continue the implementation of the strategies identified in the Legal Sector Improvement Programme. To this end, the Service intends to undertake the following activities:
    i. continue the construction of the 34-courtroom complex at 28th February Road Courts' premises;
    ii. continue the construction of the Wa Court Complex;
    iii. continue the construction of the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) and equip it with modern facilities for the training of judges and staff of the Service;
    iv. extend the programme of the Weekend Magistrate Courts to Kumasi and Takoradi;

    v. regularly train and equip judges and staff as well as newly recruited Magistrates and Judges; and

    vi. continue to propagate the principle of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to reduce the backlog of

    cases in the Courts and to mainstream ADR into the courts system.

    8.0 The 2011 draft Estimates of the Judicial Service

    8.1 An amount of ninety-seven million, three hundred and forty-four thousand, five hundred Ghana cedis, forty-three pesewas (GH¢97,344,500.43) was budgeted by the

    Judicial Service for its activities for the 2011 fiscal year. The details are provided in Table 2 below:

    Table 2: Draft Annual Budget Estimates of the Judicial Service for the year 2011

    8.2 The Estimates include an internally generated funds (IGFs) of nine hundred and sixty-eight thousand, six hundred and sixty-one Ghana cedis, forty-five pesewas

    (GH¢968,661.45).

    9.0 Recommended Estimates by H.E. the President

    9.1 The Judicial Service submitted to His Excellency the President, a budget of ninety-seven million, three hundred and forty-four thousand, five hundred Ghana cedis, forty-three pesewas (GH¢97,- 344,500.43). His Excellency the President

    recommended for the consideration of Parliament an amount of forty-two million, nine hundred and seventeen thousand, one hundred and twenty-three Ghana cedis (GH¢42,917,123.00) for the Service in accordance with article 179 (4) and (5) of the Constitution.

    9.2 The President in recommending this amount to Parliament took into consideration the availability of resources in the country for the 2011 fiscal year. The details of the recommended Budget by H.E. the President is shown in Table 3 below:

    Table 3: Recommended Estimates by His Excellency the President

    1 0 . 0 O b s e r v a t i o n s a n d recommendations

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    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Alfred K. Agbesi) 1:15 p.m.


    1 0 . 1 T h e C o m m i t t e e d u r i n g deliberations considered the original budget presented to His Excellency the President by the Judicial Service in the light of his recommendation. Whilst the Committee accepted the recommendation by His Excellency relative to Personal Emolument, Service and Investment,

    it could not do same for the amount recommended by the President in respect of Administration Expenditure.

    10.2 The Committee noted that an amount of seven million, five hundred and thirty-two thousand, eight hundred and sixty-two Ghana cedis (GH¢7,532,862.00) was approved by Par l iament as Administration Expenditure for the Judicial Service for the 2010 fiscal year. 10.3 As at the end of June 2010, the entire Administration Vote of the Judicial Service approved by Parliament had been exhausted. The Judicial Service therefore turned to

    MoFEP for support. MoFEP agreed to provide one million, two hundred thousand Ghana

    cedis (GH¢1, 200,000.00) monthly to the Judicial Service, effective July, 2010.

    10.4 The Committee observed that as at 30th September, 2010 a total of twelve million, nine hundred and twenty thousand and seventy-two Ghana cedis, twenty- eight pesewas (GH¢12,920,072.28) had been expended by the Judicial Service on Administration. The Committee was informed by the Judicial Service that an estimated amount of seventeen million Ghana cedis (GH¢17,000,000.00) is expected to be spent on Administration expenses by the end of the year, 2010.

    10.5 It is evident from the above

    that the Judicial Service will not be able to function with the allocation of seven million, five hundred and thirty- two thousand, eight hundred and sixty- two Ghana cedis (GH¢7,532,862.00) recommended by H.E the President as against the budgetary requirement of twenty-four million, one hundred and fifty-eight thousand, six hundred and twenty-seven Ghana cedis, eighty-three pesewas (GH¢24,158,627.83) presented by the Judicial Service.

    10.6 Apart from the fact that the allocation made for Administration Expenditure is woefully inadequate, there is the constitutional issue of whether or

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    5 - 1.25 P.M

    not the Administration expenses of the Judicial Service is subject to review by either the President or Parliament.

    10.7 The Administration expenses of the Judicial Service is a charge on the Consolidated Fund per article 127 (4) of the Constitution.

    The article states:

    “The administrative expenses of the Judiciary, including all salaries, allowances, gratuities and pensions payable to or in respect of, persons serving in the Judiciary, shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund.”.

    10.8 Article 179 (2) (b) of the Constitution also states:

    “The estimates of the expenditure of all public offices and public corporations, other than those set up as commercial ventures -

    shall, in respect of payments charged on the Consolidated Fund, be laid before Parliament for the information of Members of Parliament.”

    10.9 The above provisions are reinforced by article 179 (3) and 179 (3) (a) of the Constitution. Article 179 (3) states:

    “The Chief Justice shall , in consultation with the Judicial Council, cause to be submitted to the President at least two months before the end of each financial year, and thereafter as and when the need arises --

    (a) the estimates of admi- nistrative expenses of the Judiciary charged on the Consolidated Fund under article 127 of this Consti- tution.”

    10.10 The combined effect of the above provisions is that the adminis- trative expenses of the Judicial Service is to be laid in the House only for the information of Hon Members and not to be reviewed.

    10.11 In the light of the above,

    the Committee could not review the Administration expenditure of twenty- four million, one hundred and fifty- eight thousand, six hundred and twenty- seven Ghana cedis, eighty-three pesewas (GH¢24,158,627.83) budgeted by the Judicial Service.

    10.12 It was agreed after extensive deliberations that a total budgetary provision of fifty-nine million, five hundred and forty-two thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight Ghana cedis, eighty-three pesewas (GH¢59,542,888.83) be proposed for the Judicial Service for the 2011 financial year. The details are shown in Table 4 below:

    Table 4: Proposed Annual Budget Estimates of the Judicial Service

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    Chairman of the Committee (Mr Alfred K. Agbesi) 1:15 p.m.


    for the 2011 Fiscal Year

    10.13 MoFEP expressed concern about the Committee's endorsement of the Administration budget of the amount of twenty-four million, one hundred and fifty-eight thousand, six hundred and twenty-seven Ghana cedis, eighty- three pesewas (GH¢24,158,627.83) submitted by the Judicial Service to H.E the President.

    10.14 The Ministry indicated that it would be very difficult to meet that expenditure as it is constrained by funds to support the budget. This prompted a meeting between the leadership of Parliament, the leadership of the Committee and the Hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning to arrive at a solution.

