Debates of 1 Nov 2018

MR SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:05 a.m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:05 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:05 a.m.
Hon Members, correction of the Votes and Proceedings of Wednesday, 31st October, 2018.
Page 1…9 --
rose
Mr Speaker 10:05 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Iddrisu 10:05 a.m.
Mr Speaker, on page 9, item numbered 6, concerning the Statement I made on the murder of Mr Jamal Khashoggi, I have realised that the name, “Khashoggi” is not spelt correctly. It should be spelt “K-h-a-s-h-o-g-g-i”.
Mr Speaker, again, the heading of my Statement should have read 10:05 a.m.
“The Horrendous Murder of Journalist Mr Jamal Khashoggi”.
The Table Office may therefore correct that because we cannot afford to spell the name “Khashoggi” wrongly.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker 10:05 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Member.
Page 9…17 --

Hon Members, in the absence of any further corrections, the Votes and Proceedings of Wednesday, 31st October, 2018, as corrected is hereby admitted as the true record of proceedings.

Hon Members, before we come to Question time, I would want to take the opportunity to, particularly, welcome all those National Service personnel and other personnel who have been assigned duty in the Chamber. I would want to remind them that to work in the Chamber is an exceptional privilege.

Normally, apart from Hon Members of Parliament and those specifically allowed to be here, all other persons are considered strangers. So if you have that privelege of a stranger well admitted into the Chamber on a near permanent basis, then you must be mindful of the responsibility on you.

You must be silent; there should be no clapping in Parliament and also there should be no giggling. In short, you should act with absolute dignity.

Sometimes, I hear certain things on my left-hand side, so please, you should not compel me to take one or two steps.

Thank you very much.

Hon Members, item listed 3 -- Questions.

Hon Members, I am advised that the Question starred 388, by mutual consent, is to be rescheduled. We would therefore move on to Question starred 446, which stands in the name of the Hon Quashigah, to the Hon Minister for Education.

The Hon Minister for Education may take the appropriate seat.
rose
Mr Speaker 10:05 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 10:05 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Quashigah is not available in the Chamber, and he has not authorised any Hon Member to ask the Question on his behalf. So we can proceed.
Mr Speaker 10:05 a.m.
I would advise that sometimes Leaders must know these things in advance and seek appropriate authorisation. The Hon Deputy Minister has come purposely for this and so the appropriate calls should be made, so that by the time we have dealt with other Questions, someone is authorised.
Otherwise, I would rule on that particular Question.
So in effect, we would stand it down and move to Question starred 458, which stands in the name of the Hon Member for Abirem; it also goes to the Hon Minister for Education.
Mr John Frimpong Osei 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to --
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon Member, kindly wait. The Hon Minister has not taken the appropriate seat. [Interruption.]
Hon Deputy Minister, you cannot take the seat yet; permission would have to be sought for you. So if you could move a step back -- When that permission is granted, then we would see how we would go about it.
Hon Kwasi Ameyaw-Cheremeh -- rose --
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon Majority Chief Whip, I can see you on your feet.
Mr Ameyaw-Cheremeh 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Mr Speaker, we have had some consultations. We had information that the Hon Minister for Education would not be able to attend upon the House.
Yesterday in the evening, Leadership on both Sides of the House consulted and agreed that the Hon Deputy Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, should answer the Questions on behalf of the Hon Minister. There is a consensus to that.
Mr Iddrisu 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, rightly so. Hon Ameyaw-Cheremeh is right that yesterday -- that probably explains the matter to which you have given your guidance. A Clerk-at-the-Table reached out to me late in the evening that the Hon Minister for Education may not be available and so he urged us to accommodate the Hon Deputy Minister.
So we made efforts to reach the affected person. Indeed, I even asked the Table Office to try, as I had a difficulty, to see if they could contact him. So there is no objection; the Hon Deputy Minister could respond on behalf of the Hon Minister.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Thank you very much.
I am pleased with the process of consultation, so that things can move smoothly without acrimony in the Chamber.
Hon Deputy Minister, you may please assume the seat.
Hon Member for Abirem, please, your Question.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon Member, any further questions?
Mr J. F. Osei 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would make do with this Answer for now.
Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Are you fully satisfied?
Mr J.F. Osei 10:15 a.m.
Yes, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Question starred 466, which stands in the name of the Hon Member for Amenfi West.
Asankragua SHS Dinning Hall Complex Project
(Completion)
466. Mr Eric Afful asked the Minister for Education what plans the Ministry has to complete the dinning hall complex project which was started in 1974 at the Asankragua Senior High School.
Dr Adutwum 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the construction of the Dining Hall Complex at Asankragua Senior High School in the Wassa Amenfi West District of the Western Region was started as a Public Investment Project (PIP) with funding from the Ministry of Finance. It was later off- loaded to the GETFund for early completion.
The contract was re-packaged and re- awarded at a contract sum of GH¢ 570,274.10 to Messrs Crisspan Company Limited in May, 2013 for early completion. The percentage of work done to date currently stands at 75 per cent.
Mr Speaker, the Ministry is however, engaging the Consultant and Contractor for the early completion of all outstanding works on the project by end of the year
2018.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon Member, do you have a follow-up question?
Mr Eric Afful 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I have listened carefully to the Answer by the Hon Deputy Minister.
I would also want to know from the Hon Deputy Minister -- what factors accounted for the delay in the completion of the project, which has dragged for 44 years and we are now in the year 2018?
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Do you mean what has delayed the project since the year 1974?
Mr Eric Afful 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, exactly so.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Do you want the whole history? [Laughter.]
Hon Minister, if you would give us a historical perspective --
Dr Adutwum 10:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is asking what happened for the project to delay up till this point.
Mr Speaker, we all know that delays are occasioned by a variety of factors. What I can tell you is that the project completion stands at 75 per cent, and
arrangements have been made for the project to be completed by the end of the year. That is the assurance I can give to the Hon Member regarding this project.
Mr Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Hon Member, any other questions?
Mr E. Afful 10:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am very happy the Hon Deputy Minister has assured the good people of Amenfi West Constituency and the school that all the outstanding works would be completed by the end of 2018.
I would want to remind him that the contractor is not on site. Therefore what arrangements have been made for the contractor to complete the project within 60 days to come?
Dr Adutwum 10:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am very appreciative of the fact that my Brother has been visiting the site and he has come to know that the contractor is not on site. Having received this information from him, I would be going to the office and to act on it immediately.
Mr Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Question starred 467, stands in the name of the Hon Member for Krachi Nchumuru.
Completion of GETFund Projects in Krachi Nchumuru District
467. Mr John Majisi asked the Minister for Education when work would resume and be completed on the following GETFund projects in the Krachi Nchumuru District:
i. 3-Unit Classroom Block at Banda;
ii. 3-Unit Classroom Block at Dindor.
Mr Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Question starred 467, stands in the name of the Hon Member for Krachi Nchumuru.
Completion of GETFund Projects in Krachi Nchumuru District
467. Mr John Majisi asked the Minister for Education when work would resume and be completed on the following GETFund projects in the Krachi Nchumuru District:
i. 3-Unit Classroom Block at Banda;
ii. 3-Unit Classroom Block at Dindor.

mentioned projects are GETFund initiated projects being supervised by Messrs

PPMC.

The details of the projects are as follows:

The 3-Unit Classroom Block at Banda

The project was started in December, 2015 at a Contract Sum of GH¢185,353.08 by Messrs Johnway Construction and Trading Enterprise for completion in 6- Calendar months. Works done so far is about 45 per cent.

The 3-Unit Classroom Block at Dindor

The 3-Unit Classroom Block at Dindor is part of the several emergency projects approved for needy schools and Communities across the country in 2015. The MMDA's were to ensure the successful award and supervision of these emergency projects.

The 3-Unit Classroom Block at Dindor in the Krachi Nchumuru District of the Volta Region was approved and subsequently awarded by the Assembly in 2015 but the Contractor has not reported to site till date.

Mr Speaker, I must admit that these projects have been delayed. This has mainly been caused by the contractors. The consultant and the Assembly had directed the contractors to move back to site in June this year, but they failed to comply.

Nevertheless, the consultant has issued all the warning letters to the contractors paving the way for the possible termination of the contracts and re-award for early completion.
Mr Majisi 10:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I have a very serious problem with regard to accommodation facility for Krachi Nchumuru.
Luckily, in 2015 and 2016, about nine GETFund projects were awarded. As I stand here, not even a single project has been completed. The explanation from the contractors is that they have not been paid. I wonder whether the contractors are actually paid or not. If they are not paid, I would like to use this Floor to appeal to the Hon Deputy Minister --
A couple of months ago, there were some information on social media, Facebook --
Mr Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Hon Member, do not make a speech; ask a question.
Mr Majisi 10:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, when would the contractors be paid?
Mr Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minister, how would they be paid? Would they be paid with cedis, dollars or in kind?
Dr Adutwum 10:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to bring to the attention of my Hon Colleague that I would go back to the office and look at what he brought up and make sure I have further details, and if he comes to the office, I will share that with him.
At this point, I do not have the information and I would not stand here and tell him whether payment has been made or not.
Mr Majisi 10:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I just hope that he makes a follow up with regard to the payment.
Mr Speaker 10:25 a.m.
You can follow your Hon Colleague to the Ministry after Sitting and enquire about the details of some of these things.
We would move back to Question starred 446, which stands in the name of Hon Quashigah, which was duly stood down. Hon Deputy Minority Whip, are you in a position to tell us something?
Mr A. Ibrahim 10:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, as I said, all efforts to reach him has proved futile. So I am unable to locate his whereabouts and since nobody has authorisation, Mr Speaker, you may use your discretion.
Mr Speaker 10:25 a.m.
With regard to that Question, it has been truncated.
Hon Deputy Minister, thank you very much for attending to the House and answering our Questions.
Item listed 4 -- Statements.
There is a Statement which stands in the name of Hon Dr Kojo Appiah-Kubi, Hon Member for Atwima Kwanwoma, on economic growth, poverty and inequality in Ghana.
STATEMENTS 10:35 a.m.
Dr Kojo Appiah-Kubi (NPP -- Atwima Kwanwoma) 10:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the economy of Ghana has experienced remarkable progress over the last quarter of the century. The growth of annual production of goods and services, that is GDP, has not only been above the African average; the rate has increased successively from an average of 5.5 per cent in 2000-2009 to about 7.5 per cent in 2010-2018.
The country is set to become Africa's fastest-growing economy in 2018. It has
also discovered oil in commercial quantities, allowing it to rake in a windfall revenue of about US$4 billion over the last six years from oil and gas alone, and this has fostered higher investments in infrastructure and social services.
Mr Speaker, Ghana's recent rapid economic growth has accelerated poverty reduction, by halving the poverty rate of the country and the proportion of the population who do not have enough to eat for the day over the last quarter century.
Consequently, the country has become the first Sub Saharan African nation to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1 target of halving poverty by
2015.
The economic boom has also boosted social investments which have subse- quently contributed to more than 50 per cent reduction in the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water, and helped to achieve other MDG targets related to universal primary education and gender parity in primary schools.
Similar evidence of tremendous progress on United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Multidimensional Poverty Assessment across several indicators include health (child mortality, nutrition), education (years of schooling, enrolment), and living standards (water, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, floor).
The improvement in the Human Development Index from 0.455 in 1990 to 0.592 in 2017 (Ghana Statistical Service, 2018) bears testimony to the benefits of economic boom.
Yes, Mr Speaker, as a result of the recent economic boom, less Ghanaians go to bed hungry. It is also an undeniable fact that the economic boom has helped the country to attain a middle income status.
Mr Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Member, for this very well researched Statement; the kind of Statement which enriches the Hansard and makes it a source for research for other people.
rose
Mr Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Dr Mrs Bernice Adiku Heloo (NDC -- Hohoe) 10:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would like to congratulate the Hon Member who made the Statement for bringing to the fore this well researched document for our consideration this morning.
Mr Speaker, to contribute to the Statement, I would want to say that poverty is a syndrome of inequalities that exist in education, health, employment and other indices. It is therefore important that, as we continue to analyse the issues that lead to poverty, we should consider a gendered approach which would let us understand how women are faring with regard to education, health, employment and income generation.
Mr Speaker, we would all agree that as we analyse this data, it is always seen that women remain at the bottom. We therefore need an analysis from a gendered approach which would help us raise the status of women from the poor levels of literacy, employment and economic under development that plague them.
Mr Speaker, I would want to urge that while we consider this, we should look at gender which is important. In gender analysis, we would get to the bottom of the problem and also raise the status of women .
Once a woman's income is raised, the vicious cycle of poverty might be
addressed. This is because a woman who is educated and has a good income would use the income to support children.
So if we would want the realistic approach to eradicate poverty, then I propose that we look at the gendered approach so that we could raise the status of women from poverty and under employment. When they are well off, our children would also be well off and we might one day break this cycle of poverty.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity
Mr Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Hon Member, thank you very much for your contribution.
Yes, Hon Dr Afriyie?
Dr Kwaku Afriyie (NPP -- Sefwi Wiawso) 10:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to commend the Hon Member who made the Statement for bringing to the attention of this august House such a very important issue.
Mr Speaker, as a rural dweller, I happen to share similar ideas and conclusions with the Hon Member who made the Statement that rural poverty is the bane of Ghana's development. I have seen it in several sectors like health, cocoa and agriculture in general.
Mr Speaker, 25 years ago, about 15 to 20 per cent of the value of a bar of chocolate a person ate, went to the farmer directly. But today, that value is less than 5 per cent. So it goes empirically to buttress the fact that rural poverty is deepening and that is why cocoa, for example, is no longer a crop of the middle class, but it is always associated with poverty. We continue calling ourselves the ‘‘poor cocoa farmer''.
Mr Speaker, when I went to school in St Augustine's College, my father was a cocoa farmer and I was known to be a rich cocoa farmer's son. Gradually, we have witnessed a decline in rural incomes. This has come about because there is also another factor which runs in this country -- it is because our economy is largely a public-sector led one.
Those who have the economic muscle have encumbered all that is good to themselves and this has to do with people who live in the urban sectors.
Mr Speaker, I would want to advocate that this House takes a critical look at government policy. There should be a bi- partisan unit which would analyse all Fiscal and economic policies and give an independent view to government wherever and however they are constituted so that its implication on the rural people would be known to the government.
Mr Speaker, with those of us who are resident in the rural areas, the government must make a very conscious effort to deepen decentralisation, and in this wise, include financial decentralisation. I would want to advocate that the people in the rural settings must have the lion's share of Ghana's development now. This is because it is very unfortunate that we talk about these issues and apparently do nothing about it.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I would want to commend the Hon Member who made the Statement and invite same so that those of us who have not been trained in the economic realm can learn a lot.
Mr Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Member.
Hon Rashid Pelpuo?
Alhaji (Dr) Abdul-Rashid Hassan Pelpuo (NDC -- Wa Central) 10:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this very important Statement.
Mr Speaker, the definition of poverty is very fluid. In 2002, I was amongst a group of people sent by the United Nations to go to the Northern Region to find out exactly what poverty meant. We went to the three northern regions and realised that areas that were demarcated as poverty areas were redefined in the end.
The people themselves told us what they thought was poverty and the imagination was that if one finds someone who finds it difficult to have a daily means like a house or a vehicle to live in and to be able to send his or her children to school, it means the person is poor.
Mr Speaker, what we found out largely was that people were poor because they did not know what to do with what they had. The wealth they had at their disposal was not used the way it should have been used, so they could have 20 cows in the house but still say they do not have money to pay their children's school fees.
They could have a 100 cattle, but they would not buy a car. They could have 200 cows but they would not build a house of modern standard. So the definition had a problem.
Mr Speaker, this brings us to the question of the kind of education we have in this country.
It is not just about the fact that somebody is educated through the formal system, it is also about what is presented to the ordinary person as valuable to his or her life and it is important that we move
Alhaji (Dr) Abdul-Rashid Hassan Pelpuo (NDC -- Wa Central) 10:55 a.m.
away from just the formal system to the informal system and help people to understand their environment and how that environment can be utilised to help them.

Mr Speaker, the Hon Member who made the Statement has alluded to the point where the nation got to a point where it experienced some development boom in this country, and yet the poverty figures were reducing only as an average. But in specific terms, poverty was still rising in some places.

And it was not until quite recently in the Northern region that we had some reduction in poverty that brought it from 53 per cent to 50 per cent. In the two other Northern regions, it is still the same; poverty is about 70 per cent and 80 per cent.

Mr Speaker, there is also a problem about how we correlate our national averages in developments. For example, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Growth to how it affects the lives of people directly. The presentation just tells us that there is a problem about that correlation.

There is a problem about how we can utilise the advantage we have in our development strides. We grew up to the point of 14 per cent and 10 per cent in this country. Now, we estimated that we are going to grow at 9 per cent, even though the World Bank has said that that 9 per cent growth is not feasible and that we would come back to 6 per cent.

