Debates of 23 Nov 2018

MR FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER
PRAYERS 11:22 a.m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 11:22 a.m.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Hon Members, we shall commence with the correction of Votes and Proceedings dated Thursday, 22nd November, 2018.
Page 1…7 --
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Bekoe 11:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I was in the House yesterday, but my name has been captured on page 7, number 21, as being absent.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Very well.
Page 8…13
Hon Members, the Votes and Proceedings of Thursday, 22 November, 2018 as corrected, is adopted as the true record of proceedings.
Hon Members, we have the Official Report dated Thursday, 8th November, 2018 for correction.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Whip, are you going to do the Business Statement for the week?
Mr Moses Anim 11:22 a.m.
Yes, Mr Speaker.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Very well.
Hon Members, we would take the Business Statement for the Fifth Week.
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE 11:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Committee accordingly submits its report as follows 11:22 a.m.
Arrangement of Business
Formal Communications by the Speaker
Mr Speaker, you may read any available communication to the House.
Question(s)
Mr Speaker, the Business Committee has scheduled the following Ministers to respond to Questions asked of them during the Week:
No. of Ouestion(s)
i. Minister for Inner-City and Zongo Development -- 1
ii. Minister for Agriculture -- 2
iii. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice -- 1
iv. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs -- 1
v. Minister for Communications -- 1
vi. Minister for Energy -- 3
vii. Minister for Health -- 2
viii. Minister for Roads and Highways -- 1
ix. Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources -- 5
Total Number of Questions 17
Mr Speaker, nine (9) Ministers are expected to attend upon the House to respond to seventeen (17) Questions during theWeek. The questions are of the following types:
i. Urgent-3;
ii. Oral-14
Statements
Mr Speaker, pursuant to Order 70(2), Ministers of State may be permitted to make Statements of Government policy. Statements duly admitted by Mr Speaker may be made in the House by Hon Members in accordance with Order 72.
Bills, Papers and Reports
Mr Speaker, Bills may be presented to the House for First Reading in accordance
with Order 120. However, those of urgent nature may be taken through the various stages in one day in accordance with Order 119.
Pursuant to Order 75, Papers for presentation to the House may be placed on the Order Paper for laying. Committee Reports may also be presented to the House for consideration.
Motions and Resolutions
Mr Speaker, Motions may be debated and their consequential Resolutions, if any, taken during the week.
Debate on the Financial Policy of the Government
Mr Speaker, debate on the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019, is scheduled to continue during the week
Mr Speaker, the Committee accordingly submits its report as follows 11:22 a.m.
under consideration and expected to conclude on Thursday, 29th November,
2018.
Mr Speaker, in order to have a structured consideration of the Financial Policy, the Business Committee once again recommends that debate for each day be restricted to agreed upon subject-matter areas of the national economy. Hon Members are however, urged to endeavour to avoid repetitions.
Sitting of the House on Monday/Extended Sittings
Mr Speaker, it is recommended that the House Sits on Monday, 26th November, 2018. Furthermore, the House may have Extended Sittings to enable the completion of scheduled businesses.
Submission of Committee Reports on Estimates of MDAs andOther Institutions
Mr Speaker, every effort is being made for the Estimates of the various MDAs to be submitted for the consideration of Committees. The Business Committee accordingly entreats Committees to expedite work on the Estimates of MDAs and other institutions and report on same in good time for consideration in plenary.
In this regard, an indicative schedule has been prepared to guide Committees on dates for submission of the reports (schedule is attached). It is recommended that Committees work, as far as practicable, within the proposed time frame.
The schedule may, however, be varied to accommodate any Committee Reports on the estimates which may be ready prior to their scheduled date for consideration during the week.
Conclusion
Mr Speaker, in accordance with Standing Order 160(2) and subject to Standing Order 53, the Committee submits to this Honourable House the order in which the Business of the House shall be taken during the week under consideration.

Statements

Presentation of Papers --

(a) Office of the Special Prosecutor Regulations, 2018.

(b) Office of the Special Prosecutor (Operations) Regulations, 2018.

(c) Request for waiver of Import Duties, Import VAT, Import NHIL, ECOWAS Levy, EXIM Levy and Special Import Levy amounting to the Ghana cedi equivalent of eleven million, six hundred and fifty-six thousand, one Hundred and seventy-four euros (€11, 656,174.00) in respect of the procurement of project equipment and materials for the construc- tion of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development at Somanya under the Commercial Contract be- tween the Government of the Republic of Ghana (Ministry of Education) and Contracta Construzione Italia Sri. for the development of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development.