    10.15 The Judicial Service at the meeting agreed to review downwards its Administration budget of twenty- four million, one hundred and fifty- eight thousand, six hundred and twenty- seven Ghana cedis, eighty-three pesewas (GH¢24,158,627.83) to twenty million Ghana cedis (GH¢20,000,000.00). This was accepted by the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning.

    10.16 However, he indicated that he would be able to accommodate an amount of fifteen million Ghana cedis (GH¢15,000,000.00) in the Budget while the remaining five million Ghana cedis (GH¢5,000,000.00) would be provided for in a Supplementary Budget in the course of the year 2011.

    10.17 The Committee endorsed the decision arrived at at the Leadership Meeting with the Hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning. In doing so, it was mindful of the enormous responsibility placed on the Judiciary vis-à-vis the availability of resources to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

    10.18 Consequently, it recommends that a total budgetary allocation of fifty million, three hundred and eighty-four thousand, two hundred and sixty-one Ghana cedis (GH¢50,384,261.00) be approved for the Judicial Service for the 2011 financial year. The breakdown is shown in Table 5 below:

    10.19 The Committee recalls that before the passage of the Appropriation Bill, 2010 by the House, the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning made a similar

    commitment to source extra funds to support the Judicial Service, in view of the inadequate provision made for the Administration Expenditure.

    10.20 The Committee was informed that the Hon Minister could not fulfil the commitment made to the House. The Committee therefore appeals to the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning to endeavour this time to fulfil his promise by providing the Judicial Service with the remaining five million Ghana cedis (GH¢5,000,000.00) to enable the Service perform its constitutional duties.

    11.0 Conclusion

    11.1 In conclusion, the Committee in arriving at the total budgetary allocation to the Judicial Service carefully considered the recommendation by H.E the President and the concerns expressed by both the MoFEP and the Judicial Service.

    11 . 2 T h e C o m m i t t e e h e r e b y recommends to the House for the approval of an amount of fifty million, three hundred and eighty-four thousand, two hundred and sixty-one Ghana cedis, (GH¢50,384,261.00) for the activities of the Judicial Service for the 2011 fiscal year.

    Respectfully submitted.
    Mr Samuel Atta Akyea (NPP - Akim Abuakwa South) 1:35 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the floor.
    Mr Speaker, in bringing about the Estimates of the Judiciary, we should be careful not to treat it as Estimates of the Ministries. Because there are serious constitutional imperatives that this House should respect. The first one I will like to refer is article l27 (4), which is very clear that the Administration Expenses of the Judiciary including all salaries, allo- wances, gratuities, pensions payable to or in respect of persons serving the Judiciary shall be charged on the Consolidated Fund.
    Also, we should have regard to article
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    SPACE FOR TABLE 5 - PAGE
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    Table 5: Revised Total Budgetary Allocation to the Judicial Service for the Year 2011
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:35 p.m.
    Hon Member, are you making the submission that if the Administration Expenses of the Judiciary is the whole Budget of Ghana, nobody can make any recommendation on it? Is that what you are saying?
    I have read the Committee's Report. I have listened to you carefully. I have had the opportunity of discussing this matter with some of the Hon Senior Members of this House, like the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, that assuming for purposes of argument that the Administration Expenses of the Judiciary is the whole Budget of Ghana, are we saying that nothing can be done about it, no recommendation?
    I worked on the letter from the Office of the President and I asked that it should be processed. So, we want to get that position very clear to inform our practice for subsequent years to come so that we are very clear on this matter.
    You may continue.
    Mr Akyea 1:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am very happy that you came out with an assumption, but we are talking about constitutional imperatives. And when we disrespect the Constitution, then with all respect to this Honourable House, I do not know where we are going with the matter.
    I do not assume that the Judiciary will bring about Administration Expenses which the economy cannot contain, because every Administrative Expense which is brought before this Honourable House will be vetted, it is not automatic. But where the Presidency will like to make recommendations which totally under- mine the Constitution, then we should stress that issue -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:35 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, recommendations remain recommendations; it is for this House to

    take the final decisions on the matter. I looked at the letter from the Presidency before referring it to the Clerk to Parliament to process. It is very clear that he is making recommendations, unless we want to interpret “recommendations” to mean something else. Recommendations to this House remain recommendations.
    Mr Akyea 1:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am grateful. Every recommendation which undermines the Constitution is unlawful. Although it is intended by way of recommendation, it should be situate in the Constitution - [Interruption.]
    Mr Cletus A. Avoka 1:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker,

    Mr Speaker, article 179 (4) and (5),

    and with your permission, I beg to quote:

    “(4) The President shall, at the time specified in clause (1) of this article, or thereafter, and and when submitted to him under clause (3) of this article, cause the estimates referred to in clause (3) of this article to be laid before Parliament.

    (5) The estimates shall be laid

    before Par l iament under clause (4) by the President without revision but with any recom- recommendations that the Government may have on them.”

    Mr Speaker, that the President can bring them here with recommendations on them, the Constitution says so, so what is his problem? [Interruption.] So, the President