Mr Speaker, how can we harness this growth to affect the lives of people? Inequality and lack of education are still challenges in this country. Poor creation

of jobs, stimulation of the private sector to create jobs is still a problem. It is more a problem and compounded in the northern part of Ghana.

Mr Speaker, we cannot run a country where one sector or segment of society is continually poor and then figures branded about, utilised to go and get grants and does not affect the lives of the people who are creating the problem of lack of growth.

I would want to call on the government to redefine what our development policy is. It is not just about seeing that the GDP is growing. It is more than that. It is not about the fact that we are controlling the fundamentals or that we are narrowing the fiscal space. What we do with it is the question. We are not doing enough with it.

We are not utilising it to the point that it would affect the lives of people, we are not hammering on areas where poverty is really burning us. And this is a problem. If we cannot address the challenge of the three Northern regions, we would always have poverty figures rising in this country.

This is because, as we bring down the poverty figures in Greater Accra, Ashanti, Western, and Eastern regions, et cetera, we are going to have a skewed growth and that is going to affect the national average. That is why it is important that there must be a development policy. We must define a development policy across party divide.

There must be an approach which should tell us that all of us are looking at specific areas and we burry ourselves in it, work towards it and ensure that certain benchmarks are met, so that if we narrow our efforts in creating a situation where we reduce poverty in the three Northern regions, it would grow to affect the totality of the country.

That is why I feel that the duplication of the development commissions and agencies would not make meanings because it does appear that we are saying that, well, if we say the North is poor, then all of us are poor.

Let us have another one in Central Region, Brong Ahafo Region et cetera. It has diluted the fact that we had earlier thought that there was the need to close the gap that was deliberately opened by the colonial regime, and which is persistently showing up and widening with time.

So it is important that we understand the real challenges of poverty and how we can tackle them. Let us have a consensus, a conversation around it, a committed approach, so that everybody would see it as Ghanaian approach and not a party approach.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.
Dr Bernard Okoe Boye (NPP — Ledzokuku) 10:55 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am most grateful for the opportunity. I would like to start by commending the Hon Member who made the Statement and for bringing our attention to the issue of poverty, and particularly, urban poverty.
Mr Speaker, according to the World Bank Growth as at 2013, 12.2 per cent of the population of Accra remained unemployed, and we are talking about 140,000 plus individuals and apparently, this is a key contributor to urban poverty in Accra.
Mr Speaker, poverty is the worst form of violence one can encounter, and this is true if one has been there. The gentleman or lady who lives below the poverty line
has issues with proper shelter and this contributes to poor health.
Quality of food and water is poor when one finds himself or herself below the poverty line. So poverty itself is an indicator for very poor health outcomes. In fact, poverty with poor health is a vicious cycle. This is because when a person is not healthy as a result of poverty, his or her poverty only gets entrenched.
Mr Speaker, to start the war on poverty or liberate people from poor conditions, we have to have proper data on what the situation really is. More often than not, when we talk about poverty, we think of the three Northern regions.
But my experience in certain areas in Accra shows that poverty is very real right in the capital. And since I am the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ledzokuku, it is quite refreshing to mention that there are many areas where one sees economic activity and people living very good lives, but when one gets closer to the coastal communities, basic infrastructure like toilet facilities are a very big challenge.
Mr Speaker, as a country, there are two ways to go about handling poverty. We can have social programmes which are general, like the National Health Insurance, the Free SHS, Capitation Grant, making sure that Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) is accessible to as many people as possible, making sure caterers or the programme is expanded. All these are programmes that nationally try to get a hold on poverty.
Individually, we have to create an even platform so that all people can take advantage of economic success in this country.
Mr Speaker 11:05 a.m.
We would take the last two comments from the Floor before we go to the Leaders.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Isaac Adongo (NDC -- Bolgatanga Central) 11:05 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I rise to contribute to the Statement ably made by my Hon Colleague on Economic Growth, Poverty and Inequality.
Mr Speaker, it is quite clear that the major task of any government is to ensure that there is inclusive growth. By inclusive growth, we are looking at growth that propels and ensures that the majority of Ghanaians contribute and are therefore able to earn sustainable livelihood in order
to contribute meaningfully to the development of the country.
Unfortunately, over the years, our economic paradigm as a country, even though has tended to try and improve economic growth, we have tended to have lopsided economic growth as my Hon Colleague has indicated.
Hon Mr Speaker, you would recall that in those very difficult years of the 1980s when the budget of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) at that time had to go to the details of even identifying the prices of milk and bread -- that was how severe poverty was at the time.
Mr Speaker would recall that in those days we had to take a conscious effort to introduce an economic recovery programme that was aimed at improving the economic outcomes for the people of Ghana. We do recall that at that time, structural adjustment programmes and Programme of Action to Mitigate Social Costs of Adjustment (Ghana)(PAMS- CAD) were the key drivers of the economic activity.
It was all meant to ensure that over a number of years, we were not only going to improve infrastructure but that economic outcomes would have improved the lives of the people.
Mr Speaker, unfortunately, this was not to be. By the year 2001, when the people of Ghana adopted the Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) initiative, through the Poverty Reduction Strategy (I), the main focus was to reduce poverty, then led by H.E. President Kufour.
I do recall that poverty reduction became so pronounced in this country
that the effort at that time was to identify the challenges that we had with infrastructure and for social services and to try and improve them.
Mr Speaker, by the year 2008, we had then began the Poverty Reduction Strategy II. Again, the effort was to accelerate the pace of reducing poverty and when H.E. Prof. Mills took over office, the people of Ghana had identified that even though our economic paradigm had improved the economic outcome in terms of growth, we still realised that majority of Ghanaians had not benefited from that growth.
Therefore Ghana decided to adopt a new economic development paradigm which focused on Ghana's Shared Growth and Development Agenda. The focus was basically to ensure that the growth that we achieved was even, equitable and that it was shared and that majority of Ghanaians contributed to the economic development of our country.
Mr Speaker, we have implemented the Shared Growth and Development Agenda 1; we have implemented the Shared Growth and Development Agenda 2 but unfortunately, we still do not have that shared growth that the people of Ghana badly need in order to pull the majority of our people out of poverty.
Therefore in the year 2013 when Mr John Dramani Mahama became President of Ghana, the focus was to identify opportunities that existed in governance and fiscal policy to try and redirect the government's policy towards accelerating the pace of shared equity and economic growth.
Mr Speaker, you would recall that the then Ministry of Women and Children's Affairs was realigned to become the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Protection.
Mr Speaker 11:05 a.m.
Order! Please, let us minimise the background sound as we have very good analyses in progress.
Mr I. Adongo 11:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, when unemployment on its own becomes a beneficiary of social intervention, then the country is heading towards doom. This is because any human capital that is properly developed is expected to be utilised to develop the country further.
Unfortunately, it has become so difficult for us as a country to provide our children with employment and better jobs. We are now resorting to social intervention to address what is supposed to be a major economic tool for national development.
I believe that this failure has to be addressed on long term by looking at fiscal monitoring and economic policies
that would bring about opportunities for our children to be gainfully employed to contribute to reducing poverty and to be able to deal with the dependency of those that are expected to come out of the chain on them.
Mr Speaker, social intervention as a means of addressing unemployment does not even allow the employed to be fed let alone to have any dependency from anybody. I do believe that that is a mark of failure and a major risk to our ability to ensure inclusiveness and growth that is enhancing enough.
Mr Speaker, another challenge that we have is the fact that we are beginning to have one of the pillars of ensuring inclusive growth and development which is the business environment beginning to get threatened. Business men continue to grow and complain every day because they are struggling to keep their businesses.
As a result, they cannot expand enough in order to provide you and me the comfort that we deserve, let alone to get us out of poverty. That is a major threat to social and economic inclusion.
Mr Speaker, a major challenge that is beginning to threaten our quest for inclusive growth and development today is poor natural resource governance. We do have a lot of deposits of gold and other minerals but unfortunately, we only control about five per cent of the gold and bauxite deposits that we mine in this country.
What that means is that, 95 per cent of those resources are not available to government in order for redistribution and to invest in critical areas that will empower the poor and bring us out of vulnerability and to improved development.
Mr Speaker, there are major declining opportunities in rural communities for our poor farmers.

As we speak today, many farmers are beginning to have many challenges because they are growing very old and as they grow old, you would ordinarily expect their children to take over the farms but the children of today will only want to go to the farms if they could be empowered with modernisation of agriculture and not with the cut and bend and slash approach that we use.

Mr Speaker, so very soon, the challenge we are going to have is that our ageing farmers will give way and we will probably not have replacements on our farms. This will begin to create a major dislocation in our rural communities.

I do believe that this is a major national topic and it requires a much broader consultation and stakeholder engagement in order to fashion for this country, a long term vision that addresses all the challenges that we have had with the various governments and economic paradigms to be able to synthesise one vision and policy framework that all political parties will buy into and which will inform our policy going forward.

Mr Speaker, just as my Hon Colleagues have said, the various elements of poverty across the country are harrowing and as a matter of fact, I thank the Hon Member who made this Statement for bringing back to the national discourse, the issue of identifying ways to support the poor and vulnerable.

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity.

very much for this brilliant contribution. Leadership?
Mr I. Adongo 11:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, when unemployment on its own becomes a beneficiary of social intervention, then the country is heading towards doom. This is because any human capital that is properly developed is expected to be utilised to develop the country further.
Unfortunately, it has become so difficult for us as a country to provide our children with employment and better jobs. We are now resorting to social intervention to address what is supposed to be a major economic tool for national development.
I believe that this failure has to be addressed on long term by looking at fiscal monitoring and economic policies
that would bring about opportunities for our children to be gainfully employed to contribute to reducing poverty and to be able to deal with the dependency of those that are expected to come out of the chain on them.
Mr Speaker, social intervention as a means of addressing unemployment does not even allow the employed to be fed let alone to have any dependency from anybody. I do believe that that is a mark of failure and a major risk to our ability to ensure inclusiveness and growth that is enhancing enough.
Mr Speaker, another challenge that we have is the fact that we are beginning to have one of the pillars of ensuring inclusive growth and development which is the business environment beginning to get threatened. Business men continue to grow and complain every day because they are struggling to keep their businesses.
As a result, they cannot expand enough in order to provide you and me the comfort that we deserve, let alone to get us out of poverty. That is a major threat to social and economic inclusion.
Mr Speaker, a major challenge that is beginning to threaten our quest for inclusive growth and development today is poor natural resource governance. We do have a lot of deposits of gold and other minerals but unfortunately, we only control about five per cent of the gold and bauxite deposits that we mine in this country.
What that means is that, 95 per cent of those resources are not available to government in order for redistribution and to invest in critical areas that will empower the poor and bring us out of vulnerability and to improved development.
Mr Speaker, there are major declining opportunities in rural communities for our poor farmers.

As we speak today, many farmers are beginning to have many challenges because they are growing very old and as they grow old, you would ordinarily expect their children to take over the farms but the children of today will only want to go to the farms if they could be empowered with modernisation of agriculture and not with the cut and bend and slash approach that we use.

Mr Speaker, so very soon, the challenge we are going to have is that our ageing farmers will give way and we will probably not have replacements on our farms. This will begin to create a major dislocation in our rural communities.

I do believe that this is a major national topic and it requires a much broader consultation and stakeholder engagement in order to fashion for this country, a long term vision that addresses all the challenges that we have had with the various governments and economic paradigms to be able to synthesise one vision and policy framework that all political parties will buy into and which will inform our policy going forward.

Mr Speaker, just as my Hon Colleagues have said, the various elements of poverty across the country are harrowing and as a matter of fact, I thank the Hon Member who made this Statement for bringing back to the national discourse, the issue of identifying ways to support the poor and vulnerable.

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim (NDC -- Banda) 11:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to make few comments on the Statement ably made by my good friend; Hon (Dr) Kojo Appiah- Kubi.
Mr Speaker, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots in Ghana or the rich and the poor is very alarming and therefore it is very good that our Hon Colleague has drawn our attention to this.
As a country, that does not mean that we have not made significant progress. I may be very young but comparing now and then, clearly, one can say that certain social amenities and essential commodities are now available and accessible for even the ordinary Ghanaian.
Mr Speaker, that was not the case when we were young. Clearly, if today, we are able to make sure that both the poor and the rich have access to certain social amenities and essential commodities, because of which at certain points in the history of Ghana, some people went on demonstrations and so on, which led to us attaining our independence, then we must congratulate our past leaders.
The Hon Member who made the Statement made certain serious concerns and that had to do with the income disparity between the north and the south. This is reality but why is it so? There is a saying that education is the key to development.
If we compare the establishment of educational institutions between the north and the south, particularly, tertiary education, whereas the University of Ghana in the south was established in
1948, the first university in the northern part of the country was established in the year 1992.
Mr Speaker, when it comes to the establishment of tertiary education alone, the difference between the establishing years is 44 years. When you have education close to your community, you would see a lot of role models as well as an inner drive for one to attain tertiary education.
Not only were there absence of tertiary institutions in the north, there were even no good roads for people who wanted to move down south to access education. Therefore this clearly confirms the saying that if education is the key to development and one does not have access to it, it could manifest in one's condition of life.
Mr Speaker, we then come to the institution of second cycle schools; whereas the first secondary school which was Mfantsipim Senior High School was established in the year 1876, it took over a century before the first secondary in the north was established in the 1950s.
This clearly goes to tell us that whereas those of us in the south had access to secondary and tertiary education, our brothers in the north did not have that. This clearly informed the decision of the past leaders of this country who fought for independence, to institute free education in the north.
Most medical doctors in the Brong Ahafo and Upper West regions are Dagartis and Walas and they have comparative talent in that direction. Therefore the Catholic Church's establishment of good schools in those areas, informed the very reason most of them were able to access education and today they are serving mother Ghana.
Mr Speaker, he said that within six years Ghana has gained over US$4billion in oil. From the late 1980s to the 1990s when Ghana decided to decentralise its structures, this informed the very decision why there is equity and some form of balance in development everywhere you go in Ghana.
I propose, based on article 252(2) of the 1992 Constitution which states that:
“Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, Parliament shall annually make provision for the allocation of not less than five per cent of the total revenues of Ghana to the District Assemblies for development; and the amount shall be paid into the District Assemblies' Common Fund in quarterly instalments”.
Mr Speaker, the Constitution says 11:15 a.m.
“total revenues”. If Ghana, has within the past six years, gained over US$4billion from oil, and in calculating the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), we always exclude oil, this means that it is going to be distributed centrally but we all know the demerits of centralisation on the peripheries and rural setup of Ghana.
So when we are crying that we want the rural areas to be developed, meanwhile the chunk of the resources that are going to make sure that we are able to develop equitably in the country is being excluded in the calculation that is sent to the DACF, this policy is rather counterproductive. This is part of the problem that is widening the gap between the north and the south.
Mr Speaker, so if Ghana has been demarcated into 254 districts and we have oil, for fairness and balanced development --
Mr Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Order! Order!
Hon Members, this is a very rich debate. Let us have less background activity and concentrate on what we are doing.
Please, continue.
Mr A. Ibrahim 11:15 a.m.
Mr Speaker, it is not for nothing that the Constitution has given Parliament that power. I know you as a very good professor in the way you have treated and taught -- you support Parliament to make sure that we make a case for rural Ghana.
That this constitutional provision is well taken care of, that all total revenue - - therefore, in approving the formula for the distribution of the DACF, we must take into consideration the proceeds of oil revenue as part of Ghana's total revenue.
Mr Speaker, with these two areas, we can help develop the rural areas which will even alleviate certain problems that southern Ghana is also facing. Why do we have rural-urban migration? The best way to stop it is to make sure that we develop the rural areas and if we do so, people will not leave to become strangers looking for non-existent jobs in certain areas.
Parliament has a lot to do. I know that we have come a long way in reducing the nation's poverty level from 52.6 per cent in the year 1991 to 7.6 per cent in the year 2013. So we have done well but much still needs to be done.
Mr Speaker, it does not mean that there must be no policy direction. When we go to the second cycle institutions today, students are running away from pursuing certain courses in Business like Accounting, Economics and so on simply because on offering these courses and
Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Hon Members, before I call on the Majority Leadership, I had indicated that we would have one contribution each, but there was a slip. I had indicated to Hon Gyato that I would come to him. Therefore, Hon Gyato would make his contribution and then the Majority Leadership.
Hon Gyato?
Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Hon Members, I am pleading once again that we all do realise that there are many young students sitting at the gallery and there have been some brilliant contributions which they must also capture.
I feel pained by this background which is not too friendly. I do not want to call it background noise, so please let us listen attentively and in fact, I would make some interesting directives soon after this. It has been a very brilliant day for Parliament.
Hon Gyato, please make the last contribution on this and then the Majority Leadership.
Ms Safo 11:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, respectfully, I would yield to Hon Gyato so that --
Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Very well.
Hon Gyato you may, please, proceed.
Mr Gyato 11:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity and I also thank the Hon Member who made the Statement.
Mr Speaker, much as I agree with all the contributions made on the Floor today, I also want to pat the back of the government for the good job we have been able to do by way of poverty reduction.
Mr Speaker, it is on record that since
19 --
Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Hon Member, I have listened very carefully to the trend of the debate and I would not want us to refer to any particular government at this belated stage.
These contributions have gone beyond individual governments, it has been policy oriented and so I would like you to keep it at that high level.
Please continue.
Mr Gyato 11:25 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker, much as I thank all Hon Members who contributed to the Statement, I would also want to put out some valuable data to indicate that we are not doing badly at all by way of poverty reduction. The records show that from 1991 to 2012 we have been able to reduce poverty from 52.6 per cent to 21.4 per cent. Also, extreme poverty has been reduced from 37.6 per cent to 9.6 per cent in 2013.
Mr Speaker, in talking about this, I am of the view that we need to look at our data and see whether the poverty interventions we are putting out are yielding some results. This is because the records show that we have the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme which is ongoing and every year, we support people who are extremely poor to be able to cater for themselves and their children.
Mr Speaker, we also have the Capitation Grant and the Free Senior High School Policy which are all ongoing. These are brilliant interventions aimed at reducing poverty. But in talking about this, I would want to look at the equitable distribution of these policy interventions. If we are able to keep records and see how we are able to distribute these resources equitably, I believe that we would go a long way to reduce the poverty levels of our people.
Mr Speaker, I would want to add that we should look at poverty of the mind.
Even though we are talking about poverty, the poverty of the mind is very critical.
I say this because most of our farmers are now using chemicals and some of them cannot even read the instructions on the chemicals and they end up harming themselves by using these chemicals on the farms. Eventually, they end up in the hospital and pay more as the cost of hospital bills.
Mr Speaker, so, I think that the free Senior High School (SHS) Policy and the Capitation Grant are the basis to make sure that every child is in school. When we are able to push all our children to school, then we would make progress and make sure that poverty is reduced.