    has not breached the Constitution. Mr Speaker, recommendation relates to the figure involved. The President, as a result of that, has submitted intact the estimates that the Judiciary sent to him and then put a letter on top and said “these are the Estimates that are received, these are my recommendations”. That is all.
    Mr Akyea 1:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I defer to
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:35 p.m.
    Hon Members, at the end of the day, this House cannot pronounce on the constitutionality or otherwise of a certain Act. [Uproar.] That is not our responsibility. So we should veer away from people pronouncing on consti-tutionality or otherwise. I am making this point because if you take that line of argument and you look at article 179 (2) (b) then most of the work we are doing here, we do not even have to do any debate. We should look at article 179 (2) (b), which states as follows:
    “shall, in respect of payments charged on the Consolidated Fund, be laid before Parliament for the information of Members of Par- liament.”
    It means that all the things charged on the Consolidated Fund should be laid and not debated; everybody should accept them. So, Hon Members, I do not understand when a recommendation to the final body that will take the final decision can be final and therefore, a breach for the purpose of this Constitution. I do not agree with your interpretation at all. If somebody disagrees, the person should go and test the matter in the Supreme Court.
    Let us look at the Estimates as we have them now.
    Dr Anthony A. Osei 1:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, part of the problem -- as you said,
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:35 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, I will cut you off if you continue on that line because it is a breach of the rules. This is because I am calling you to order and you are repeating the same point.
    Hon Member, I am saying that if you think the President has breached the Constitution, go to the Supreme Court for an interpretation.
    My understanding of the letter of the President is that he made a recom- mendation to this House; that is a recommendation. It is for us as a House to take the final decision and the Constitution allows him to make recommendations on the Estimates and that is what he has done.
    Mr Akyea 1:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I will proceed.
    I will leave it as it is.
    There must be very good reasons for the framers of the Constitution did not want the Administration Expenses of the Judiciary reduced. If we care to know, with the two other arms of government, we do not have any permanence. It is the Judiciary which has permanence and when we have problems, that is the last bastion of democracy; that is where we seek our redress and therefore, any attempt to treat the Judiciary as any other entity undermines the letter and the spirit of the Constitution.
    Somebody has said, “If the rule of law
    was unable to fulfil, we should accept the GH¢20 million as the Administration Expenses for the Judiciary and that should be charged on the Consolidated Fund in consonance with the Constitution.
    There is also yet another matter which I think is of great importance, which is the internally generated funds (IGFs). Mr Speaker, the internally generated funds under Act 661of 2003, all the moneys generated internally - the court fines and the other revenues - the Judiciary is just permitted to retain 15 per cent.
    Given all the cash constraints that the Hon Minister is talking about, I hold the view, humbly, that it will serve a good purpose if the percentage of retention is increased from 15 per cent to 45 per cent, so that at the end of the day, the Judiciary will have enough money to run its programmes and then the Hon Minister will not have the burden of coming to this House to give solemn undertakings that the economy will be undermined and he will not be able to honour it.
    All said and done, I hold the view that some consensus has been reached but I am afraid we should not premise the GH¢5 million shortfall on the goodwill of the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning but all the figure should be charged on the Consolidated Fund in consonance with the Constitution.
    On this basis, I will urge the House to add the GH¢5 million to the GH¢15 million, which is being recommended to the House for approval.
    When we have crises, our last refuge is the Judiciary and we should not give it a shabby treatment.
    Mr Speaker, I am grateful.
    Deputy Minister for Energy (Alhaji
    Inusah A. B. Fuseini)(MP): Mr Speaker,
    constitutional interpretation, I will not go there.
    The problem though is that, in pursuance of article 179 (5), most of us have not received the original that was sent to the President. It only went to the members of the Committee but we are supposed to pronounce on it. So how do we know whether it was revised or not?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:35 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, I have directed right from the beginning that copies of these documents should be made available to all Members. Remember this matter cropped up and I have directed that copies of all documents that have been laid be made available to all Members.
    Mr Avoka 1:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I appreciate the intervention made by him, but the Committee's Report indicates the figure that was sent to the Presidency and that has been brought here. The Committee's Report indicates the amount, so maybe, you do not have the full dossier but at least, you have the crux of the matter, which is the figure.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:35 p.m.
    The
    whole document sent to the President was brought to this House; the only thing the President did was to add a covering letter with recommendations. And I do not see how that can be a breach of the Constitution because we will take the final decision here. So, I do not see how that can be a breach of the Constitution.
    Hon Member, you may proceed.
    Mr Akyea 1:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, with all
    respect to you, when the obvious is there, it becomes very unfortunate that we are pretending that this, not the constitutional
    is expensive, then try the reign of terror.” We should pay a high premium when it comes to the rule of law.
    Mr Speaker, there is another interesting
    dimension to what has happened on the Administrative Expenses. Indeed, by understanding and consensus, the Judiciary decided that they will reduce their Administrative Expenses to GH¢24 million and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said because of serious financial considerations, they will not be able to meet it. So a compromise was reached that for the Administration Expenses of the Judiciary, an amount of GH¢20 million should be set aside for that for the year 2011. And for some reason again, the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning is saying that the Ministry can only afford GH¢15 million instead of the GH¢20 million that had been compromised.
    Last year, we had a similar experience
    where there was a big shortfall regarding the Budget Estimates of the Judiciary and the Hon Minister gave a firm promise that he would supply the shortfall in the ensuing year. Unfortunately for us and for reasons that I cannot explain, the Hon Minister was unable to do so and I do not fault him for that. There might be serious financial constraints that he is having.
    But again, we are talking about a compromised figure under a constitutional imperative. So, I recommend strongly that this House should give the Judiciary GH¢20 million as Administration Expenses and we would not want to rely, with all respect, on the assurances of the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning. This is because if they are not forthcoming, we will be compelled to do something which might not be too good.
    I strongly recommend, given the
    situation last year, that the Hon Minister gave solemn words to this House but
    Mr Ghartey 1:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, with
    respect, those questions - We can only answer them by interpreting the relevant articles of the Constitution. Why does he not want to move on?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:45 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, I agree. There is a difficulty. Have you read the Committee's Report? Have you fully read the Committee's Report? It is a very interesting Report. Have you read the Committee's Report?
    Mr Ghartey 1:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I have read the Committee's Report. In fact, I was going to --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:45 p.m.
    It raised a
    lot of interesting issues and that is where the temptation is coming from. But I agree with you that we should veer away from attempting to interpret the Constitution here.
    Hon Member, take that on board.
    Mr Akyea 1:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, a point of
    order.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:45 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, you cannot take a point of order on a point of order.
    Mr Akyea 1:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, with all
    respect, I have never said that whenever the Judiciary should submit their Budget Estimates to this House, we should swallow them hook, line and sinker. I am talking about Administration Expenses; that is what the Constitution provides, and he should not misquote me.
    Alhaji Fuseini 1:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, indeed,
    I will not attempt to go back to the constitutional provisions because Administration Expenses should be charged on the Consolidated Fund. That is what the Constitution says.
    Mr Ghartey 1:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, it is an issue of etiquette and I am coming up from order 100.
    The Hon Member is speaking with his hand in his pocket. Mr Speaker, people are laughing and saying “goodness”; there are people upstairs looking at us, and it is totally unethical in Ghana. I have great respect for him; I think he has forgotten, so I have reminded him. He should please, remove his hand from his pocket.
    Mr Speaker, the backbench is a nice place to sit and make noise. But those at the back, I can see you.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, address the Chair.
    Alhaji Fuseini 1:55 p.m.
    Very well. Mr Speaker, that is a timely reminder and I have taken it on board.
    Mr Speaker, what I am saying is
    that, these difficulties could have been overcome by simply recommending that when a supplementary budget is presented before this House, the projected Administration allocation that was made to the President by the Judiciary be made up in the supplementary budget. The Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning would then have the opportunity to be informed beforehand that the Committee does not take kindly to the reduction in the administrative expense of the Judiciary and that, when an occasion presents itself, the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning takes action to ensure that the shortfall is augmented.
    That way, Mr Speaker, I think we will be acting responsibly as a Parliament, making sure that we are putting the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning on their toes and making sure that we are empowering the Judiciary to perform its job.
    Mr Speaker, I therefore, recommend and propose to this House, that insofar as we as a House know that the Judiciary should be empowered to perform its functions, we approve of the Estimates submitted to this House and then request the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to capture the difference in the Estimates in the supplementary budget to be presented to this House later. That way, Mr Speaker, I think it would be a responsible way to resolve this matter.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 p.m.
    Hon Joe

    Hon Minority Leader, if you submit a list to the Chair and you want to change it, I would want to hear word from you, otherwise, it would create a problem; because I must be clear list I would want

    thank you for giving me an opportunity to comment on the Report of the Judiciary Committee.

    I do sympathise with the sentiments

    expressed by the Hon Chairman of the Committee and the Hon Member for Abuakwa South for indicating that the Judiciary ought to be resourced to carry out its work.

    Mr Speaker, the difficulty that I
    Mr Joe Ghartey 1:55 p.m.
    On a point of
    order. Mr Speaker, you advised that any Hon Member who believes that he has a problem with the constitutional provision, should send the matter to the Supreme Court. What is good for the goose is also good for the gander.
    My Friend, Hon Fuseini, if he has missed practice, he can seek -- If he comes to the Privileges Committee -- I am sure the Committee on Members Holding Office of Profit - I am sure they will give him the opportunity to go to court. He should not go into the temptation of the Constitution, otherwise, we can be here till tomorrow morning.
    As you know, there are as many opinions as there are lawyers, so he should move on. That is a slippery ground and Mr Speaker, you have ruled. He should respect the Chair and respect the rest of us.
    Alhaji Fuseini 1:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, let me
    assure my Hon Dear Brother that I was not venturing into any constitutional interpretation. I do not have the capacity to do that. I am just saying - [Interruption] - and my senior at the Bar --
    I am just saying that the recommen-
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 p.m.
    Hon Members, I want to call on the Leadership of the House to devise a mechanism for handling the budget of the Judiciary, the Audit Service and that of Parliament because the same provision applies to them.
    I remember in 2008, under the able leadership of the former Majority Leader, Hon Abraham Ossei Aidooh, we amended the Parliamentary Service Act to incorporate those same provisions in the Constitution of the Parliamentary Service Act. The same principle applies to the Audit Service Act (Act 584). So that we devise a certain mechanism to address these matters in the years to come.
    Hon Members, thank you very much.
    Item numbered 10, Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning.
    Mr Avoka 1:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Minister has just been summoned out to attend to something. So the Deputy Minister, who has been handling these matters with us -- I humbly apply that he moves the Motion.
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:55 p.m.
    Mr
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 p.m.
    Hon Member, I think the best approach is that, the Minister, when he is with us and he wants to do something else, he should just
    to use for purposes of transacting business on the floor of the House. The list I have is Hon Atta Kyea and Hon Joe Ghartey. So if you want to change it, you have to make an application, just as when a Hon Deputy Minister is coming to represent his Hon Minister, you make an application.
    Hon Members, I direct that we Sit outside the prescribed period, having regard to the state of business.
    Mr Dery 1:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, may I then humbly make an application that the list be varied to allow the Hon Member for Atiwa to contribute on behalf of the Minority.
    Mr Avoka 1:55 p.m.
    I just want to indicate that the Majority Caucus of the House has no list on the subject; it is discretionary to the Members.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 p.m.
    Hon Member for Atiwa, you have the floor, five minutes.
    Mr Kwasi Amoako-Atta (NPP - Atiwa) 2:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am very grateful for giving me the opportunity to add my voice to the Motion on the floor.
    Mr Speaker, I need not belabour the point that the Judiciary is a key arm of Government. The importance of the Judiciary, Mr Speaker, is clearly made manifest in its mission statement, which is captured on page two, clause 4 (1) of the Report presented by the Committee.
    Mr Speaker, with your permission, I will read 2:55 p.m.
    “The mission of the Judicial Service is to promote, among other functions, efficient and effective system of administration of justice acceptable to all manner of persons, including the poor and the vul- nerable without fear or favour or
    other areas. Now there is an oil find and we expect that a lot of legal issues are going to come up out of the oil find. It is the expectation of all forward-looking members of our society that --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:55 p.m.
    Hon Member, you have exhausted your five minutes. I know that it is your maiden speech -- I have been advised that it is your maiden speech, so I will add two more minutes to it for you and give you all the protection. But also, make sure that you do not get into controversy.
    Mr Amoako-Atta 2:55 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, my concern is that, the budget for Investment for the Judiciary should be reviewed and at least, it should be in tandem with the request made by them because of the Investment agenda that that arm of government wants to undertake.
    Mr Speaker, I want to conclude by saying that the request from the Judiciary must be taken on board and all of us must help to promote the efficient running of the Judiciary to ensure good governance. This is because at the end of the day, that is where all of us will run to for protection.
    Mr Speaker, in connection with this, I would want to call on our countrymen and women to be careful about our utterances as we hear them on radio and in the print media in order not to bring the good image of the Judiciary into disrepute.
    Mr Speaker, with these few words, I want to thank you and call on my Colleagues to support the Budget Estimates.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Question put and Motion agreed to.
    ANNUAL ESTIMATES 2:55 p.m.
    TABLE SPACE ANNEX A - PAGE 2:55 p.m.
    SPACE FOR TABLE - PAGE 2:15 p.m.
    ANNEX A 2:15 p.m.
    Mr John Gyetuah (NDC - Amenfi West) 2:15 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:15 p.m.
    Hon Members, because this is Parliament's budget, I will take three; three instead of the two, two. The Leadership has agreed