Mr Speaker, I also know that we are not there yet and we are still within the 21 per cent, but most of the interventions that are put out are brilliant ones and I would call for each and every one of us to support these interventions and make sure that poverty is reduced to its minimum. Mr Speaker, because the mind is supposed to generate wealth, let us put all our children in school and make sure that poverty is reduced.

Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Hon Gyato, thank you very much for your contribution.
This has been a very useful debate and I would further refer the matter to the Committee on Finance so that we would thoroughly examine poverty inequalities
MOTIONS 11:35 a.m.
Chairman of the Appointment's Committee Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that notwithstanding the provisions of Standing Order 80(1) which require that no Motion shall be debated until at least
forty-eight hours have elapsed between the date on which notice of the Motion is given and the date on which the Motion is moved, the Motion for the adoption of the Report of the Appointments Committee on H. E. the President's nominations for Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial Appointments may be moved today.
Mr Haruna Iddrisu 11:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion.
Question put and Motion agreed to.
Chairman of the Appointment's Committee (Mr Joe Osei-Owusu) 11:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that this Honourable House adopts the Report of the Appointments Committee on H. E. the President's nominations for Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial Appointments.
In so doing, I present your Committee's Report.
Introduction
On Monday, 24th September, 2018, H. E. the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo communicated to Parliament the nomination of two (2) Ministers of State for appointment in accordance with Article 78(1) of the 1992 Constitution.
The nominations were consequently referred to the Appointments Committee by the Rt. Hon. Speaker for consideration and report pursuant to Order 172 of the Standing Orders of the House.
The nominations include:
i. Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP -- Minister Designate for Information.
ii. Hon Cynthia Morrison, MP -- Minister Designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Reference Documents
The Committee referred to the under- listed documents during its deliberations:
i. The 1992 Constitution;
ii. The Standing Orders of Parliament; and
iii. The Curriculum Vitae of the Nominees.
Consideration of the Referral
Pursuant to Order 172(3) of the Standing Orders of the House, the Committee in the first instance caused to be published in newspapers of national circulation, the names of the nominees and notice of the Committee's Public Hearing for the attention of the general public. The publication further requested Memoranda from the general public on any of the nominees.
The Committee subsequently obtained Confidential Reports on the nominees from the Ghana Police Service and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) as part of its background checks. Tax Status Reports were obtained from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
A Public Hearing was thereafter held to consider the nominations. On
commencement of proceedings, the nominees subscribed to the Oath of a Witness and subsequently answered questions relating to their Curriculum Vitae, matters relating to their eligibility, issues pertaining to the offices.
The Committee has duly considered the nominations and reports as follows:
Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP-- Minister Designate for Information
Background
Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah was born in Koforidua on 5 th April, 1982. He attended Pentecost Primary School, Koforidua from 1987 - 1989 for his primary education and then to St. Bernadette Soubirous School at Dansoman from 1989 to August, 1997 for his Basic Education Certificate Examination.
He then proceeded to Pope John Snr. High School from September, 1998 to December, 2000 for his Senior Secondary School Certificate.
He enrolled at the Cape Coast University in September 2001 and was awarded a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting Major) in 2005. In December 2006, he obtained Level 1 of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
He enrolled at the University of Ghana Business School in 2009 and was awarded an Executive Master of Business Administration in Marketing in 2012.
He later enrolled at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and was awarded Bachelor of Laws in 2014. He then Proceeded to the Ghana School of Law in 2014. He was called to the Ghana bar in 2016.
Hon Oppong Nkrumah worked as a Treasury Analyst at British American Tobacco, Accra, from September 2005 to July 2006 for his National Service. From

2007 to 2009, he was an Associate at Bentil Consulting, Accra. He joined Multimedia Group Ltd., Accra in July, 2006 and was an editor and host at Joy FM until 2013.

From January, 2010 to December, 2012, he was the Head of Joy Business Unit at JOYFM and from January, 2014 to October, 2016, was the Managing Director of West Brownstone Capital.

The nominee also worked as a lawyer at Kulendi, Attafuah & Amponsah @Law from October, 2016 to January, 2017. He is currently the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi Constituency.

The nominee was also the Junior Achievement President of Pope John Secondary School & Minor Seminary in the year 2000 as well as the Assistant School Prefect of the School that same year.

In 2004, he was the Managing Editor of Campus Exclusive Newspaper, University of Cape Coast and the Project Coordinator, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) / ENACTUS. From 2010 to 2013. Hon Oppong Nkrumah was also the Project Coordinator of JOY FM's Read 100 Project. Response to Questions

Supervising Minister

The nominee in response to whether he has been performing his official function in an acting capacity as the Minister for Information, informed the Committee that he has been working in his old role as the Deputy Minister for Information and that the Hon Minister for Regional Re- organisation in the person of Mr Dan Botwe is the Supervising Minister for the Ministry of Information.

He reiterated that per our practice, a Deputy Minister cannot act for a substantive Minister who is not at post.

He conceded that that critical information was not communicated to the public and stated that the mistake would not be repeated.

Life at Multimedia Limited

Hon Oppong Nkrumah, when asked to elaborate on his life at Multimedia Limited told the Committee that he was employed by Multimedia at the age of 24 years as a Broadcast Journalist, and later became an editor and host of the Super Morning Show after the exit of the late Komla Dumor to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He told the Committee that he was tasked to set-up the Joy Business Brand with the support of some other colleagues.

He averred to the Committee that he was more focused on development journalism with major interest in economic and development matters. According to the nominee, he was instrumental in the establishment of ‘The Read 100 Project', a project centering on the resolve to solve the ills of society by promoting the culture of reading in children and inclined to building libraries across the country.

Weaknesses of the Ghanaian Media

The nominee, when asked to state some of the weaknesses of the Ghanaian media that he would want to see improve as a Minister if given the nod informed the Committee that the media is the fourth estate of the realm and a very important pillar in our democratic exercise responsible for giving life to the freedom of expression as stated in our Constitution.

He told the Committee that for the media to thrive, media owners must significantly invest in the technical and

capacity building of media personnel. He pointed out that media personnel must also be remunerated adequately to help retain them. He further added that, the State can augment the efforts by the private sector in building the capacity of media practitioners.

Interview with Mr Kofi Annan

The nominee, sharing some significant things he could recall when he interviewed the late Mr Kofi Annan in 2009, stated that he interviewed Mr Annan at the World Economic Forum on Africa in South Africa when he was done with his tenure as the UN Secretary General and was working with a group of African leaders known as the ‘Elders' to engage in exercises to help deepen democracy in Africa and assist governments with policy advice on specific areas including agriculture.

He opined to the Committee that what he found exciting about Mr Annan was his humility and the fact that he had not changed his identity after so many years as an international diplomat. He was also enthused with his commitment in giving back to Africa his time and intellect.

Realignment of focus of the Super Morning Show

The nominee in response to what was the rational for the realignment of Joy FM's Super Morning Show to focus on economic and finance issues from its previous social and political focus, stated that the political and social areas were not his strengths at that time.

He also believed that the media landscape was shifting from political to economic and finance which were his strengths. He believed this paid off by making multimedia win a big market share of the English audience.

Managing His New Position

On how the nominee would manage his new position being the youngest Minister of State in the current Government, the nominee expressed his gratitude to the President of the Republic for nominating him to the substantive position of Minister of State which is in his view is a vote of confidence in the young generation.

He intimated that he is in the practice of learning very quickly from his seniors as he had done in Parliament, and that in Government he would continue to learn.

Active Membership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during Presidential Debate

On whether he was as an active member of the NPP during the 2012 Presidential debate and how he felt, he stated that by the training he had, he had to be objective and professional in his line of work as a journalist notwithstanding one's personal sentiments and position, and that was what he brought to bear during the Presidential debate.

Plans for Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and Ghana Television

(GJV)

The nominee, elaborating on his plans for the GBC and GTV when given the nod as Minister for Information, told the Committee that GBC and GTV have had raging battles for competitive space over the years. He stated that there is the need to reinvest in GBC and GTV in terms of equipment, human resource and practices.

He told the Committee there was the need to take a critical look at their mandate and decide whether we want them as public service broadcasters or be in a commercial viable competitive space in which case, there was the need to redefine their scope which clamoured for more investment.
Mr Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Item numbered 6, Hon First Deputy Speaker, if you may proceed.
Eighteenth/Nineteenth/Twentieth Reports of the Appointment Committee
Chairman of the Appointment's Committee (Mr Joe Osei-Owusu) 11:35 a.m.


He informed the Committee that the President has set up a committee to advise on the restructuring of GBC and assured the Committee that he will implement the recommendations by the President's committee when given the nod as the Minister for Information.

Need for State-Owned Media

On whether there is still the need for state-owned media, the nominee stated that state-owned media is still relevant and that they may have to focus on public service broadcasting to get government policies and programmes to percolate. He was hopeful that the President's Committee on GBC would advise them on what the state-owned media should do.

Re-tooling of State Media House

The nominee, answering a question on how the State Media Houses could be resourced to efficiently perform, told the Committee that State Media Houses like GBC and GNA would be re-tooled and properly resourced to be able to perform their roles effectively in the media industry. To that end, the President of the Republic has already formed a committee to advise him on the restructuring of GBC.

Revamping the Media Development fund

The nominee in stating his plans to revamp the Media Development Fund (MDF) said that the MDF encountered some challenges because the Natioanl Media Commission (NMC) thought the fund could be used as a tool for interference by the government.

He continued that his Ministry consulted former Ministers of the Ministry which brought about the reorganisation of that idea into a Media Capacity Enhancement Programme. This

programme, he stated, has been captured in the 2019 Budget and will be rolled out next with the support of stakeholders like the NMC, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) among others.

Enforcing Broadcasting Standards

The nominee, in response to how standards of broadcasting can be improved, informed the Committee that the Ministry is engaged with the National Media Commission on ways to improve standards.

He said the aim of the engagement was to empower the National Media Commission to enforce standards to deal with defects in broadcasting content, especially in areas of pornographic materials.

Remuneration of Journalists

The nominee, in response to the hue and cry over challenges media practitioners face in poor remuneration for the services they provide, told the Committee that as much as the role of media was crucial to deepening the tenants of democracy and good governance in the country, journalists were among the poorly paid professionals in the country and asked media owners to invest in equipment, build the capacity of their staff and motivate and compensate journalists well. Creating Enabling Environment

The nominee in response to how he intended to nurture Press Freedom in our politically charged media environment, told the Committee that he would ensure that the enabling environment is created for journalists to operate freely. He reiterated government's support for media practitioners to work effectively as the fourth estate of the realm.

Enhancing the Capacity of the Media

The nominee, responding to a question on plans to build the capacity of journalists in the country, told the Committee that the Ministry had developed a programme to build the capacity of journalists which would be rolled out next year. Under the programme, scholarships would be given to journalists.

He explained to the Committee that the aim of the programme was to get journalists to shift focus from churning out stories that bordered on sensationalism to programmes of development, on which the country stood to make progress.

On the programme's implementation period, the nominee responded to members of the Committee that the Ministry of Information was liaising with key stakeholders to ansure its implementation.

Liaising with the National Media Commission (NMC)

Hon Oppong Nkrumah, on how to liaise with the NMC to set standards for the Ghanaian media to curb bad journalism, opined that the way out is to support and promote good journalism for the Ghanaian to appreciate and acquire a taste for that.

He intimated that to help address that menace, a Media Capacity Enhancement programme has being proposed in the 2019 Budget which aims at building the capacity of media personnel who want to practice good journalism.

The nominee told the Committee he hopes to execute this through collaboration with the NMC, the Ghana

Journalist Association (GJA), and the School of Communication Studies in order to have a collective understanding of where the gaps in capacity are and assist with scholarships to help bridge the gaps.

Commencement Date of Work for NABCO Recruits

The nominee answering a question on when NABCO recruits are expected to commence work, informed the Committee that it was announced to the beneficiaries during the inauguration that they should go back to their district to be posted to enable them start work on the 1st November, 2018.

Insurance Bonds for Media Houses

On his view on media houses having insurance bonds to address damages to law suits on defamation, against media houses among others, the nominee stated that he is a strong believer of article 162(1) of the Constitution which guarantees the freedom and independence of the media.

He said that individuals and media organisations should be allowed to practice in this space and given the leverage to make mistakes. He said the Courts have stringent laws that could be applied when suits concerning the abuse of media freedom came up.

He opined that some jurisdictions like Kenya have passed a Cyber-Security Legislation which includes provisions that make it an offence to spread news with the intent to put fear and panic in the public or false news on social media.

He was however of the view that the current legal infrastructure is enough to address those matters and what was needed was enforcement of the laws.
Chairman of the Appointment's Committee (Mr Joe Osei-Owusu) 11:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that this Honourable House adopts the Report of the Appointments Committee on H. E. the President's nominations for Ministerial and Deputy Ministerial Appointments.
In so doing, I present your Committee's Report.
Introduction
On Monday, 24th September, 2018, H. E. the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo communicated to Parliament the nomination of two (2) Ministers of State for appointment in accordance with Article 78(1) of the 1992 Constitution.
The nominations were consequently referred to the Appointments Committee by the Rt. Hon. Speaker for consideration and report pursuant to Order 172 of the Standing Orders of the House.
The nominations include:
i. Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP -- Minister Designate for Information.
ii. Hon Cynthia Morrison, MP -- Minister Designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Reference Documents
The Committee referred to the under- listed documents during its deliberations:
i. The 1992 Constitution;
ii. The Standing Orders of Parliament; and
iii. The Curriculum Vitae of the Nominees.
Consideration of the Referral
Pursuant to Order 172(3) of the Standing Orders of the House, the Committee in the first instance caused to be published in newspapers of national circulation, the names of the nominees and notice of the Committee's Public Hearing for the attention of the general public. The publication further requested Memoranda from the general public on any of the nominees.
The Committee subsequently obtained Confidential Reports on the nominees from the Ghana Police Service and the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) as part of its background checks. Tax Status Reports were obtained from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
A Public Hearing was thereafter held to consider the nominations. On
commencement of proceedings, the nominees subscribed to the Oath of a Witness and subsequently answered questions relating to their Curriculum Vitae, matters relating to their eligibility, issues pertaining to the offices.
The Committee has duly considered the nominations and reports as follows:
Hon Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP-- Minister Designate for Information
Background
Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah was born in Koforidua on 5 th April, 1982. He attended Pentecost Primary School, Koforidua from 1987 - 1989 for his primary education and then to St. Bernadette Soubirous School at Dansoman from 1989 to August, 1997 for his Basic Education Certificate Examination.
He then proceeded to Pope John Snr. High School from September, 1998 to December, 2000 for his Senior Secondary School Certificate.
He enrolled at the Cape Coast University in September 2001 and was awarded a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting Major) in 2005. In December 2006, he obtained Level 1 of Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
He enrolled at the University of Ghana Business School in 2009 and was awarded an Executive Master of Business Administration in Marketing in 2012.
He later enrolled at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and was awarded Bachelor of Laws in 2014. He then Proceeded to the Ghana School of Law in 2014. He was called to the Ghana bar in 2016.
Hon Oppong Nkrumah worked as a Treasury Analyst at British American Tobacco, Accra, from September 2005 to July 2006 for his National Service. From

2007 to 2009, he was an Associate at Bentil Consulting, Accra. He joined Multimedia Group Ltd., Accra in July, 2006 and was an editor and host at Joy FM until 2013.

From January, 2010 to December, 2012, he was the Head of Joy Business Unit at JOYFM and from January, 2014 to October, 2016, was the Managing Director of West Brownstone Capital.

The nominee also worked as a lawyer at Kulendi, Attafuah & Amponsah @Law from October, 2016 to January, 2017. He is currently the Member of Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi Constituency.

The nominee was also the Junior Achievement President of Pope John Secondary School & Minor Seminary in the year 2000 as well as the Assistant School Prefect of the School that same year.

In 2004, he was the Managing Editor of Campus Exclusive Newspaper, University of Cape Coast and the Project Coordinator, Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) / ENACTUS. From 2010 to 2013. Hon Oppong Nkrumah was also the Project Coordinator of JOY FM's Read 100 Project.

Response to Questions

Supervising Minister

The nominee in response to whether he has been performing his official function in an acting capacity as the Minister for Information, informed the Committee that he has been working in his old role as the Deputy Minister for Information and that the Hon Minister for Regional Re-organisation in the person of Mr Dan Botwe is the Supervising Minister for the Ministry of Information.

He reiterated that per our practice, a Deputy Minister cannot act for a substantive Minister who is not at post.

He conceded that that critical information was not communicated to the public and stated that the mistake would not be repeated.

Life at Multimedia Limited

Hon Oppong Nkrumah, when asked to elaborate on his life at Multimedia Limited told the Committee that he was employed by Multimedia at the age of 24 years as a Broadcast Journalist, and later became an editor and host of the Super Morning Show after the exit of the late Komla Dumor to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). He told the Committee that he was tasked to set-up the Joy Business Brand with the support of some other colleagues.

He averred to the Committee that he was more focused on development journalism with major interest in economic and development matters. According to the nominee, he was instrumental in the establishment of ‘The Read 100 Project', a project centering on the resolve to solve the ills of society by promoting the culture of reading in children and inclined to building libraries across the country.

Weaknesses of the Ghanaian Media

The nominee, when asked to state some of the weaknesses of the Ghanaian media that he would want to see improve as a Minister if given the nod informed the Committee that the media is the fourth estate of the realm and a very important pillar in our democratic exercise responsible for giving life to the freedom of expression as stated in our Constitution.

He told the Committee that for the media to thrive, media owners must significantly invest in the technical and

capacity building of media personnel. He pointed out that media personnel must also be remunerated adequately to help retain them. He further added that, the State can augment the efforts by the private sector in building the capacity of media practitioners.

Interview with Mr Kofi Annan

The nominee, sharing some significant things he could recall when he interviewed the late Mr Kofi Annan in 2009, stated that he interviewed Mr Annan at the World Economic Forum on Africa in South Africa when he was done with his tenure as the UN Secretary General and was working with a group of African leaders known as the ‘Elders' to engage in exercises to help deepen democracy in Africa and assist governments with policy advice on specific areas including agriculture.

He opined to the Committee that what he found exciting about Mr Annan was his humility and the fact that he had not changed his identity after so many years as an international diplomat. He was also enthused with his commitment in giving back to Africa his time and intellect.

Realignment of focus of the Super Morning Show

The nominee in response to what was the rational for the realignment of Joy FM's Super Morning Show to focus on economic and finance issues from its previous social and political focus, stated that the political and social areas were not his strengths at that time.

He also believed that the media landscape was shifting from political to economic and finance which were his strengths. He believed this paid off by making multimedia win a big market share of the English audience.

Managing His New Position

On how the nominee would manage his new position being the youngest Minister of State in the current Government, the nominee expressed his gratitude to the President of the Republic for nominating him to the substantive position of Minister of State which is in his view is a vote of confidence in the young generation.

He intimated that he is in the practice of learning very quickly from his seniors as he had done in Parliament, and that in Government he would continue to learn.

Active Membership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) during Presidential Debate

On whether he was as an active member of the NPP during the 2012 Presidential debate and how he felt, he stated that by the training he had, he had to be objective and professional in his line of work as a journalist notwithstanding one's personal sentiments and position, and that was what he brought to bear during the Presidential debate.

Plans for Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) and Ghana Television

(GJV)

The nominee, elaborating on his plans for the GBC and GTV when given the nod as Minister for Information, told the Committee that GBC and GTV have had raging battles for competitive space over the years. He stated that there is the need to reinvest in GBC and GTV in terms of equipment, human resource and practices.

He told the Committee there was the need to take a critical look at their mandate and decide whether we want them as public service broadcasters or be in a commercial viable competitive space in which case, there was the need to redefine their scope which clamoured for more investment.
Chairman of the Appointment's Committee (Mr Joe Osei-Owusu) 11:35 a.m.


He informed the Committee that the President has set up a committee to advise on the restructuring of GBC and assured the Committee that he will implement the recommendations by the President's committee when given the nod as the Minister for Information.

Need for State-Owned Media

On whether there is still the need for state-owned media, the nominee stated that state-owned media is still relevant and that they may have to focus on public service broadcasting to get government policies and programmes to percolate. He was hopeful that the President's Committee on GBC would advise them on what the state-owned media should do.

Re-tooling of State Media House

The nominee, answering a question on how the State Media Houses could be resourced to efficiently perform, told the Committee that State Media Houses like GBC and GNA would be re-tooled and properly resourced to be able to perform their roles effectively in the media industry. To that end, the President of the Republic has already formed a committee to advise him on the restructuring of GBC.

Revamping the Media Development fund

The nominee in stating his plans to revamp the Media Development Fund (MDF) said that the MDF encountered some challenges because the Natioanl Media Commission (NMC) thought the fund could be used as a tool for interference by the government.

He continued that his Ministry consulted former Ministers of the Ministry which brought about the reorganisation of that idea into a Media Capacity Enhancement Programme. This

programme, he stated, has been captured in the 2019 Budget and will be rolled out next with the support of stakeholders like the NMC, Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) among others.

Enforcing Broadcasting Standards

The nominee, in response to how standards of broadcasting can be improved, informed the Committee that the Ministry is engaged with the National Media Commission on ways to improve standards.

He said the aim of the engagement was to empower the National Media Commission to enforce standards to deal with defects in broadcasting content, especially in areas of pornographic materials.

Remuneration of Journalists

The nominee, in response to the hue and cry over challenges media practitioners face in poor remuneration for the services they provide, told the Committee that as much as the role of media was crucial to deepening the tenants of democracy and good governance in the country, journalists were among the poorly paid professionals in the country and asked media owners to invest in equipment, build the capacity of their staff and motivate and compensate journalists well.

Creating Enabling Environment

The nominee in response to how he intended to nurture Press Freedom in our politically charged media environment, told the Committee that he would ensure that the enabling environment is created for journalists to operate freely. He reiterated government's support for media practitioners to work effectively as the fourth estate of the realm.

Enhancing the Capacity of the Media

The nominee, responding to a question on plans to build the capacity of journalists in the country, told the Committee that the Ministry had developed a programme to build the capacity of journalists which would be rolled out next year. Under the programme, scholarships would be given to journalists.

He explained to the Committee that the aim of the programme was to get journalists to shift focus from churning out stories that bordered on sensationalism to programmes of development, on which the country stood to make progress.

On the programme's implementation period, the nominee responded to members of the Committee that the Ministry of Information was liaising with key stakeholders to ansure its implementation.

Liaising with the National Media Commission (NMC)

Hon Oppong Nkrumah, on how to liaise with the NMC to set standards for the Ghanaian media to curb bad journalism, opined that the way out is to support and promote good journalism for the Ghanaian to appreciate and acquire a taste for that.

He intimated that to help address that menace, a Media Capacity Enhancement programme has being proposed in the 2019 Budget which aims at building the capacity of media personnel who want to practice good journalism.

The nominee told the Committee he hopes to execute this through collaboration with the NMC, the Ghana

Journalist Association (GJA), and the School of Communication Studies in order to have a collective understanding of where the gaps in capacity are and assist with scholarships to help bridge the gaps.

Commencement Date of Work for NABCO Recruits

The nominee answering a question on when NABCO recruits are expected to commence work, informed the Committee that it was announced to the beneficiaries during the inauguration that they should go back to their district to be posted to enable them start work on the 1st November, 2018.

Insurance Bonds for Media Houses

On his view on media houses having insurance bonds to address damages to law suits on defamation, against media houses among others, the nominee stated that he is a strong believer of article 162(1) of the Constitution which guarantees the freedom and independence of the media.

He said that individuals and media organisations should be allowed to practice in this space and given the leverage to make mistakes. He said the Courts have stringent laws that could be applied when suits concerning the abuse of media freedom came up.

He opined that some jurisdictions like Kenya have passed a Cyber-Security Legislation which includes provisions that make it an offence to spread news with the intent to put fear and panic in the public or false news on social media.

He was however of the view that the current legal infrastructure is enough to address those matters and what was needed was enforcement of the laws.
Mr Iddrisu 11:45 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I note, and I am sure the
Hon Chairman in his closing remarks will admit it, that throughout the sittings of the Appointments Committee, we had the privileged presence of a delegation from the Kenyan Parliament to learn from best practice and share their own experiences.
Even as they left for home, one or two of them that I encountered were very satisfied that the Ghanaian probe was deeper in terms of interrogation on issues on the subject matter, understanding of the issues and contributions to it. I thought that I should note it.
Mr Speaker, in commenting on it again, the President himself, as a show of respect to the Constitution, brought in the dichotomy between ministers appointed under the decentralised regime of article 256(1) and (2) and ministers under article 78 of the Constitution.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister- designate for Information, Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkurumah who will now be the spokesperson for government is being recommended. He comes to the portfolio with some background, having done some media work. Now, he has added law to it and also has some finance background. We only expect that there will be timely and accurate delivery of government information.
This is because, Mr Speaker, even during the vetting sessions, there were some Hon Members who wanted to know that and even declared that “this Government has done so much” but it is not reflecting on the people of Ghana who understand the “so much”.

We can only wish him well to communicate the so much achievement that has been done.

Mr Speaker, specific to subject area, the Ghana News Agency would need his support as Minister in order to become more functional and more efficient. In terms of numbers, I am told that the Information Services Department of the Ministry and even many of these institutions now rely on national service persons.

They need to be resourced adequately in order to get government information to the grassroots. He would need some support in respect of that.

Mr Speaker, we know that many of our Hon Colleagues who are Members of Parliament have already satisfied the requirement of article 94 of the Constitution. The Hon Chainman made available to the Committee tax reports and BNI reports on the nominees.

There was no petition which was received in respect of any of them. Without that, Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah is a gentleman. Whether he is able to share the truth and share it at all times, we can only measure him with time.

I recall asking him about some development in tax administration and whether or not Ghanaian businesses and private sector could anticipate some tax increases. He laboured in answering it.

Mr Speaker, the truth is as it is said, falsehood only bullies the truth. It does not conquer it. It would come back to sit on it, and therefore we expect that he would do that.

Mr Speaker, the other nominee is one of our Hon Colleagues, Mrs Cynthia Morrison, Minister designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection; a very calm personality who has also met the requirement.

We trust that when given the needed support and resources -- I am sure she listened to the Statement of Dr Appiah- Kubi and your guidance.

She must seek to address inequality, particularly gender equality. I know how dear the Affirmative Action Bill is to you personally, so, her first challenge would be to make Mr Speaker and the people of Ghana happy by working on the Affirmative Action Bill.

Mr Speaker, a more important legislation, and I am happy the Hon Minister for Employment and Labour Relations is here. In my very last days as Minister for Employment and Labour Relations -- he has been to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) a number of times -- Ghana adopted and signed on to the Maternity Protection Convention.

I have heard Her Excellency the First Lady of the Republic, Mrs Rebecca Akufo- Addo speak about it. The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection must be seen to be bringing to this House the Maternity Protection Convention and she must do so with the Hon Minister for Employment and Labour Relations.

Ghana needs it, so that nursing mothers would benefit from the Maternity Protection Convention of the ILO that Ghana is a signatory to. I am sure the Minister for Employment would help Hon Cynthia Morrison, so that we can think of domesticating it.

When you are a mother and you give birth, the number of days you spend at home in order to be able to get the baby well nourished -- and, we know, early childhood development is important. So we believe that she would do that.

So Mr Speaker, we recommend strongly the approval of the nomination of Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and Hon Cynthia Morrison as Minsters for Information and Gender, Children and Social Protection respectively.

Mr Speaker, with the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, the women involved in the School Feeding Programme across the country have issues with delayed payments. Sometimes they borrow to do the cooking. When they do not get money, we should expect that the quality of the food would be affected, and that would affect the children.

We expect that she would pay particular attention to those social intervention programmes of School Feeding and LEAP. We therefore support her nomination.

Mr Speaker, the other Report is in respect of two Regional Ministers for the Brong-Ahafo and the Upper East Regions. I must admit that I was personally impressed with Ms Paulina Abayage in terms of her depth in appreciating gender empowerment issues. She demonstrated that if given the support she would do her part.

The Upper East Region remains one of the deprived regions of our country in terms of infrastructure and road connectivity. The Bolgatanga-Bawku road which is major is still unfinished. We say she should pay attention to those infrastructural projects including the Tamne Irrigation Project which would improve the livelihood of the people.

Mr Speaker, we took her assurances, particularly entrepreneurship - especially as in culture in the Upper East Region, they have a lot of potential. We therefore support the approval of Hon Evans Opoku Bobie and Paulina Abayage.
Mr Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Hon Minority Leader, both pathways are legitimate, and you may choose your preference.
Mr Iddrisu 11:35 a.m.
Mr Speaker, then I beg to second the Motion and make some comments, with your indulgence.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Chairman of the Committee and First Deputy Speaker has submitted, but for the record, I am sure if you read Motion numbered 6, it reads and I beg to quote:
“That this Honourable House adopts the Report of the Appoint- ment's Committee …”
But having followed his submission, it is the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth Reports of the Appointment's Committee. To urge Hon Members to support it, the President by his letter dated 24th August, 2018, pursuant to articles 78(1) and 256 (1) and (2) of the Constitution conveyed the message to this august House.
Mr Speaker, in his communication, the President has done what is appropriate. As the prior approval of Parliament will require Parliament to scrutinise the President's nomination and as we consent to it, the President can then go in to swear them in.
Mr Iddrisu 11:45 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I note, and I am sure the Hon Chairman in his closing remarks will admit it, that throughout the sittings of the Appointments Committee, we had the privileged presence of a delegation from the Kenyan Parliament to learn from best practice and share their own experiences.
Even as they left for home, one or two of them that I encountered were very satisfied that the Ghanaian probe was deeper in terms of interrogation on issues on the subject matter, understanding of the issues and contributions to it. I thought that I should note it.
Mr Speaker, in commenting on it again, the President himself, as a show of respect to the Constitution, brought in the dichotomy between ministers appointed under the decentralised regime of article 256(1) and (2) and ministers under article 78 of the Constitution.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister- designate for Information, Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkurumah who will now be the spokesperson for government is being recommended. He comes to the portfolio with some background, having done some media work. Now, he has added law to it and also has some finance background. We only expect that there will be timely and accurate delivery of government information.
This is because, Mr Speaker, even during the vetting sessions, there were some Hon Members who wanted to know that and even declared that “this Government has done so much” but it is not reflecting on the people of Ghana who understand the “so much”.

We can only wish him well to communicate the so much achievement that has been done.

Mr Speaker, specific to subject area, the Ghana News Agency would need his support as Minister in order to become more functional and more efficient. In terms of numbers, I am told that the Information Services Department of the Ministry and even many of these institutions now rely on national service persons.

They need to be resourced adequately in order to get government information to the grassroots. He would need some support in respect of that.

Mr Speaker, we know that many of our Hon Colleagues who are Members of Parliament have already satisfied the requirement of article 94 of the Constitution. The Hon Chainman made available to the Committee tax reports and BNI reports on the nominees.

There was no petition which was received in respect of any of them. Without that, Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah is a gentleman. Whether he is able to share the truth and share it at all times, we can only measure him with time.

I recall asking him about some development in tax administration and whether or not Ghanaian businesses and private sector could anticipate some tax increases. He laboured in answering it.

Mr Speaker, the truth is as it is said, falsehood only bullies the truth. It does not conquer it. It would come back to sit on it, and therefore we expect that he would do that.

Mr Speaker, the other nominee is one of our Hon Colleagues, Mrs Cynthia Morrison, Minister designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection; a very calm personality who has also met the requirement.

We trust that when given the needed support and resources -- I am sure she listened to the Statement of Dr Appiah- Kubi and your guidance.