    on it.
    Mr Gyetuah 2:15 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion to approve of the Estimates for the services of Parliament --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:15 p.m.
    When you are speaking, address the House Committee's budget. If you look at their budget, it shows that they have been meeting. So address it.
    Mr Gyetuah 2:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I have actually seen the allocations to the individual committees that have been put over here.
    Looking at the Ministry of Roads and Highways, the crucial role that the committee plays is very significant and the allocation over here, it is about GH¢130,000.00. Last year, Ministry of Roads and Highways played a crucial role with regard to the construction of roads. We had to put the contractors and the consultants on their toes to work assiduously to ensure that moneys that were allocated to such contractors were not wasted.
    Mr Speaker, last year, we only inspected some roads in the Brong Ahafo Region and this year, nothing has been done. How do we check them? For instance, in 2006, some of the roads were awarded for the Western Region. In 2006, that particular contract which was awarded between Manso Amenfi and Asankrangua, the whole road is now totally off. So I would want to plead with the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning to ensure that during the Budget review, they will consider the Committee on Roads and Transport so that they can actually inspect the roads, to put the contractors and even the Ministry workers on their toes.
    Thank you very much ,Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
    Mr Joseph B. Aidoo ( NPP - Amenfi East) 2:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am on my feet to support the Motion on the floor. But specifically, I am against the provision that has been made for the House Committee.
    Mr Speaker, last year, the House Committee was given GH¢125,000.00 and for the past two years, I think Members can testify, this particular Committee has never met. Mr Speaker, they have not presented any report to the House. Mr Speaker, now, they have been given GH¢120,000.00. Mr Speaker, I am wondering what this money is going to be used for. Mr Speaker - [Inter-ruptions] - Yes, because I am speaking against the House, that is why the lights have gone off.
    But Mr Speaker, honestly, if you look at this vote for the House Committee, personally, I believe that it is not meritorious and therefore, I will suggest that the House Committee's vote should be revised down. Maybe, they should be given just half of the amount for the coming year. Mr Speaker, once that is done, I will support the Motion, that is, the Report that has been presented. Otherwise, I will vote against this particular Report.
    Mr Clement K. Humado (NDC - Anlo) 2:15 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion on the floor.
    While I support the overall direction of the budget for Parliament, I am very surprised about the reduction in the budget for Committee on Poverty Reduction of which I am the Chairman.
    In 2010, which is the year just ending, we were allocated GH¢125,000.00 and for this year, we have had to undertake a number of activities that we thought were crucial both to the Committee and to the progress of Parliament. Our programme for next year has even been scaled up to include crucial activities such as the pre-budget workshops that we planned with the MDAs on pro-poor activities. We were therefore expecting that the budget would have been increased from
    GH¢125,000.00 upwards.
    But I am so shocked that it has rather been scaled down and I am at a loss know the basis of the reduction. It is my considered view that a second look be taken at this cut and the appropriate remedy be accorded to the Committee so that we would become very relevant in the affairs of the House.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon Member for Wenchi, in getting this appendix, did you talk to the Committee Chairmen and the Ranking Members to look at the programme that had been lined up before the cuts or the adjustments?
    Prof. Gyan-Baffour 2:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, on that score, I think I would yield to the Leadership.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Very well.
    Mr Justice J. Appiah (NPP - Ablekuma North) 2:25 p.m.
    I thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity to support the Motion on the floor.
    Mr Speaker, we have three arms of Government in this country - the Executive, headed by His Excellency Prof. John Evans Ata Mills; the Legislature headed by Mrs Joyce Bamford-Addo and the Her Ladyship Theodora Georgina Wood, for the Judiciary.
    Mr Justice J. Appiah (NPP - Ablekuma North) 2:25 p.m.


    Mr Speaker, the MPs are not well equipped at all. His Excellelncy the President promised us offices at our various constituencies but as I am speaking right now, it has not been fulfilled. Is that the “Better Ghana” agenda? [Interruption] - Mr Speaker, is that the “Better Ghana” agenda? The promises must stop in this country --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon Member, address the Motion. Since I came to this House, all the Presidents we have had, have promised Parliament an office - all the Presidents.
    Mr Appiah 2:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes, because it is a “Better Ghana” agenda, we were expecting a “Better Ghana” agenda.
    Mr Speaker, you are contributing to the debate.

    Mr Speaker, the Executive approves Bills through Cabinet and Parliament enacts them --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon Member, I say address the Motion; address the Motion.
    Mr Appiah 2:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, work has commenced on the rehabilitation of the “Job 600” to provide office for MPs. We do not have offices. This is very serious as it retards our progress. So Mr Speaker, are we waiting for next two years before this house is completed before we get offices? Mr Speaker, the MPs also need modern fitness centre as most of us do not exercise. This leads to serious diabetes, high blood pressure, elephan-tiasis and so
    on. [Interruption.] We need to exercise --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon Member, conclude.
    Mr Appiah 2:25 p.m.
    And malaria, Mr Speaker. [Laughter] -
    Mr Speaker, we the backbenchers and the new MPs should be encouraged to travel to these developed countries on exchange programmes. Overseas training and internship programmes for MPs, we should also be considered. [Hear! Hear!] For four years, we have been here and there is no training. Mr Speaker, we are asking Parliament to help us the “mmobrowas”, the first comers to also travel and see things -- [Interruption] - Yes, for programmes --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon Member, conclude. Your last sentence.
    Mr Appiah 2:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, looking through the Parliament “Better Service” agenda, there are very good English, for example, “Comprehensive Parliament Programmes,” so many good English -- But Mr Speaker, are we going to implement them?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon Member, conclude; I will cut you.
    Mr Appiah 2:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, one very serious case -
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Your last sentence.
    Mr Appiah 2:25 p.m.
    One very serious thing is that we do not have restaurants in Parliament -- no water to drink, nothing -- no tea, Mr Speaker. So I am urging the Leadership of Parliament to at least put up a modern restaurant for all the MPs. At times, we would be served with this fried rice and we do not have any place to sit and eat.
    Mr Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity and hereby support the allocation of the GH¢36,885,489.00 for Parliament.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:35 p.m.
    Hon Members, we have two more. The Hon Majority Leader and the Hon Minority Leader.
    Minority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-
    Mensah-Bonsu): Mr Speaker, just a few words --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:35 p.m.
    The
    Leadership, this your Appendix A that you did without consulting the Chairmen and the Ranking Members of the various committees, we may have to revisit it. I want you to address it.
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker,
    I will do so, presently.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:35 p.m.
    I am a
    Chairman of a committee, I am seeing my allocation for the first time.
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker,
    I will do so presently.
    Mr Speaker, you will recollect that in June and July, we asked the various committees' leadership to submit to us a programme of activities which will be costed. Only four committees submitted their programme of activities; the rest of them including, unfortunately, your own Committee did not --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:35 p.m.
    Hon
    Member, I have not received that communication. Continue.
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:35 p.m.
    Mr
    Speaker, we made this on the floor of the House, and Mr Speaker, by your
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, people have spoken about
    the allocation to the House Committee. People think that it is too weighted in favour of the House Committee. Many things are taken on the shoulders of the Business Committee.
    The House Committee has been appropriately functioned and in the years ahead, the House Committee, if it is resurrected and I believe the Hon Majority Leader is listening since he chairs the House Committee, there are many important issues that they have to respond to. And so, to urge them to respond to them, we did not want to have a situation when they will turn to Leadership and say that, “well, we did not have sufficient allocation and that is why we did not work.”
    There are many, many things that they have to work on, and that explains why that supplication has been made to them. There are a few areas though that we noticed that there were some mistakes, so, we have had some discussions with our Budget Officer and we are going to have a second look at those ones that we have seen affected by the mistakes that I am talking about.
    I may have to speak to the allocation to the various caucuses. I believe this House must come to some determination about allocations to caucuses. In many jurisdictions, the caucuses are allocated the same amount, that is for Majority or Minority.
    Here, we go by the strength of the caucuses and work by the ratio of the

    strength of the caucuses. There are yet some others where the Minority Caucaus is provided more funds than the Majority. The reason being that, because they are supported almost invariably by the ruling government, the opposition party or the caucus in opposition is provided more funds. That is why I said we should come to some determination.