She must seek to address inequality, particularly gender equality. I know how dear the Affirmative Action Bill is to you personally, so, her first challenge would be to make Mr Speaker and the people of Ghana happy by working on the Affirmative Action Bill.

Mr Speaker, a more important legislation, and I am happy the Hon Minister for Employment and Labour Relations is here. In my very last days as Minister for Employment and Labour Relations -- he has been to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) a number of times -- Ghana adopted and signed on to the Maternity Protection Convention.

I have heard Her Excellency the First Lady of the Republic, Mrs Rebecca Akufo- Addo speak about it. The Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection must be seen to be bringing to this House the Maternity Protection Convention and she must do so with the Hon Minister for Employment and Labour Relations.

Ghana needs it, so that nursing mothers would benefit from the Maternity Protection Convention of the ILO that Ghana is a signatory to. I am sure the Minister for Employment would help Hon Cynthia Morrison, so that we can think of domesticating it.

When you are a mother and you give birth, the number of days you spend at home in order to be able to get the baby well nourished -- and, we know, early childhood development is important. So we believe that she would do that.

So Mr Speaker, we recommend strongly the approval of the nomination of Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and Hon Cynthia Morrison as Minsters for Information and Gender, Children and Social Protection respectively.

Mr Speaker, with the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, the women involved in the School Feeding Programme across the country have issues with delayed payments. Sometimes they borrow to do the cooking. When they do not get money, we should expect that the quality of the food would be affected, and that would affect the children.

We expect that she would pay particular attention to those social intervention programmes of School Feeding and LEAP. We therefore support her nomination.

Mr Speaker, the other Report is in respect of two Regional Ministers for the Brong-Ahafo and the Upper East Regions. I must admit that I was personally impressed with Ms Paulina Abayage in terms of her depth in appreciating gender empowerment issues. She demonstrated that if given the support she would do her part.

The Upper East Region remains one of the deprived regions of our country in terms of infrastructure and road connectivity. The Bolgatanga-Bawku road which is major is still unfinished. We say she should pay attention to those infrastructural projects including the Tamne Irrigation Project which would improve the livelihood of the people.

Mr Speaker, we took her assurances, particularly entrepreneurship - especially as in culture in the Upper East Region, they have a lot of potential. We therefore support the approval of Hon Evans Opoku Bobie and Paulina Abayage.
Mr Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Hon Minority Leader, you may want to put it that in your view, they did not comply with it, but to say, he did not respect --
Mr Iddrisu 11:55 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I said so.
Mr Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Hon Minority Leader, you did not say it that way. So I would want you to put it properly, and with due decorum.
Mr Iddrisu 11:55 a.m.
Mr Speaker, in my view, I have always said it is constitutionally inappropriate, and I have said that it was my view, but whether I did it or not, this is not the forum. There is an appropriate forum where this can be done.
Mr Speaker, therefore I generally support the approval. The men approved of may go and help the President. Except that the President still holds the world record of too many Ministers of 109. He has beaten the Guinness Book of Records in the size of ministerial appointments in government.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I support the Motion.
Question proposed.
Mr Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Hon Members, like I have been saying in these matters, Hon Members are not invited to make exhaustive comments on every individual, but you are entitled to speak to that which they are most conversant with.
Hon Members, I would call on the Hon Atta Akyea.
Mr Samuel Atta Akyea (NPP -- Akim Abuakwa South) 11:55 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, I heard the Hon Minority Leader say that he is a consummate democrat. With due respect, I thought that he was setting his own question, answering it, and conferring a title upon himself. But we on this Side should be the ones to mark him to determine whether he is a consummate democrat or not. So this exercise in self-adoration and self-praise is not the mark of a -- I would leave it as it is.
Mr Speaker, however, what is my good friend saying concerning the appointment of this Hon Deputy Minister? He quoted the Constitution, but with due respect, I would say that he read it upside down. He also said that he is not the one who can interpret the Constitution, but he might go to the Supreme Court for a proper interpretation.
Mr Speaker, with your kind permission, I would like to read the Constitution and then I would show that on every hypothesis he got it wrong, and that the nomination of the Hon Regional Minister and his Deputy are valid nominations, which we should not have any quarrels with.
Mr Speaker, before I go into the Constitution, I would want to find out from him whether this House is privy to presidential consultations. This House is not privy to presidential consultations.
There are several things that the President would do, which we would not be aware of. So the premise of his argument is gone. He only assumes that the President has not consulted the Hon Minister before appointing the Hon Deputy Minister.
Mr Speaker, article 256 says, and I read with your consent 11:55 a.m.
“The President shall, with prior approval of Parliament, appoint for each region, a Minister of State who shall --
a. represent the President in the region; and
b. be responsible for the co- ordination and direction of the administrative machinery in the region.”
Mr Speaker, this is what is important for our debate. Article 256 (2) says and I quote with permission:
“The President may, in consultation with the Minister of State for a region and with the prior approval of Parliament, appoint for the region a Deputy Minister or Deputy Ministers to perform such functions as the President may determine.”
Mr Speaker, with due respect, there was a substantive Minister at all material times. What we do not have and are not privy to, we should not know.
This is because it would be like the Legislature, trying to poke its nose into Executive matters. That is what it means, when the Hon Minority Leader tells us that he was not informed about the consultation.
I am tempted to say that even consultations can be by way of a phone call, where a substantive Minister could be asked whether he has any objection to the appointment of a particular person as his deputy, and that would be the end of the matter. It does not need a long essay or anything in writing. This is also another way, whereby the President could consult somebody.
Mr Speaker, if we pay regard to article 256 (1), the operative word in appointing the substantive Minister is the word “shall”. Now, if we use the word “may” in terms of the nominations, even that one is permissive. Therefore granted that the Hon Minority Leaders' arguments were valid, the exercise of discretion here is just permissive.
If the President need not consult anybody to appoint the substantive Minister, then, would it not be an oppressive interpretation of the law to say that he is duty bound to consult the substantive Minister when he wants to bring in a deputy?
Mr Speaker, even with the appointment of the substantive Minister, there is no need for a consultation, but with the subordinate, it is a must, and that is why the writers of our Constitution brought two special words: “shall”, in the case of the substantive Minister, and “may,” which is permissive.
So, if the Hon Minority Leader has any regard for the Constitution and what was quoted, then I wish to submit that there is nothing untoward that the President has done and that these nominations were valid. It respected this House, and brought their names here for prior approval.
Mr Speaker, I need not bore you with the other interpretations of “shall”, but I would want to say that if my Hon good friend, the self-acclaimed consummate democrat is interested in challenging this, then I believe that he would meet the Attorney -General in court and have his day. So I would leave it as it is, and I do not have any quarrels whatsoever with what the President has done.
Mr Speaker, I would again just comment on a few things about this Hon Deputy Minister and his role in the Brong Ahafo Region.
Mr Speaker, there is a Constitutional confusion as to whether Deputy Ministers are answerable to their substantive Ministers. So in the regional ministerial set up, who is the Hon Deputy Minister answerable to? There was a huge confusion and most of the Hon Deputy Ministers were saying that they would assist their substantive Ministers to do their work and the rest of it. However, we would need to look at this critically.
Mr Speaker, if we read article 256 (2), again, it says with your permission 12:05 p.m.
“The President may, in consultation with the Minister of State for a region and with the prior approval of Parliament, appoint for the region a Deputy Minister or Deputy Ministers to perform such functions as the President may determine.”
Mr Speaker, it therefore seems to me that it is the President, who might assign functions to the Hon Deputy Regional Minister. I believe that they would work together, but strictly speaking, the Hon Deputy Regional Minister is answerable to the President. He is the one who would give him assignments to perform.
Mr Speaker, one of our kind, Hon Martin Oti Gyarko, is about to be approved for the post of a Deputy Minister, and what is of concern to me is what we have in the Brong Ahafo Region, by way of the cash crop called cashew.

We should make cashew an exportable crop because we have paid too much regard to cocoa. [Interruption.] It is imperative that the Hon Member would do his very best to assist to make it an exportable crop now that he finds his place there.

Mr Speaker, I would want to say one more word about the Hon Deputy Minister designate for the Eastern Region. A question was posed that we have had a terrible situation with legal mining, galamsey, and he was asked what he would do to help curb this menace.

It seems that only the hirelings, those who are caught using the earthmoving equipment, are arraigned before courts of law and then they are bailed. To date, we have never seen any prosecution against the powers behind galamsey -- those who can afford the machines and excavators.

What are we doing? Prosecution is just arresting a hireling, but the big man who can afford the earthmoving equipment is left free. I am told that an excavator now is in the neighbourhood of about US$500,000 now; a hireling would not be
Mr Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Hon Member, your time is up.
Mr Akyea 12:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the best in this woman should be replicated, so that a lot of women from the Upper East Region would show up and be at the forefront of national affairs.
Mr Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Thank you very much.
I would urge Hon Members to be specific; others would also tackle other nominees, so that one person does not appear to be doing the whole thing.
Yes, Hon Fuseini -- ?
Alhaji Inusah A. B. Fusieni (NDC-- Tamale Central) 12:05 p.m.
I thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Floor of the House.
I congratulate all the nominees for the confidence that has been reposed in them by the President. The motto of one of the residential halls of the university of Ghana says, “To whom much is given, much is expected”. Indeed, having reposed this enormous confidence in these persons, the President expects them to deliver to meet his legitimate expectations. The people of Ghana also expect that they deliver.
I would zero my contributions to two of the nominees; one is just as a matter of formality - my good Hon Friend and Colleague both at the Bar and in this House, Hon Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah. The President has just done the needful. Indeed, as the then Hon Deputy Minister, he distinguished himself.
He carried himself in such a way that many people thought that he ought to have been the Hon Minister. So probably, the thoughts of these people influenced the President to convert his deputy ministerial position to a substantive one.
I congratulate Hon Kojo Oppong- Nkrumah; I know this is just the beginning because he demonstrates a lot of potential. I hope he would get to the heights that he wants for himself.
Mr Speaker, my major contribution is on the matter that was raised by the Hon Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, which the Hon Minister for Water Resources sought to pooh-pooh. [Interruption] -- Works and Housing. [Laughter.]
rose
Mr Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Hon Member, on a point of order?
Mr Akyea 12:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am not covetous. I have been given the Ministry of Works and Housing, but he wants to add the Ministry of Water Resources. [Laughter.]
Mr Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Hon Fusieni, proceed.
Alhaji I. A.B. Fuseini 12:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it is not for nothing that article 256 is part of the Constitution of this country. I heard an absurd interpretation of the use of “may”. The use of “may” in article 256 qualifies not only the prior consultation, but also the prior approval by Parliament.
Mr Speaker, does my good Hon Friend suggest that the President could appoint an Hon Deputy Minister of State, pursuant to article 256(2), without the prior approval of Parliament? This is because “may” also regulates the prior approval of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, what the Hon Minority Leader and we are saying is that because this is a House of law and we must strenuously protect the sanctity of the laws of this country, particularly the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.
An Hon Member 12:15 p.m.
What is the evidence?
Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 12:15 p.m.
For evidence of consultation, you need to be privy to what happens at the Jubilee House. There can be no dislocation from the truth than that statement. As a Parliament, our evidence of consultation is objective. When we see, for the purposes of satisfying article 256 -- Mr Speaker, I know you are urging me to wind up. I will wind up very soon.
Mr Speaker, when we see for the purposes of satisfying article 256, there is President and a constituted Regional Minister for the purposes of consultation, it is only then that this House would be satisfied that there has been consultation because there was an Hon Minister to be consulted.
Mr Speaker, in any case, the President has appointed him. The President says we should approve -- [Interruption.] He has nominated him. He will appoint him subsequently because we will approve.
Mr Speaker, we have raised these issues because we have a duty so to raise them. We have a duty to always hold our leaders of State to the principles illustrated in the Constitution and to the fine words of the Constitution and to ensure that the new civilisation founded on the rule of law and respect for civil liberties which the President promised us is complied with.
Thank you so very much.
Mr Joseph Kofi Adda (NPP -- Navrongo Central) 12:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Hon Member who moved the Motion and the presentation of the Report in respect of three of the nominees. Mr Speaker, I would like to speak on Hon Oppong-Nkrumah, Hon Cynthia Morrison and then my own Regional Minister nominee, Paulina Tangoba Abayage.
Mr Speaker, there is no doubt that with the impressive credentials of Hon Oppong-Nkrumah, he would do a good job. He has had the experience. He has worked with us here as an Hon Colleague and he answered all the questions very well to the admiration of all the Hon Members of the Committee.
Mr Speaker, I had a personal encounter with Hon Oppong-Nkrumah when I was the Hon Minister for Energy. At the time, he interviewed me extensively and did not show any sign that he was an NPP member. He was very objective in all he said and asked me in terms of contributions and issues to address.
Mr Speaker, he was very objective, sincere and professional and in my opinion, he is a true example of the highest level of professional conduct that we should find in somebody who is going to handle the Ministry of Information.
Mr Speaker, Hon Oppong-Nkrumah has been an Hon Member of this House. He has also had experience outside, not just in interviewing persons on radio but also, he has worked in entrepreneurial development and tried to develop the private sector in the country.
My conviction in supporting him is not just because he is a good professional who can do a job, but I believe we can use the communication channels to also
develop the youth particularly in the area of journalism and public relations to get them jobs and develop enterprises that would get them into gainful employment.
Mr Speaker, on this note, I support the Motion for the Hon Oppong-Nkrumah to be passed as a nominee to become the Hon Minister for Information.
Mr Speaker, before the nomination of Hon Cynthia Morrison, I had some interactions with her and she showed extensive knowledge and experience on dealing with gender affairs.
Mr Speaker, the concerns raised for the issues that revolve around gender particularly, young women and she showed initiative in terms of the ideas that can be constructed by way of policy to address the challenges that young women faced.
I was impressed with her on that count and also her conduct during the hearing. I believe she is well prepared to handle this job and do it well to improve the lot of women, gender and children in this country.
Mr Speaker, on the last nominee whom I chose to speak on, this is my own constituent, Paulina Tangoba Abayage, who is going to be my incoming Regional Minister. Mr Speaker, I can say a lot about her because we are from the same hometown but I choose just to comment on one thing.
Again here, her extensive experience on women and children affairs when it was then called Ministry of Women and Children Affairs where she worked in the Upper East Region and later on came down to the coast to work in the Ministry of Women, Gender and Social Protection.
She has shown extensive experience in dealing with all these issues. She has shown creativity in addressing the matters that affect them and I am sure that going to the Upper East Region, she would be able to bring her experience from the south and what she has acquired from the country as an ambassador to help improve the lot of the Upper East Region.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity. I urge my Hon Colleagues to support the Motion.
Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Minister and particularly, for your brevity.
rose
Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon Agbodza?
Mr Dafeamekpor 12:15 p.m.
Thank you for the opportunity, Mr Speaker. Respectfully, my name is Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor.
Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.
I am not going by your getting up; I am going by the list from your Hon Leader. It means you are out of order. It is Hon Agbodza I have called.
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza (NDC -- Adaklu) 12:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion to confirm the President's nomination of some Hon Ministers and Hon Deputy Ministers. Mr Speaker, I would concentrate on the nomination of Mr Samuel Nuerty Ayertey and Mr Martin Oti Gyarko.
Mr Speaker, before I continue, I have always had the view that as a country, though the Constitution mandates that we should have Hon Regional Ministers and Hon Deputy Ministers, I have asked myself exactly what value the country derives from appointing for instance, a Regional Minister?
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza (NDC -- Adaklu) 12:25 p.m.
If I take the Metropolitan Chief
Executive (MCE) for Accra, I do not know the impact the Regional Minister in the Greater Accra Region would have on his work, though the Constitution says they coordinate.

I believe under the Local Government Act and what we do, I am sure the Hon Minister for Local Government and Rural Development and his deputies could coordinate the regions without Regional Ministers. However, I know this is not the doing of any Government because that is what the Constitution says.

Maybe in future, we would need to find out whether we need Regional Ministers and their deputies. I find it difficult to see the value the country gets in terms of that.

Mr Speaker, Mr Ayertey made very interesting observations when he spoke. I am told he is a procurement specialist. During his contribution, he proposed some measures that could be used to reduce procurement corruption.

I think it is a very good thing, however, Regional Ministers do not do much procurement through the regions. It is either through the District Assemblies among others. So I am not sure how the Deputy Regional Minister's role could affect this. Maybe he was speaking as an operative of procurement.

There is one thing that we should also look at. I think politicians have made the issue about procurement look much more complicated than the simple steps we needed to take in terms of Act 663, revised to Act 914. I am not sure why it has become so complicated but I can understand. Maybe it is because of the way politicians like me speak about it.

The Deputy Regional Minister designate talked about getting value for money through procurement and other things but I am not sure he has any role to play. This is because every entity according to this document, has its own tender committees. So when one wants to procure at District Assemblies, there is a provision they follow.