    I am not faulting what has happened this year because all through, that is what we have been doing but we must come to some determination on this.

    Finally, I believe, as you rightly noted,

    the allocation to Parliament House suffered the same affliction as the allocation to the Judiciary and indeed, the Audit Service. As per the Constitution, the requests from these institutions are to go to the President directly. The President does not have any power to review them; if he has any comments, the comments will have to be sent to Parliament.

    Unfortunately, we in Parliament have not taken to this path of engaging the Presidency early enough. Normally, we wait until the shell of the Budget is constructed and then we approach the President. By which time, maybe, they may have determined already what the ceiling of the allocation to the various MDAs should be.

    So, we should take advantage of the new status that we now enjoy, to engage the Presidency early enough, I should think, latest by July. If we have to do that, it will then mean that the various committees ought to have submitted their own programmes earlier than July to enable the administration, the Clerk's Office and those officials under him to have sufficient engagement with Leadership in order for us to have what we have, what should otherwise come to Parliament.

    The fact that we have not been engaging them early enough explains one of the reasons for allocations to Parliament really being nothing to write home about. If we

    want to improve our lot, we should engage the Presidency early, earlier than we have always done.

    Mr Speaker, with this and subject to the

    observation that some of the allocations to some of the committees, we may have to have a relook at them, I support the Motion on the floor.
    Mr First Depty Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Thank you very much, Hon Minority Leader.
    Majority Leader (Mr Cletus A.
    Avoka): Mr Speaker, I am grateful to the Hon Minority Leader for the insight he has given into this budget, and to all those who have contributed to the Motion except some of the statements made by Hon Joe Appiah - [Laughter] - who has thrown punches and have escaped the House.
    Mr Speaker, democracy, they say, is expensive but people say that “if democracy is expensive, then you throw that away and try terrorism”. And I think that Parliament is a symbol of democracy. Parliament is a symbol of transparency, accountability and good governance.
    That is why in the absence of Parliament, that constitutes the repre- sentatives of the people in the country, it is difficult to talk about democracy. And we know that in this country, Parliament has suffered severally, in the sense that during the wake of those military interventions while the Executive and the Judiciary were functioning, Parliament was in abeyance and these are the challenges that we are facing us today.
    It is in this respect that we urge Government and particularly the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to take note of these shortfalls of this lingering effect on Parliament, that as a result of the truncation of Parliament over the years, we
    have not been able to develop along the lines of the Executive and the Judiciary. So therefore, we need a special attention to be able to catch up with the other organs of Government.
    Mr Speaker, if you look at the functions of Parliament, it is a service institution. We are to render service an and we have to ensure accountability. I think that you all agree with me that you cannot exercise an oversight responsibility over an institution that is better resourced than you. If you do not take time, it will let you fall in line, and falling in line means that you are vulnerable and therefore, you may not be able to perform your tasks.
    Yes, as a country, we have challenges but by our mandate, we have to reach out. We have to reach out to the regions; we have to reach out to the districts. We have a lot of challenges because people are not generally educated and well informed about the functions of Parliament.
    That is why there is a lot of pressure on Members of Parliament (MPs) to perform roles that they are not tasked to perform, to undertake responsibilities that they are not supposed to do and that is because of lack of information and lack of education. I think that if we are better resourced, if we are better taken care of, we will be able to embark on this mandate successfully and then bring Parliament to the doorsteps of the electorate so that they can appreciate the functions of Parliament.
    Mr Speaker, it is against this back- ground that I think Parliament must have a priority allocation. I recall that since July or August this year, we have had challenges getting releases from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning until very recently. So virtually, our work was grounding to a halt.
    I am happy to observe and to inform Colleagues that the Hon Minister for
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Have you
    started overcoming your challenges?
    Mr Avoka 2:45 p.m.
    Very much.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Any time
    Mr Dery 2:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I also want the
    Leader of the House to specify if this is a personal pledge or an institutional pledge. You know there are differences/
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    I believe that it is an appreciation of the difficulties that we have and that he made the commitment in an official capacity and not a personal capacity. Yes, it is an institutional pledge and I know. That is why the Hon Deputy Minister, Seth Terkpeh has kept faith with us all this time and he has been fighting for us morning, afternoon and evening in the Ministry and even here. So it is an institutional pledge that they are making.
    Mr Avoka 2:45 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I said despite these challenges, if you look at the Schedule attached, Annex ‘A', I have counted about 30 committees minus the Committee on Selection and the Special Ad hoc Committee. Now there are 30 of them minus those two committees.
    Mr Speaker, if you look at the allocation, I have counted 22 out of the 30 have allocations for 2011 more than 2010, that is, about 70 per cent have their allocations increased by a small margin between the 2010 and 2011 budgets. If we compare this to the other MDAs, you will realize that at least, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning is appreciating what I have just said, that we are a priority institution and ought to be treated as such.
    It is only about five committees whose figures have reduced slightly and then only two committees that have had the figure of last year and this year being the same. And this accounts for the explanation given by the Hon Minority Leader, that some of the committees that we had requested to submit their programmes of action, et cetera, were unable to do it.
    Notwithstanding that, four did it. But despite that, we tried to ensure that almost every committee had something extra to be able to do their work. I am gratified to note that the Public Accounts Committee has been doing good work for the image of this House and this country. So their budget has been increased from GH¢130,000 to GH¢2l0,000 and that is a great mark that I thought we should appreciate.
    So on the whole, even though there are challenges as a Government and as a country, I still want to insist that Parliament should be treated in such a way that we continue to be a symbol of democracy.
    I take note of the suggestion made by the Hon Minority Leader and your goodself earlier in the day, that we should engage the services of the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and His Excellency the President or the Presidency long before the Budget Estimates come here, so that we can reduce the margins that we have.
    On this note, I will want to thank Hon Members for the support they have given to this Motion. I know if we were to allow Hon Members to contribute to this, we
    can spend a whole day discussing the Parliamentary budget but it is better to take this and I hope that the supplementary budget that may come during the middle of next year, we may have reason to convince the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to enhance our budget Estimates.
    Thank you.
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:45 p.m.
    Mr
    Speaker, I think, as the Majority Leader has indicated, originally, if you look into the Budget Statement, the allocation that was made to Parliament was GH¢28 million.
    Now, we had some engagement with the Hon Minister and it was increased to GH¢34 and subsequently to GH¢36.
    Mr Speaker, the truth of the matter is that, last year, Parliament was allocated GH¢34 million and up to the third quarter ending, they had about exhausted it. So we are entering 2011 with arrears.
    Now if you give GH¢36 million as has been given, and you factor in inflation, you come to the realization that the figure that has been given to Parliament this year or next year is smaller than what was allocated this year, which bears the arrears.
    So Mr Speaker, Parliament made a request for GH¢48 million and when we engaged the Hon Minister, I think we extracted some understanding from him that certainly the remaining portion will be made available as we walk through 2011 and let us make that point strongly here. Mr Speaker, the Hon Deputy Minister must know we have had an understanding with the substantive Minister that the outstanding will be made available as we walk through 2011. We do not want to come cap in hand begging. He should as a matter of responsibility, take that one on board.
    However, he is going to get money -- we do not want to know but he providing us the GH¢48 million so that we will be able to bear the arrears and also walk through 2011 without any arrears. That is the point. It is not that he may when he gets there, give us. No. He shall and will provide the GH¢48 million.
    Mr Avoka 2:45 p.m.
    I just want to confirm the
    statement made by the Hon Minority Leader that if you look at the Budget Statement allocation there, it is GH¢28 million, much, much lower than the GH¢34million we got last year. We drew the attention of the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning to this. The two of us engaged him and he agreed to increase it and that is why we now have GH¢36 million. So it still falls short of the GH¢48 million that we had requested for. But he has made a firm promise and I think that is why we are emphasizing for the avoidance of doubt; he does not need notice; he is one of us.
    I am saying so because we can trust the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning because for some time now, he has kept faith with what he has told us. We have had our releases virtually up to October and extra and I think that he is doing very well. We should commend him and motivate him so that he can deliver.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Hon Members, that brings us to the end of the debate. I will now put the Question subject of course, to what the Hon Minority Leader said, that we should take a second look at the Committee's Report, Annex A, dealing with the allocations to the various committees.
    Question put and Motion agreed to.
    Resolved:
    That this Honourable House approves