I do not know if a Regional Minister or Deputy Regional Minister could act in any way to vary what they want to do. Maybe, he was talking about supervision but I believe we need to demystify these issues and also speak quite frankly about the fact that some of the things we talk about, whether sole-sourcing among other things, actually mean what we want to convey.

Mr Speaker, I would encourage the Deputy Minister designate, as a procurement specialist, to join the fray of professionals who should speak openly about some of these things. The fact that a project goes through procurement under sole-sourcing does not necessarily mean that that project could have been cheaper if it were done through a competitive tendering process.

This is because he said some of the things he would do would be to call for the development of a proper and comprehensive procedure for evaluating tender, to ensure that the lowest possible cost is attained to ensure value for money.

It is not always the case that the lowest bidder is also the most suitable. That is why we use the words “the lowest responsive bidder”.

This is because for instance, if you wanted to buy a Mercedes-Benz and everybody knows it is sold for US$150,000, yet somebody bids to buy it for you at US$50,000, you might think that

is the lowest, you are just probably misleading yourself because he would not give you a Mercedes-Benz but something that looks like it. So I encourage him to speak more as it is a good thing.

Mr Speaker, with regard to Mr Gyarko, I do not see much of a problem with that. I am told he has got very good human relationship and for that reason working as a member of the Coordinating Council of a Region I am sure that region would be blessed to have him coordinate.

Without speaking much, I think the two Nominees who I wanted to concentrate on, would come on board with something that could enrich the offices for which they have been nominated and I urge my Hon Colleagues in the House to approve their nominations.

Thank you very much Mr Speaker.
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza (NDC -- Adaklu) 12:25 p.m.
If I take the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) for Accra, I do not know the impact the Regional Minister in the Greater Accra Region would have on his work, though the Constitution says they coordinate.

I believe under the Local Government Act and what we do, I am sure the Hon Minister for Local Government and Rural Development and his deputies could coordinate the regions without Regional Ministers. However, I know this is not the doing of any Government because that is what the Constitution says.

Maybe in future, we would need to find out whether we need Regional Ministers and their deputies. I find it difficult to see the value the country gets in terms of that.

Mr Speaker, Mr Ayertey made very interesting observations when he spoke. I am told he is a procurement specialist. During his contribution, he proposed some measures that could be used to reduce procurement corruption.

I think it is a very good thing, however, Regional Ministers do not do much procurement through the regions. It is either through the District Assemblies among others. So I am not sure how the Deputy Regional Minister's role could affect this. Maybe he was speaking as an operative of procurement.

There is one thing that we should also look at. I think politicians have made the issue about procurement look much more complicated than the simple steps we needed to take in terms of Act 663, revised to Act 914. I am not sure why it has become so complicated but I can understand. Maybe it is because of the way politicians like me speak about it.

The Deputy Regional Minister designate talked about getting value for money through procurement and other things but I am not sure he has any role to play. This is because every entity according to this document, has its own tender committees. So when one wants to procure at District Assemblies, there is a provision they follow.

I do not know if a Regional Minister or Deputy Regional Minister could act in any way to vary what they want to do. Maybe, he was talking about supervision but I believe we need to demystify these issues and also speak quite frankly about the fact that some of the things we talk about, whether sole-sourcing among other things, actually mean what we want to convey.

Mr Speaker, I would encourage the Deputy Minister designate, as a procurement specialist, to join the fray of professionals who should speak openly about some of these things. The fact that a project goes through procurement under sole-sourcing does not necessarily mean that that project could have been cheaper if it were done through a competitive tendering process.

This is because he said some of the things he would do would be to call for the development of a proper and comprehensive procedure for evaluating tender, to ensure that the lowest possible cost is attained to ensure value for money.

It is not always the case that the lowest bidder is also the most suitable. That is why we use the words “the lowest responsive bidder”.

This is because for instance, if you wanted to buy a Mercedes-Benz and everybody knows it is sold for US$150,000, yet somebody bids to buy it for you at US$50,000, you might think that

is the lowest, you are just probably misleading yourself because he would not give you a Mercedes-Benz but something that looks like it. So I encourage him to speak more as it is a good thing.

Mr Speaker, with regard to Mr Gyarko, I do not see much of a problem with that. I am told he has got very good human relationship and for that reason working as a member of the Coordinating Council of a Region I am sure that region would be blessed to have him coordinate.

Without speaking much, I think the two Nominees who I wanted to concentrate on, would come on board with something that could enrich the offices for which they have been nominated and I urge my Hon Colleagues in the House to approve their nominations.

Thank you very much Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Thank you very much Hon Member. I would now call Hon Catherine Afeku.
Mrs Catherine Abelema Afeku (NPP -- Evalue Ajomoro Gwira) 12:25 p.m.
Thank you Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute towards the nomination and approval of our Colleagues.
I would start with the females because we have an obligation to ensure that there are more women in leadership. I would start with Mrs Cynthia Morrison. She performed very well, was very eloquent and had a quiet resilience. I add my voice to her approval. There are a few things that she said that touched by heart, most importantly, violence against women in leadership.
Mr Speaker, for the last decade, women have been striving in this country to
contribute their quota to leadership, governance and the deepening of the democratic credentials of Ghana and by extension, Africa.
So with Mrs Morrison at the helm of all women in the country, we are very confident and do support her vision to ensure that violence of whatever form against women would be curbed, if not eliminated.
Secondly, she said something that really touched my heart on how we take care of the aged. The population dynamics are changing and all of us are getting closer to that age where our social system does not permit the Western system of putting people in hospices or nursing homes. With her passion to support the aged with social protection policies, I think that she deserves our applause and commendation.
This is so that when she starts her job, she would get support from Parliament and the nation. This would ensure that as our population gets to that level, we would be protected, get the needed social cover and not feel left out.
Mr Speaker, Mrs Morrison would take note that feeding children in schools is one of the cardinal social interventions by the NPP Government. Therefore as she takes over the helm of affairs, she should ensure that no child would be left behind, and would expand the school feeding programme to all the hinterlands, especially my Constituency, where she would make sure that every child gets at least a glass of milk and some fruit.
This would enable their acumen to be at par with their colleagues across the world, especially when they get breakfast, so their nutrition and attentiveness in the classroom would be enhanced.
Mr Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Minister.
Yes, Hon Ahmed?
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 12:35 p.m.
(NDC -- Banda): Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Motion that we should give approval for the various nominees.
Mr Speaker, in particular, my contribution would be centred on just a few areas and on a few nominees, especially, Hon Evans Opoku Bobie who is the Hon Minister designate for the Brong Ahafo Region.
I come from the Brong Ahafo Region and I have little information available to support him to succeed. Second is Hon Martin Oti Gyarko, who is the Hon Deputy Minister designate for the Brong Ahafo Region.
Mr Speaker, these are two young men, and I believe that their nominations for this high offices is a test case for the youth in the region. If they succeed, there would be a future opportunity for more youth -- However, if they fail, it would deter future Presidents from nominating the youth for such high positions.
I therefore see it as an opportunity for every youth to give them every support that we could for them to be able to excel in their various positions.
Mr Speaker, for Hon Evans Opoku Bobie, as an Hon Regional Minister designate just coming from his former position as a former Hon Deputy Regional Minister, the most expensive commodity in the Brong Ahafo Region of late, is peace and security.
Having read the Report of the Appointment's Committee, this was a question that was posed to him and I am very comfortable with the response that he gave -- ‘‘let us walk the talk''. It was a good answer and if he is able to implement it, he would get the needed results and many would see him as a very good Hon Regional Minister for the region, just as they have been mentioning the names of some former Hon Regional Ministers like Hon Baffour Awuah.
Mr Speaker, this is a position where there are so many good tools. There is a caucus that can boast of two former Hon Regional Ministers; Hon Baffour Awuah and Hon Eric Opoku Bobie. They have 29 Hon Members of Parliament.
He promised what would be done to cashew and also said they would construct roads and build houses, but without peace none of these can materialise. We all want the best for our
various constituencies and therefore we all cherish peace.
Mr Speaker, I would want to suggest that if they are given the approval, they should try and bring the various caucus together and I would not be surprised if they call their first tripartite meeting between the regional house of chiefs, the NDC and NPP then Hon Members of Parliament -- Why is it that when mention is made of our region, it is always either political violence or chieftaincy issue?
If we come together wholeheartedly, we may be able to find a solution to the problem. These are not high offices that one would say, it is his or her turn because he or she is the Hon Regional Minister. Somebody has occupied that position before; they may be young but there are old men with good institutional memories and experiences and if they fall on them, they would excel.
Mr Speaker, we are ever ready that whatever support they would need from us, we would give it to them. We represent the people and we wish them well and if we can all come together we would be able to get the needed results that we want to experience.
Mr Speaker, as an Hon Deputy Minority Whip who also did some little background checks on Hon Colleagues, the good things they do at their constituencies are known and Hon Cynthia Morison is one of them. Supporting the orphans, the needy and a lot of philanthropic works were what she used to do when she was not an Hon Member of Parliament and that is why the good Lord has brought her to this position.
She should try and continue with it. She used to do it in her small corner, but now, the whole nation has been given to her [Laughter] -- We are ever ready to support her.
Mr Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon Majority Leader, then the Hon First Deputy Speaker would wind up as he thinks fit.
Majority Leader(Mr Osei Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu) 12:45 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity to lend my voice to the Report from the Appointments Committee which relates to the qualification and the eligibility of the President's nominees.
Mr Speaker, I do not intend to take the matters one by one, but to put everything together and say that we expect much from the nominees. Many of them are Hon Members of this House and if they perform, it would really enhance the image of this House. If they do not, it would cast a slur on the image of this House. They have the goodwill of this House to go out and perform.
Mr Speaker, having said that, with the nominee for the designation for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social
Protection, I just want to relate to a need that we have in this country about gender representation in various places. It is sad to relate that in the league of women representation in Parliament in the world, Ghana performs rather abysmally.
Mr Speaker, 190 countries have been assessed and out of that Ghana placed 143rd in their estimation. I believe we could have done better because I just realised that the number that was attributed to us is not correct. We are a 275-member Chamber and the women representation is 37 and not 35. They used 35 and put us at the 143rd position. The 35 translates into a percentage of 12.7 per cent.
If indeed the correct number which is 37 is used, it would translate into 13.4 per cent, which would lift us from 143rd position to 139th position. It is a marginal improvement but certainly not the best.
Mr Speaker, the nominee for the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection should make it one of her cardinal principles to fight for the expansion of women representation in Parliament. She herself is a Member of Parliament, and she knows the travails that she went through before getting elected to this House.
Mr Speaker, as I am saying, the House would want to task her; she should be the lead person in this endeavour to have many more women representation in this House.
Having said so, I would want to relate to the issue that the Hon Minority Leader raised with respect to the nomination of the Hon Deputy Minister to the Brong- Ahafo Region.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Minority Leader, who is the Ranking Member for the Appointments Committee, raised this
Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.
In your view —
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:45 p.m.
Mr Speaker, in my view, and I believe in the view of most in this country, including most people in this Chamber.
Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.
I like us to present arguments in that way as it makes mutuality of regard clear.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:45 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the Constitution provides in article 256(2), and I beg to quote:
“The President may, in consultation with the Minister of State for a region and with the prior approval of Parliament, appoint for the region a Deputy Minister or Deputy Ministers to perform such functions as the President may determine.”
Mr Speaker, what it means is that, the President may appoint for the region, a Deputy Minister or Deputy Ministers to perform such functions as the President may determine.
Mr Speaker, in essence, the President is not under any obligation to appoint a Deputy Minister or Deputy Ministers for any region. He may elect to do it or not to do it. That is the essence of the word, “may”.
In fact, Hon Alhaji Inusah Fuseini says that it applies to the prior approval of Parliament. I believe the Hon Member is totally off tangent.
Mr Speaker, the “may” places the burden on the President to consult or not to consult. But to consult or not to consult, the President must consult “the Minister”. He must consult “the Minister” for the region. — [Interruption] — The language in article 256(2) is “the Minister”. The words “a Minister” rather exist in article 79; in the appointment of Deputy Ministers, and that one is “a Minister”.
Mr Speaker, the President, in consultation with the Minister of State for the region, appoints for the region, a Deputy Minister, our own colleague. The point at issue is, which Minister do the President consult? And at that material time when the President made the announcement, who was the Minister? Was there a Minister?
There was indeed a Minister, and the Minister at the time of the consultation was Hon Asomah-Cheremeh. Indeed, the consultation between the President and the Hon Minister at the time took place on 8th August, 2018, and on 9th August, 2018, the nomination was made.
Mr Speaker, I led evidence to this effect before the Appointments Committee. Indeed, after the announcement, Hon Asomah-Cheremeh was asked to stay on and act until the 20th August, 2018. The important thing is that the consultation did take place and he did so with Hon Asomah-Cheremeh.

Mr Speaker, we are being led to believe that the President ought to have consulted the incoming Minister. That could be a tragic understanding of the Constitution; that the President must consult any new Minister before he appoints a Deputy Minister.

Mr Speaker, if we should believe what the Hon Minority Leader is saying, it would mean that whenever the President shuffles any Minister to any new position, those Deputy Ministers should be deselected and be re-nominated.

What can be much more farcical than this? It is so absurd and I do not expect any person to canvass this opinion. Yet we have people canvassing this opinion. I have so much respect for the Hon Minority Leader who is a lawyer of some standing — [Laughter] — Of good standing — [Laughter] — And he is one of the leading lights as far as legal interpretation is concerned in this House. And I expect him to offer such guidance.
Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.
Point well-made; and in conclusion?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:45 p.m.
Mr Speaker, so this is a matter that we do not have to quibble over at all. I think it is crystal clear that the President ought to consult “the Minister”. At that material time when the consultation went on, was there a substantive Minister? There was a substantive Minister in the person of Hon Asomah-Cheremeh. The consultation happened on 8th August, 2018.
Mr Speaker, I do not know of the history of any President who in his consultation has advertised that he wants to consult and there is advertisement on radio and television that he wants to
consult person “A” or “B”. So when people ask of when the consultation was made, I do not know the extent people want to carry this to.
Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.
Very well.
And in conclusion?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:45 p.m.
Mr Speaker, and so there is nothing untoward that the President has done. The President consulted the Minister at that material moment; he was the substantive Minister and indeed, that announcement had not even come. And so the President acted within the ambit of the Constitution and there is nothing untoward.
Mr Speaker, I believe we can put this matter to rest and then have the voting on this subject.
Mr Osei-Owusu 12:45 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it has not been my practice to respond to issues at the concluding part of presenting my reports.
Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.
Order!
Mr Osei-Owusu 12:55 p.m.
But there are two issues that I would wish to draw the attention of the House to. The Committee chose to break the report into three and so we called them: Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth report. I wish that the Order Paper be amended to reflect that so that the record would be clear.
The second thing is that, at the two Sittings where we considered these nominees, we had the delegation from the Appointment Committee of the Parliament of Kenya sitting with us through and I
think we should acknowledge that they were present to observe how the Appointments Committee of Ghana does its work.
Mr Speaker regrets that I have to make or contribute a little further to the debate as to whether the President acted, disregarding the Constitution in respect of the appointment of the Deputy Minister for the Brong-Ahafo Region.
Mr Speaker, I think the constitutional provision is not in doubt; the President is not bound to select a Deputy Minister. But if he chooses to select a Deputy Minister, there are two preconditions; he must consult the Minister responsible for that region. It does not say a specific Regional Minister. The Minister of State responsible for the Region; Parliament must approve the nomination.
The issue of Parliament's prior approval was not contested. What is contested is whether the President did consult a Regional Minister; and which Regional Minister? In my view, that is not an interpretation of the Constitution as the Hon Minority Leader sought to portray.
It is a matter of fact to be ascertained and the only reason for the Minority arguing that the President did not or could not have consulted is that in the Communication to this House, the nomination for a new Regional Minister and the Deputy were contained in the same letter. So there was no opportunity to consult. That is the gravamen of the argument.
Mr Speaker, but that is not a fact, it is a deduction; they deduced that because the nomination of the two persons was contained in one letter, then there was no opportunity to consult.
Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.
This Honourable House
adopts the Report of the Appointments Committee for which both Sides take credit because it is unanimous on H.E. the President's nominations for the Minis- terial and Deputy Ministerial Appoint-
Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.
Hon Members, I would put the Question.
Question put and motion agreed to.
Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.
This Honourable House adopts the Report of the Appointments Committee for which both Sides take credit because it is unanimous on H.E. the President's nominations for the Minis- terial and Deputy Ministerial Appoint-
Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.


Hon Members, suffice to make a few remarks about the legal issues raised. In all situations, “shall” is mandatory and “may” is permissive; this is an overriding principle of law and it is well settled and trite. Our Supreme Court has held in this regard on many occasions.

Then, practically speaking, we should be mindful of how permissive the Constitution allows the President to operate with regard to ministerial appointments. In fact, only the Hon Minister for Finance and the Attorney- General are mandatory ministerial positions under our Constitution.

The time of consultation can happen even before both Minister and Deputy Minister are brought -- and this has in fact happened from the very beginning of the Fourth Republic as all Presidents would tell you. The Presidents would call possible Ministers, tell those possible Ministers what they intend and also propose people that they want to work with.

It must be noted by Ministers that your refusal to or subsequent to not working well with a deputy may lead to the President either not appointing you at all or changing you. This is because the President may want a young person who he believes is very talented to be, for example, a Deputy Minister for Finance.

If the proposed substantive Minister is not going to work with this young person, that proposed substantive Minister will not be there at all.

So, a lot of things happen -- I know it has happened in two specific instances of both former President Kufuor and President Akufo-Addo. Therefore, there is a discretion to decide whether these two people can work together and whether the substantive is amenable to work with the proposed deputy and all such matters.

That is why that cannot be a mandatory matter but discretionary. I believe that is the true intention of the constitutional framers so that the President would have the flexibility as the Executive and all other persons by our Constitution are going to only assist him in the performance of his executive function.

The Hon First Deputy Leader would get ready to take the Chair with regard to the other matters.

Item numbered 7 -- Motion

The Leaders have agreed that there would be further consultations and Caucus discussions and then something would be announced in due course to this Honourable House. So we would stand that down and await the result of consultations between Leadership and Caucuses accordingly.

Item 8 -- Motion debate to continue. Motion moved on Thursday, 25th January, 2018 by the Hon Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Mr James Klutse Avedzi and seconded by Hon Member for Fanteakwa South.
rose
Mr Speaker 1:05 p.m.
Hon Majority Leader, any position on this matter at this stage?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I was going to signal that we rather go to Motion numbered 9.
Mr Speaker 1:05 p.m.
Motion numbered 9? Very well.
Definitely, other matters regarding Motion 8 are re-examined all in the interest of confidentiality.
MOTIONS 1:05 p.m.
Chairman of the Committee (Mr James K. Avedzi) 1:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that this Honourable House adopts the Report of the Public Accounts Committee on the Report of the Auditor- General on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions) for the year ended 31st December, 2015.
Mr Speaker, I present your Committee's Report to support the Motion.
x. Cocoa Marketing Company (Ghana) Limited;
xi. Ghana Cocoa Board;
xii. Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT);
xiii.Public Procurement Authority;
xiv.National Lottery Authority;
xv. Ghana Education Trust Fund;
xvi. Students' Loan Trust Fund;
xvii. Venture Capital Trust Fund;
xviii. Ghana Investment Promotion Centre.
Acknowledgement
The Committee is grateful to all the Hon Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Chief Directors, officials and other witnesses who appeared before it to assist in its deliberations.
The Committee also wishes to express^ its gratitude to the Auditor-General, Deputy Auditor-Generals and the technical team of the Audit Service for the immense assistance rendered to the Committee throughout its deliberations on the Auditor General's Report.
The Committee further extends its appreciation to the GTV and other media houses for the live coverage and broadcast of the proceedings of the Committee.
Reference
The Committee referred to the following documents during its deliberations:
i. The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana;
ii. The Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana;
iii. The Financial Administration Act, 2003 (Act 654);
iv. The Audit Service Act, 2000 (Act
584);
v. The Internal Audit Agency Act, 2003 (Act 658);
vi. The Value Added Tax Act, 1998 (Act 592);
vii.The Internal Revenue Act, 2000 (Act 592);
GHANA COCOBOD 1:05 p.m.
PAYE 1:05 p.m.
EXIMBANK 1:05 p.m.
COPYRIGHT OFFICE 1:05 p.m.
Mr Kofi Okyere-Agyekum (NPP -- Fanteakwa South) 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you. I rise to second the Motion on the Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions) for the year ended 31 st December, 2015.
Mr Speaker, I would like to make a few observations. I would want to particularly speak about the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. The Report indicates that the GNPC has been lending moneys to other statutory institutions and this is affecting the credit worthiness of the institution.
Over GH¢300 million of GNPC's funds were loaned out to institutions like BOST and we wish to recommend that this habit should be stopped so that GNPC would be on its feet and not suffer as other statutory institutions.
Mr Speaker, again, we noted that Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SNNIT) as an institution has also been lending moneys to other institutions and about GH¢477 million of loans to other institutions by SNNIT are unrecoverable. Some of these loans have been given to institutions that are not in relation to
SNNIT.
For instance, there was a loan to a private company called Bridal Trust Company which has become defunct and therefore the loan has become unrecoverable. Mr Speaker, the Report recommends that such practices should be stopped because SNNIT uses the funds of pensioners to make investments that are safe, but not with private organisations that we cannot be sure of their viability.
Again, one of the big issues was with Venture Capital Fund where 34 per cent of all the loans they gave out cannot be traced because of lack of proper address systems and proper identification of beneficiaries of the loans.
Mr Speaker, this amounted to GH¢18.4 million and the Committee recommends that all efforts should be made to trace these defaulters, and if that fails, then the officers in charge should be charged for not doing due diligence.
EOCO 1:05 p.m.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Hon Ranking Member?
Mr Kofi Okyere-Agyekum (NPP -- Fanteakwa South) 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you. I rise to second the Motion on the Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Public Boards, Corporations and Other Statutory Institutions) for the year ended 31st December, 2015.
Mr Speaker, I would like to make a few observations. I would want to particularly speak about the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation. The Report indicates that the GNPC has been lending moneys to other statutory institutions and this is affecting the credit worthiness of the institution.
Over GH¢300 million of GNPC's funds were loaned out to institutions like BOST and we wish to recommend that this habit should be stopped so that GNPC would be on its feet and not suffer as other statutory institutions.
Mr Speaker, again, we noted that Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SNNIT) as an institution has also been lending moneys to other institutions and about GH¢477 million of loans to other institutions by SNNIT are unrecoverable. Some of these loans have been given to institutions that are not in relation to
SNNIT.
For instance, there was a loan to a private company called Bridal Trust Company which has become defunct and therefore the loan has become unrecoverable. Mr Speaker, the Report recommends that such practices should be stopped because SNNIT uses the funds of pensioners to make investments that are safe, but not with private organisations that we cannot be sure of their viability.
Again, one of the big issues was with Venture Capital Fund where 34 per cent of all the loans they gave out cannot be traced because of lack of proper address systems and proper identification of beneficiaries of the loans.
Mr Speaker, this amounted to GH¢18.4 million and the Committee recommends that all efforts should be made to trace these defaulters, and if that fails, then the officers in charge should be charged for not doing due diligence.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Which page of the Report is that?
Mr Okyere-Agyekum 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it is on page 14 of the Report.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Which one are you speaking to? Is it the unapproved loans or loans that cannot be recovered?
Mr Okyere-Agyekum 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to read: “Unapproved loans”
“The Committee noted that about 34 per cent of loans advanced by the Fund did not have proper documentation to back them. The Management of the Fund confirmed the situation and added that they have also identified additional irregularities such as; fake addresses, missing payment vouchers, et cetera.
Also a total of about GH¢18,500,000 million had been granted as loans without any appreciable repayment by the debtors. The Committee was informed that 25 loans advanced in the period under consideration is being investigated with the support of the BNI and EOCO.”
Mr Speaker, that is the part I am talking about.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
I am interested in the recommendations made by the Committee. If the loans were unapproved and the addresses are not traceable then what recommendations did the Committee make in respect of the State-paid officials who advanced unapproved loans to addresses that cannot be traced?
Mr Okyere-Agyekum 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, “the Committee wishes to urge management to expedite action towards the recovery of the loans and to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to ensure biometric identification alongside proper addresses of future beneficiaries.”
Mr Speaker, since these matters are being investigated by --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
That is into the future. What has happened to those who have granted unapproved loans to unidentifiable -- ?
What is the recommendation from the Committee? Hon Chairman, would you assist me? I want to see it.
Mr Avedzi 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, if you read the second paragraph on page 15:
“the Committee wishes to urge management to expedite action towards the recovery of the loans and to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to ensure biometric identification alongside proper addresses of future beneficiaries.”
Mr Speaker, so they should initiate action to recover it and put in place a mechanism to forestall it for the future.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Yes, that is for the future, but some people have neglected to do their duty and you do not make any recommendations in respect of the public officials. The whole world is
saying that politicians are corrupt, but these people are not politicians.
They are public officials and it is their report that Parliament carries. And you think that we should not make any recommendations in respect of the public officials who did this?
Well, the Report is before the House and I would expect that Hon Members would speak to it.
Mr Avedzi 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the recommendation is that they should recover the money.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
The public officials who advanced them should recover the money. Is that the sanction for failing to do their duty?
Mr Avedzi 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, if they failed to do that in the subsequent report by the Auditor-General then they could be sanctioned by a surcharge by the Auditor- General. The Auditor-General has the power to surcharge them; we are telling them to go and recover the money and if they fail to do that then the Auditor- General would surcharge them.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Hon Ranking Member, continue but I wonder how we would recover and deal with the indiscipline in this matter.
Hon Ranking Member, are you done?
Mr Okyere-Agyekum 1:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker, the Committee also noted on page 22 of the Report that some accountants of the Nursing and Midwifery Council collected monies on behalf of the Council and failed to account for the money.
Mr Emmanuel Kofi-Armah Buah (NDC -- Ellembele) 1:25 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute on the Report of the PAC on the Report of the Auditor-General's Public Accounts of Ghana for the year ended 31st December,
2015.
Mr Speaker, I will focus on few of the corporations and what the Report has actually stated about them.
Mr Speaker, the Report rightly pointed out the fact that GNPC, at the time, had not registered important assets. GNPC has recommended to the Committee that efforts were being made to ensure that those assets were all registered. I believe a lot of steps were taken to ensure that GNPC has registered all those assets as has been recommended.
Mr Speaker, one of the issues that came up was the auditing of the partners of GNPC; COSMOS Energy, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and other key partners, and the need to ensure that those partners were properly audited.
As a country, we lose a lot of revenue through a lot of the activities of partners.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:25 p.m.
What about the arrears? Have they paid the arrears?
Mr Buah 1:25 p.m.
Mr Speaker, that has been an ongoing matter. It was not the fault of the community; it was the fault of the mining company that had taken the responsibility to give the community free electricity at the time.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:25 p.m.
So let them pay.
Mr Buah 1:25 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it is a long story, but that is the point I am making.
It brings into focus the need for us to make sure that ECG and VRA in the areas they operate as distribution companies they have the strength, and for people to make sure that those of them who consume electricity pay their bills. It is so critical.
If we would not go back to dumsor, it is so crucial that the distribution end of the electricity business collect the right moneys so that they can pay back to those who are producing the power. Other than that, we would go back to the same issue. This is a very critical matter.
I already know that ECG continues to struggle with the distribution of revenue to the power utilities. We believe that we all have to do everything possible to support ECG and the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo).
Mr Buah 1:25 p.m.


It talked about NEDCo and about the challenges and weaknesses of Northern Electricity Department (NED) because of the low revenues, as you may know. Also, Government's support to NEDCo on annual basis has not been forthcoming. That has also been a problem.

Mr Speaker, the key to addressing NEDCo's problem is to empower the savannah zone and make sure we have industries that would create jobs to empower people to be in the position to pay for electricity.

Mr Speaker, these are very important points that have been raised in this Report. I want to thank the PAC.

On that note, I support that we approve the Report.
Mr Mohammed Hardi Tuferu (NPP -- Nanton) 1:35 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Motion ably moved by the Hon Chairman of PAC.
Mr Speaker, a lot of issues were revealed during our public sittings to examine the Public Accounts of Ghana in respect of the Auditor-General's Report on the Public Boards and Corporations for the year ending 31st December, 2015. The total infractions committed by these Boards for the year in question was in excess of GH¢3 billion in 2015 alone.
This cuts across almost all the boards and corporations. If we talk about GRIDCO under Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Finance itself, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, and even EXIM Bank.
The Report revealed outstanding debts and loans in situations where as a policy, staff are allowed to take moneys from those Ministries and Departments at concessionary interest rates. The problem that we have encountered as a Committee, year on, is staff who have benefitted from these loans and failed to pay, so there is high recovery rate or repayment of loans.
The outstanding debts and loans to staff came to over GH¢ 2.7 billion, and some were outstanding for months and years without repayment. The Committee was very unhappy about the supervisors and heads of departments who failed to recover these moneys to enable the fund to be vibrant to support future requests of such facilities.
It is not only the 2015 Report that revealed this. It occurred in2013 and was repeated in 2014. The Committee is of the view that, it is not a problem to give support to staff in the form of advances when it is difficult to obtain such facilities from the banking sector, but it is important that the recovery policy should be sharpened so that we know when repayments starts, and the sanctions if the person fails.
It is difficult when moneys of this sort are supposed to be taken from source -- from the salary, and a report of such instance arises where they are not able to pay. It was difficult to understand, so it was recommended very strongly that steps should be taken to recover all outstanding loans as far as staff advances are concerned.
The Committee also witnessed situations where we have a lot of payroll irregularities; unearned salaries, deductions for SSNIT not paid timeously or not even paid at all, and the whole amount was in excess of GH¢ 1.4 billion. It is a very serious situation.
The Controller and Accountant- General, Ministry of Finance and even Government is battling every year, where staff separated either by death or resignation or for other reasons, but are allowed to still draw salaries, sometimes for as long as four months, and this is a continuous occurrence.
We also encountered a situation where -- Mr Speaker, if you would indulge me, I would refer you to page 14, paragraph 83 of our Report, on the issue of wrongful payment for property at North Ridge.
An amount of US$ 3 million was used to acquire a property from somebody having possession, but he was not the true owner, and a substantial portion of this amount was paid, only for the Auditor to go and discover that this payment was made to the wrong person, and that was reported as I read under paragraph 1. It states and with your permission I quote:
“The Committee noted that the Fund acquired a land valued at US$ 3 million and advanced and paid an amount of US$ 2.8 million to State Insurance Company's Financial Services Limited. Later, registration of the land revealed that the land actually belonged to a trustee of Bethany Church. There was no evidence of mandate or attorney to State Insurance Company for the sale of the land”.
So at the Committee sitting, it was revealed that the money was recovered, but without interest after several years. They entered into re-negotiation with the true owner to acquire the property, and they were able to recover the money from the State Insurance Company.
After holding the money for a very long time, they did not see the need for them to pay interest, so the Committee was very unhappy about this, and we requested that the Auditor- General should go and ensure that appropriate amount of interest was computed and paid to the State.
Other irregularities like the Hon Chairman reported are procurement irregularities in excess of GH¢ 500,000.00, as well as stores irregularities.
Mr Chairman, every year, these matters come up, the Public Accounts Committee makes recommendations, then it does not seem to solve the problem.
It is time this House took drastic and pragmatic measures to ensure that these infractions, which find themselves in the Auditor-General's Report year in and year out would be stopped, so that we are able to get the needed money to support the State to function as effectively as possible.
Mr Speaker, on this note, I call on the House to support the recommendation by the Hon Chairman that this Report be adopted by the House.
Dr Clement A. Apaak (NDC -- Builsa South) 1:35 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute in support of the Motion that this august House approves the Report of the Public Accounts Committee on the Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Public Boards, Corporations and other Statutory Institutions) for the year ended 31st December, 2015.
Mr Speaker, in contributing to this Motion, I would make just three brief comments.
Mr Speaker, one of them is to confess the enormous education that I have received, having had the privilege to be part of the Public Accounts Committee.
Dr Clement A. Apaak (NDC -- Builsa South) 1:45 p.m.
Indeed, looking at the work of the Committee from outside and sometimes from even within, if you do not pay very close attention to the parameters within which the Committee is supposed to function and the powers granted it under your auspices, the general perception is that it is a Committee that only sits, drinks tea and coffee, displays its prowess by Hon Members on television and no work is done to bring those who are found to have misapplied public resources to account.
Mr Speaker, I believe this is what informed your own intervention earlier about the need to make recommendations that would allow us to hold those who have been entrusted with the power to oversee and superintend over the disbursement of public resources accountable if they fail directly or if they fail to supervise their subordinates.
Mr Speaker, having said so, I believe that we are making a lot of strenuous efforts, and I would also like to state that one of our challenges is the issue of time and the backlog of reports that we have to work with.
I would say to you in all sincerity that we had the Leadership of the Committee on both Sides very determined to ensure that we catch up in real time, so that the good people of Ghana would be able to follow up on proceedings and identify the persons responsible for the infractions usually captured in the Auditor- General's Report.
Mr Speaker, I make a quick reference to page 15 of the Report, and I would like to touch on the National Lottery Authority, where it indicates very clearly as we found out during our sitting that, the National Lottery Authority lacks a policy for retrieval of debts.

Mr Speaker, this is a very serious matter. One would have assumed that knowing the type of engagement or activity that is undertaken by an institution or authority like the NLA, one of the most basic requirement you would expect them to have put in place was a policy on debt retrieval.