    the sum of GH¢36,885,489.00 for the services of Parliament for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
    2.55 P.M. -- MR SECOND DEPUTY SPEAKER
    ANNUAL ESTIMATES 2:45 p.m.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Hon Members, any contributions? Hon Joe Ghartey is on my list but he is not here.
    Hon Deputy Minority Leader, Hon Joe Ghartey is on my list but he is not in the House.
    Any other contributions, if I may put the Question.
    Mr Ambrose P. Dery (NPP - Lawra/ Nandom) 5:30 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I support the Motion.
    Mr Speaker, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice is one of the very important constitutional institutions which is necessary within the system to ensure good governance.
    Mr Speaker, if you look at the Report of the Committee at page 2, item 4.1, where they talk of anti-corruption, which is one of the very important tenets of good governance, Ghana has signed all
    SPACE FOR TABLE - PAGE 5:30 p.m.
    SPACE FOR TABLE - PAGE 5:30 p.m.
    rose
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 5:30 p.m.
    Hon Member, I am afraid there is a list and I will have to go by it.
    Question put and Motion agreed to.
    Resolved:
    That this Honourable House approves the sum of GH¢8,777,644.00 for the services of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
    ANNUAL ESTIMATES 5:30 p.m.
    Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NPP - Manhyia) 3:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Motion for the approval of the Estimates for the Electoral Commission (EC) with a couple of reservations.
    Mr Speaker, it is becoming a perennial problem for Ministers for Finance and Economic Planning not to take into consideration and budgeting, Estimates for Electoral Commissions (EC) during election years. Mr Speaker, we have known that whatever the case be, this year, there should be a district local election and we know that in 2012, there should be a national election. So budgeting would mean that we plan ahead and allocate sums for those things that are statutory.
    Mr Speaker, observation 7.1 on the district level elections is nothing to write home about. The Committee should call

    the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning before allocations are made by the Ministry for the district level elections. The sums the Committee's Report, Mr Speaker, do not even add up. If you have GH¢33 million and you think it is going to be reduced by GH¢12 million, the outstanding is ¢21 million, not ¢22 million. So I think that adjustments should be made to some of these figures because one million is no small money.

    Mr Speaker, more importantly, on the electronic registration, in last year's budget, the Electoral Commission (EC) indicated that there were going to biometric registration. For budgetry purposes, at least, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning should have taken cognisance of that and the budgetary allocation made.

    Again, the Special Budget Committee under the able Leadership of the House, had to
    Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh (NPP - Manhyia) 3:15 p.m.


    call the Electoral Commissioner and the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning before a promise was extracted.

    Mr Speaker, without an election, where would our democracy be? [Inter- ruptions.] Yes, you might want us to conclude because you cannot advert your mind to what is going on in this House.

    Mr Speaker, GH¢80 million is no small money, not to have been captured or part of it captured in the Budget. Maybe, my Friends here do not want us to conduct the election; they might want us to go a “la Cote d'Ivoire”; but if you seriously are democrats, if your mandate in this House, you respect it yourself as a Member of Parliament, then the money should be found for the EC and it should be part of the Budget.