Indeed, this is a concern that came to the attention of the Committee. We have made our recommendations and we hope that those recommendations would be given effect.

Mr Speaker, in our deliberations as well, another issue that kept cropping up was the refusal, inability and or incapacity of entities to pay withholding taxes. We all know that the primary source of income as far as the running of the State is concerned is through our taxes.

So, when we have entities not paying withholding taxes to augment what we need to do to support the system and also those who would retire in the future, it raises a lot of concern, because we must always be cognisant of our respon- sibilities in as far as the good people of this country are concerned.

Mr Speaker, I would want to conclude by drawing your attention to another very important issue that has caught my attention, and that has to do with institutions and public agencies granting loans to their staff and other persons who work for them.

On many occasions, we have come across instances where either those staff members have absconded, travelled out of the country, resigned or even passed on without paying back those loans.

Mr Speaker, if you add up all the number of persons from the MDAs in this country who have taken loans which have not been paid back, that amount certainly is colossal.

I believe it is something we need to look at. Let us try to put in place mechanisms to ensure that while we encourage institutions to help those who sacrifice day in and day out to keep the system running in their times of need, and when they need some respite, we also are not taken for granted. So, loans given out certainly, must be retrieved, and I believe we have made that point very clear.

Mr Speaker, as I take my seat, I take some consolation in the fact that a lot has changed since 2015 -- changes per pronouncements made by the apex court of the land; changes with regard to the Auditor-General asserting himself and indicating his role and willing to play it, all demonstrate clearly that we would make a headway in the effort to protect public resources and ensure that they are applied properly to uplift the good people of this country.

Mr Speaker, that is why as well- meaning Ghanaians, we must support the Auditor-General and the Audit Service and we must prevent any attempt of any entity to try and usurp the powers granted the Auditor-General.

On this note, I urge Hon Colleagues to approve the Report currently under discussion.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Solomon Namliit Boar (NPP -- Bunkpurugu) 1:45 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Motion before the august House.
Mr Speaker, I would like to look at three areas under the Report. I would look at non-performing loans under SSNIT, the National Electrification Scheme and the activities of the Ghana Cocoa Board.
Mr Speaker, I would like to refer you to page 13 of the Report under “SSNIT -- Non-Performing Loans”. If you would indulge me, I would want to read paragraph 1. It states:
“The Committee noted that SSNIT had accumulated non-performing loans to the tune of GH¢477, 319,200.67. Loans which were given to 8 institutions have not been recovered. Additionally, the assets used to guarantee some of the loans were not valued. Management could not therefore guarantee the recovery of some of the loans.”
Mr Speaker, this is where my issue and that of the Committee is. We all know that when it comes to the activities of SSNIT, every Tom, Dick and Harry in this country is an interested party because it is about the workers of this country.
Mr Speaker, if you look at the companies that were given these loans, some of them were private and others were public. Mr Speaker, my issue is the manner in which SSNIT goes after these institutions to recover the loans.
That funds that belong to workers of this country and we have non-performing loans of almost GH¢500 million standing in the books of SSNIT and yet we expect workers of this country to go home smiling after retirement. It affects all of us as a country, and this is something that we really have to take a serious look at.
The Committee recommended that those who perpetrated this act should be called to order. It came out strongly, and I
Mr Solomon Namliit Boar (NPP -- Bunkpurugu) 1:55 a.m.


still stand by the fact that this is something that is unacceptable and we cannot allow things to continue this way.

Mr Speaker, one of the companies, Bridal Trust Company, a private company, came out strongly. SSNIT gave money to a private company and they treated it as something normal. The money is not paid and the company is going about doing its normal activities to the detriment of the country. This is something that came up strongly.

Mr Speaker, on the issue of National Electrification Scheme, let me refer you to page 35 of the Report. Mr Speaker, the last two paragraphs reads:

“The Committee is of the view that, high cost and scarcity of the meters as well as the difficulties prospective customers endure to get meters partly contribute to the incidence of meter theft.

The Committee therefore urges ECG to procure sufficient meters and make metre acquisition processes more transparent, more flexible and less cumbersome.”

Mr Speaker, this issue of metre theft took place in the Awutu Senya District in a community called Kope. I strongly believe that this is just an example of similar things happening almost everywhere.

As stated in the last paragraph, we keep asking ourselves as a Committee and even as individuals that in this time and age, the issue of meters should not be something that we should struggle to make it available to households or corporate institutions to hook on to the national grid.

Mr Speaker, this is something that we strongly recommend that it has to be a thing of the past as far as our national life is concerned.

This is because when we go to most of the communities, ECG has successfully carried out the electrification project but most households and even corporate entities are not able to get meters to hook on to the national grid. So people find it very difficult to wait and in doing so, they are tempted to go the extra mile to do what is untoward. This is something we saw as unacceptable.

Mr Speaker, page 12 of the Report deals with the manner in which COCOBOD keeps its records. We found out that the use of manual systems to record cocoa deliveries is something that is unacceptable, and we think that they should speed up efforts to ensure this becomes something of the past.

I would read page 12, paragraph 3, and I beg to quote:

“The Committee also observed that COCOBOD had no backup systems for its data at the various cocoa take over centres. The audit team realised that database for the year 2011 was not available during the audit.”

So, if this was very difficult to find, how easy would it be for us to monitor the activities of the cocoa sector, when we know very well that this is one of the nerve centres as far as our economic activities are concerned? We therefore urge COCOBOD to ensure that this becomes something of the past.

We were informed at a point that their activities have improved and they have started ensuring that these things do not happen in the future.

Mr Speaker, before I take my seat, one of the issues that was so topical was the issue of investment in sheanut production in the country. Mr Speaker, I beg to read:

“The Committee wanted to know if COCOBOD had made some investments in research in Sheanut production in the country. Especially, research to shorten the gestation period of the tree and improved yields.”

This was the response from

COCOBOD.

“COCOBOD responded that sheanut trees have peculiar cir- cumstances as compared to cocoa. The research team has not yet been able to successfully domesticate the tree. COCOBOD has however provided support to Shea nut pickers with protective clothing for safety as the fruit is attractive to snakes.”

Mr Speaker, how can this be enough? A short while ago, we talked about the poverty gap as far as the northern sector is concerned. This is a cash crop that if we paid serious attention to as a nation, the narrative up north would certainly change.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 a.m.
Hon Member, do you have any evidence which contravenes what they shared, that their research had not yielded results yet? Do you have any information to support their research?
Mr Boar 1:55 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I do not have any evidence, but it is important for us to continue to challenge COCOBOD. I recall a few months ago, when a Statement was made here, I talked about the issue of
cocoa. Somebody braved all odds in the Upper East Region and has done very well in the cocoa sector.
Once upon a time, the issue was that, cocoa could not thrive in the northern part of the country. But somebody has done it the manual way with no support from anywhere. Yet, he is able to get something substantial as far as the yield is concerned. So what can we not do as a country? We have to think outside the box and move this nation to the next level.
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 a.m.
Hon Member, do you have a point of order?
It depends on him, if he yields, then I would allow you.
Mr Quaittoo 1:55 a.m.
Mr Speaker, you asked him a question and he could not answer.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 a.m.
He said we should do more than we are doing and I accept that.
Mr Boar 1:55 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
I urge this august House to approve the Report as ably presented by the Chairman of the Committee.
Mr Samuel Nartey George (NDC -- Ningo Prampram) 1:55 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to your Committee's Report.
I would want to focus on paragraph 11 of the Report, which deals with agencies under the Ministry of Communication. The Ghana Publishing Company is one of the agencies under the Ministry of Communications that appeared before us.

Mr Speaker, the Ghana Publishing Company --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 a.m.
Hon Member, hold on. Hon Members, having regard to the state of business, I direct that the House Sit outside the regular Sitting hours.
Hon Member, you may continue.
Mr George 1:55 a.m.
On page 25, paragraph 11.0 of the Report, when the Committee engaged the Ghana Publishing Company, we realised that currently, their primary clients are this august House of Parliament, Ghana Water Company and Ghana Post.
However, if you look at the potential that Ghana Publishing Company holds, the Committee recommended to the Ministry of Communications to seek public-private partnership for the Ghana Publishing Company.
This is because the Ghana Publishing Company can stand on its own as a company limited by liability, with support from the public sector and make revenue to contribute to our national development. It is a position that I would seek to reiterate here.
Mr Speaker, when it came to the National Communications Authority (NCA) , it was a little problematic that we had Internet Service Providers (ISP) in this country whose licences to conduct business had expired but the NCA had failed to take them out of operation and they were operating with expired licences.
It was sad to hear the NCA tell us that they did not have the capacity to take ISPs out.
These ISPs are making millions of dollars in revenue on the back of expired licences, and the NCA said the only way they could address it was to physically confiscate their assets. Technology exists for the NCA if they are so minded, to clamp down on these ISPs.
Many of them are owned by foreign individuals whose licences have expired and they would not pay the requisite fees to government, yet they are making millions of dollars and going home with it.
We want to urge the NCA to take the recommendation of the Committee seriously and work on ISPs whose licences have expired. They should either regularise their licences and let them pay the due penalties for the period in which they operated without valid licences or their ability to perform their services in Ghana must be shut down completely.
Mr Speaker, the Ghana Post Company Limited is one that is in a sad state of affairs in this country. The postal service is still integral in very developed countries like the United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK) and China. You would realise that the postal service, irrespective of technology is still a very key and essential service.
However, in Ghana, the sad state of our postal service is such that we are closing down post offices. This is because it is said that they are no longer viable. If government itself patronised the postal service, we would make it attractive again. Government makes Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) payments.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:55 a.m.
Hon Member, what service would Ghana Post provide for government?
Mr George 2:05 p.m.
That is what I was coming to.
Government makes LEAP payments to the most vulnerable in our society. If we integrated all these and harmonised government's intervention in our local sectors, deal directly with the citizenry through the postal services --
We are building a lot of enhanced information centres.
Mr Speaker, I believe in your constituency there is one of the enhanced community information centres. Instead of building a new enhanced community information centre, if we had added that to the post office in that community, it would have added value to the Ghana Post Service.
Mr Speaker, if one is a student from Ghana on government scholarship in the United Kingdom (UK), one is given a two months visa to enter the UK, but one is asked to pick his or her residence permit from the post office. Something as important as the residence permit, but if it were to be in Ghana, one would have been asked to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to pick it up.
Mr Speaker, these are things that could be made actively engaged in the postal service. ECG and Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) are struggling to put up offices in all of these districts and use them as district offices. Could they not have rented space in the post office building so that if one would want to pay his or her water bill, the GWCL does not have to incur cost?
It is the same government. Ghana Post Office has a building and they pay utilities, GWCL has a building and they pay utilities, ECG has a building and they pay utilities. All of these could have been
integrated in the Ghana Post System (GPS) such that if one wants his or her light bill or would want to buy pre-paid unit, one would go to the Ghana Post Office in his or her locality, if one wants to pay his or her water bill, one goes to the Ghana Post Office in his or her locality.
This would make Ghana Post a key and integral part of our system.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon Member, I am envisioning Bekwai Post Office and the ECG office at Bekwai. The ECG office in addition to the offices where they receive bills have all the equipment - their exchanges, all the things are installed there which would have no space at the post office.
Hon Member, are you talking about just the revenue part?
Mr George 2:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, correctly so. It is the revenue collection purposes of function of these utility providers that give us day to day engagement with the citizenry. It is when the citizenry come every week or month to pay water or light bill and it is done in the post office where they would be attracted to some of the other services of the postal service.
Mr Speaker, my suggestion does not only end with government. The television license could even be collected through the post office. What is most interesting is that Ghana Post Office as an entity itself must begin to look at its own operations.
Mr Speaker, currently there is a monopoly where one could buy --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:05 p.m.


of information.

Mr Speaker, I would want to inform this House that the allusions being made by Hon Colleague is exactly what the Ghana Post is trying to inform this country. This was brought to the House during the Budget Statement --
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon Deputy Minister for Trade, do you have a point of order?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Very well.
Hon Member, when that is done it would reflect in the Auditor-General's Report. For now, we do not have it. We are discussing the Auditor-General's Report.
Mr George 2:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Deputy Minister is drinking the soup and leaving the fufu. He has not got there yet, but intends to get there so when he gets there we would celebrate him. Wofa, you are in the Chamber we take note of you.
Mr Speaker, the Ghana Post Office has a monopoly. Today, when it comes to universities and the sale of their forms and the postal service when one does a self- postage envelope, but even today, the universities are complaining that the service is not as efficient as they need it to be.
That was why I said that government institutions must look at how they would partner with Ghana Post Office in the delivery of their service to make the postal service more efficient and more of an integral part in our daily life.
Mr Speaker, in doing that, Ghana Post Office itself must begin to position itself and look at its internal structures and make themselves more attractive. Today, if anybody is told that he or she would be given a job at Ghana Post Office, they would most likely decline it.
However, it is one of the most prestigious jobs one could hold as a postman in other jurisdictions.
Mr Speaker, Ghana Post Office owns lands in places like in Daekyemso and Pantang and those lands have been taken by private real estate developers and it does not even have title to its own lands.
If they cannot even protect their own lands how could we give them our parcels to deliver for us? These are some of the internal issues about Ghana Post Office that must be looked at.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would want to talk about the Postal and Courier Service Regulatory Authority. They have an Act of Parliament and are supposed to regulate all postal and courier services in Ghana, but today, there are all sorts of postal and courier services.
Somebody gets money, buys five motorcycles puts a delivery box behind it and is running a courier service and they pay no dues or fees to the Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Authority.
The Postal and Courier Services Regulatory Authority is also to regulate standards in the delivery of these services, but because the people are not registered with them, they cannot check standards. So if one gives his or her items to any of these courier services, it gets damaged and nobody is able to enforce strict enforcement of that liability.
If the postal and courier services would begin to crack the whip and do a public notice and ensure that they enforce the Act of Parliament that has set them up, the sad state in which the Regulatory Authority is in, which currently they are struggling with and it is taking the Ministry to
bail them out with accommodation, they would be in a better place. They should take their work seriously and take the advice of the Committee's Report.
Mr Speaker, I thank you so much for indulging me, and I ask that this House adopts the Report of the Committee.
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Yes, Hon Deputy Minister?
Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah (NPP -- Takoradi) 2:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I have looked at the Report and I realised that it is a Report for 2015.
If we look at the disparity between the time that this occurred and the time we are discussing it, it would be realised that sometimes, we do not get the effects on the people that committed a lot of these breaches with the law and therefore, I do not believe that we should encourage the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to as a matter of urgency do more work on what is submitted to them so that this House can be current on the issues vis-a -vis the times the issues occurred.
Mr Speaker, it is for this reason that most of the time I always say that it would be appropriate that Parliament gave a lot of space and support to the Government Assurance Committee which looks at the promises and the deliverables that affect people's life, so that this one being a post mortem, its prominence would be more tempered than the Government Assurance Committee of which the products of those policies and promises actually affect our constituents which leads to the development of our nation.
Mr Speaker, one issue I would want to talk about is the issue of VRA, free electricity to Prestea and ECG for all these years have not been able to take over to metre the place.
I believe that after this debate, instructions must be given so that this could be quickened up because any money that is going illegally through free electricity to these people --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon Minister, this is 2015 Report and I have been advised that as of now, ECG has taken over.
Mr Darko-Mensah 2:05 p.m.
Mr Speaker, have you been advised?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Yes, Hon Minister, by the immediate past Hon Minister for Energy who is an Hon Member of the Committee.
Mr Darko-Mensah 2:15 p.m.
So they have been metered?
Mr Speaker, secondly, the issue of meters is a major difficulty in this country. A lot of people have money to pay and get connected but they still do not get connected.
Mr Speaker, with your permission, I beg to quote paragraph 7.7 which says 2:15 p.m.
“they have also taken delivery of 7,000 prepaid meters and have imported 25, 000 meters''.
Mr Speaker, I believe these ones have also been instantly, but I believe that as at last year, we were talking about NEDCO making losses of about 27 per cent, both commercial and technical losses.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, what is your pleasure? It is past our Sitting hours.
Ms Safo 2:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, if we can do a few clauses with the Right to Information Bill (RTI), since it is past 2.00 p.m. then we
could probably draw the curtain for the day. At your pleasure.
Mr Avedzi 2:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, we did not get any indication that we would be having extended Sitting. We started at 10.00 in the morning and it is past 2.00 p.m. And so if we had the indication from the beginning, we would have prepared our minds towards that. And so I propose that we adjourn the House at your — It is past 2.00 p.m. and we are in your hands.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Leader, have you prepared for an extended Sitting?
Ms Safo 2:15 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I get the sense of the House. And so we are in your hands.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Very well.
Hon Members, the good intentions of the Hon Deputy Majority Leader is noted, but the accompanying preparations have not been done.
ADJOURNMENT 2:15 p.m.
  • The House was adjourned at 2.22 p.m. till Friday, 2nd November, 2018 at 10.00 a.m.