    Mr Second Deputy Speaker Order! Hon Members, he is within his five minutes. And it appears this is a deliberate attempt to stifle debate which you know I do not appreciate. Please, let there be order.
    Dr Prempeh 3:15 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I will urge the EC to call a donor conference for support in allocation of some of these funds for the EC to be able to undertake the biometric registration for the 2012 election to be conducted in peace.
    The National Identification Authority (NIA) has not got enough funds to even conclude the biometric registration on Ghanaians. So to leave it to chance, Mr Speaker, is to put into jeopardy the future of elections in this country. So we would entreat the EC to call a donor conference so that commitments can be extracted for funds to enable this registration and the technology we can all support be adopted to enable this thing to happen and happen smoothly.
    SPACE FOR TABLE - PAGE 3:15 p.m.
    Dr Ahmed Y. Alhassan (NDC - Mion) 3:25 p.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion on the floor.
    Mr Speaker, the EC, in my humble opinion, is a very important institution for our democracy. In particular, how well they do their work also has a bearing on our public safety and our national security in totality. So every effort must be made by all of us collectively to ensure that such an important organ of State is resourced to conduct its work without hindrance.
    Mr Speaker, my observation of the Electoral Commission's work over the years indicate that most of its activities are constituency-based and yet across the country, it is represented only at the district level. The situation gets more complicated during elections, in which case, districts that have more than one constituency bring up the situation where the constituency is subjected to, if you like, the order of the District Electoral Officer and yet these are constituencies that are supposed to be of equal standing when it comes to the rules of the State.
    So I think that it is time the Electoral Commission considered organising its front-line staff to coincide with the constituencies. If you look at the situation in Tamale for instance, where you have three big constituencies over 100,000 on electoral roll per constituency, trooping to one small station to have activities of his constituency constructed from that small outfit, it gets very complicated.
    In particular also for those of us who are coming from rural constituencies, communication, road infrastructure, et cetera are terrible, to the extent that even
    collating election results takes several days to complete. This gets terrible because of the fact that the rural communities have to be subjected to the district capital which may be far remote from the constituency because of the way the infrastructure is organised.
    So I think that this House may have to consider amending the Act that established the Electoral Commission so that they can have permanent offices at the constituency level and have their independence to conduct elections at the constituency level.
    It may be argued that during elections, there are returning officers who conduct business on behalf of the District Officers, yet they still have a difficulty there because in spite of the staff that they have, they are still subjected to the direction of the District Officers and that may have implications on the safety of our electoral process.
    So I think my humble suggestion is that the Electoral Commission should try the best they can to reorganize itself such that they can be represented at the constituency level. The current arran- gement is making the situation a bit complicated.
    I thank you so much, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Ambrose P. Dery (NPP -- Lawra/ Nandom) 3:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Motion.
    Mr Speaker, two days ago, when we had our first oil, we had His Excellency the President and two former Presidents at the same function. Just across the border in la Cote d'Ivoire, we have a situation where the obvious winner Alassane Ouattara has not been given room to take over because the loser is not accepting defeat.
    Mr Speaker, Ghana is seen as a beacon of democracy in Africa, and one of the things is the role that is played by the Electoral Commission. That is why on the 0.5 per cent election difference in results, we are seen as having set a record, not just in Africa but in the world, and that contributed to President Barrack Obama
    coming here.
    Mr Speaker, we should not be deceived into thinking that we have already arrived. We should do all the things that would let us consolidate the confidence that the Electoral Commission has gained in this country. And one of the things that we need to do is to ensure that we have electronic registration. That is very, very vital for the confidence of the results that we would have in 2012.
    I think that the Government must demonstrate commitment to this. If you look at page 4, the Report clearly shows that that commitment that we expect from the Government, which himself has benefited from the confidence that Ghanaians have in the Electoral Commission is not obvious.
    Mr Speaker, I think that if we are talking about the registration to begin in March, 2011 and in December, 2010 we do not have a provision and all we have is an assurance from the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, my humble opinion is that it is not good at all. My Brother on the other side of the House said they should call a donors conference. Yes, but we ourselves must realise that the most important thing is to have peace and stability which can only be built on good governance.
    Mr Speaker, on 21st July, 2010, we ratified the African Chapter on Democracy and Governance, which emphasises the importance of free and fair elections and I think that this electronic voter registration is an indispensable part of that sort of system and that it is a shame that as I speak, we have not had the budget.
    This House must insist that the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning comes back to Parliament
    immediately we reconvene, to make good his promise before us. Not that we just take it as an assurance, I am not sure that the Assurances Committee will be able to follow that one.
    Mr Speaker, clearly also, office accommodation in the various districts, we are told by the Report at page 5 that they are in rented premises. We have chosen multiparty democracy for good; it is not a temporary system, so we must show that permanence of the system by ensuring that we invest in the accommodation for Electoral Commission at the district level and even as has been proposed, to make sure we have an effective presence in all the consti- tuencies.
    Mr Speaker, I think it is something that we cannot compromise on. In my opinion, I think this Commission has distinguished itself and we can only ensure that it continues to perform if we invest in it sufficiently, which is not shown by what has happened.
    The GH¢80 million must be got and in January, 2011, when we come back, I think the Hon Minister for Finance and Economic Planning should come and give us the assurance.
    With these few words, I support the Motion.
    Alhaji Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo (NDC - Wa Central) 3:25 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, it is important to note that in democracy, the most critical aspect of it is to develop strong insti-tutions, and for us, there is evidence to the fact that the Electoral Commission is one of the institutions that we can rely on. This is because it has demonstrated strength, commitment and ability to reflect its functions and role as a body that is responsible for conducting elections in this country and indeed, also declaring election results at a point when people were afraid that they would waver in doing what they did.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Thank you very much.
    Hon. Majority Leader, any difficulty?
    Mr Avoka 3:35 p.m.
    No, as the de jure Chairman of the Committee, I just wanted to inform Colleagues that with regard to the district level elections that are coming on on the 28th of December, there is no hitch again; everything is set and the elections are coming on on 28th of December, 2010; and that one is with regard to 2010 Budget and not 2011 Budget that we are debating now. The district level elections for 28th December, 2010 is in relation to the 2010 Budget. So there is no hitch about it; it is on course and it would come on.
    Then with regard to the electronic e-registration that we are going to have
    during the first quarter of next year, my Colleague the Minority Leader and myself met the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and the Committee, in fact and there is a firm undertaking that come what may, the electronic registration exercise would commence and that is going to be the type of identity cards that we would use for the 2012 elections.
    So I want to take this opportunity to assure Hon Colleagues that it is an important agenda of Government and of the country and irrespective of the provisions of the Budget, it would be taken care of.
    Question put and Motion agreed to.
    Resolved:
    That this Honourable House approves the sum of GH¢25,- 399,946.00 for the services of the Electoral Commission for the year ending 31st December, 2011.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    It is time to close but just in case there is any serious announcement, Leadership may do so.
    Mr Avoka 3:35 p.m.
    I thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, I think we have done very well. Today is Friday. Under normal circumstances, by mid-day or thereabout, we would have adjourned proceedings to enable Members do constituency work. But the time is now reading 3.40 p.m., almost 4.00 p.m. and I think that is a feather in the cap of Hon Members that when the task is great, we are equal to it. We want to thank them.
    Then by way of House announcement, we wish to meet your respective Chief Whips. Monday is a Sitting day and we would continue with the debate on the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill, 2010. We hope that if we are able to work into the night of Monday and then Tuesday, we might conclude that Bill and also pass the Appropriation Bill. Then hopefully, rise on Wednesday, 22nd of December, 2010.
    Let me once again, thank Hon Members and wish everybody a happy weekend.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Hon Minority Leader, anything to say?
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 3:35 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I have nothing useful to add.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Thank you very much.
    In the circumstances, the House would stand adjourned till Monday, 20th of December, 2010 at 10.00 a.m.
    ADJOURNMENT 3:35 p.m.