(d) Request for waiver of Import Duties, Import VAT, Import NHIL, GETFund Levy, AU Levy, ECOWAS Levy, EXIM

Levy, Special Import Levy and Inspection Fees amounting to seven million, six hundred and eighteen thousand, seventy- nine United States dollars (US$7,618,079.00) [equivalent to GH¢35,854,488.81] on the purchase of materials and equipment under the Contract Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana represented by the Ministry of Roads and Highways/Ghana Highways Authority and Shimizu-Dai Nippon JV, Japan for the Improvement of Ghanaian International Corridors (Grade Separation of Tema Intersection in Tema).

Motion

That this Honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019.

Moved on Thursday, 15th November, 2018 by the Minister for Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta and seconded on Tuesday, 20th November, 2018 by the Hon Member for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah)

(Continuation of Debate) Consideration Stage of Bills --

Right to Information Bill, 2018. (Continuation)

Committee sittings.

Questions

*465. Mr Albert Akuka Alalzuuga (Garu): To ask the Minister for Inner- City and Zongo Development what programme the Ministry has put in place to help improve livelihood in the Zongo commu- nities in the country.

Statements

Motions

(a) That this Honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019.

(Moved on Thursday, 15th November 2018 by the Minister for Finance, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta and seconded on Tuesday, 20th November, 2018 by the Chairman of the Finance Committee and Hon Member for New Juaben South, Dr. Mark Assibey- Yeboah).

(Continuation of Debate) Second Reading of Bills--

Payment Systems and Services Bill,

2018

Consideration Stage of Bills --

Right to Information Bill, 2018. (Continuation)

Committee sittings.

Urgent Questions (a) Mr Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwame

Dafeamekpor (South Dayi) to ask the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice why the General Legal Council has not issued and/or renewed licenses of lawyers who
Mr Speaker, the Committee accordingly submits its report as follows 11:22 a.m.
were formally Circuit Court Judges and Magistrates.
(b) Dr (Mrs) Bernice Adiku Heloo (Hohoe): To ask the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs when repair works on the ceiling of the 10th Floor East Wing of the Job 600 Office Complex will be completed.
Questions
*462. Mr Yusif Sulemana (Bole/ Bamboi): To ask the Minister for Communications when the following communities in the Bole District will be provided with mobile network connectivity: (i) Mankuma (ii) Maluwe (iii) Sakpa (iv) Dakpupe (v) Sonyo (vi) Chibrenyo (vii) Tesilima (viii) Carpenter (ix) Babato (x) Dogli (xi) Bampewa.
Statements
Presentation of Papers --
(a) Report of the Finance Committee on the Financing Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of seventy-one million, one hundred thousand Special Drawing Rights (SDR 71,100,000) [equivalent to US$100.00 million] to finance the proposed Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme.
(b) Report of the Finance Committee on the Financing Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount
of twenty-one million, four hundred thousand Special Drawing Rights (SDR 21,400,000) [equivalent to US$30.00 million] to finance the proposed Financial Sector Development Project.
(c) Report of the Finance Committee on the Request for waiver of Import Duties, Import VAT, Import NHIL, ECOWAS Levy, EXIM Levy, Special Import Levy amounting to the Ghana cedi equivalent of two million, twenty-eight thousand, eighthundred andsixty-three euros (€2,028,863.00) on goods to be procured in respect of the Enhancement of Road Safety ( P h a s e I I ) — T u r n k e y Implementation of Photovoltaic- Based Street Lighting Programme in selected communities.
(d) Report of the Finance Committee on the Financing Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of fourteen million, two hundred thousand special Drawing Rights (SDR 14,200,000) [equivalent to US$20.00 million] to finance the proposed Ghana Energy Sector Transformation Initiative Project.
(e) Report of the Finance Committee on Ghana's Membership and subscription to the Share Capital of the Africa50 Fund for an amount of twenty million United States dollars (US$20,000,000) as Ghana's initial subscription to the Africa50 Fund (Vehicle for Accelerated Infrastructural Development in Africa).
(f) Report of the Finance Committee on the Agreement Establishing the African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI Treaty).
Motion
That this Honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019.
(Moved on Thursday, 15th November 2018 by the Minister for Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta and seconded on Tuesday, 20th November, 2018 by the Hon Member for New Juaben South, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah)
(Continuation of Debate)
Consideration Stage of Bills --
Right to Information Bill, 2018. (Continuation)
Committee Sittings.

Urgent Question
Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (Ellembele) 11:22 a.m.
To ask the Minister for Energy whether the Ministry is aware of any threat to incite some youth to blow up oil facilities in the Western Region and if so, what remedial action is being taken by the Ministry.
Questions
*468. Alhaji Mumuni Alhassan (Salaga North): To ask the Minister for Energy when the following communities will be connected to
the national grid: (i) Dakpemyili (ii) Nachimbiya (iii) Janyili (iv) Kanjanyili (v) Fushila (vi) Yakura (vii) Chihigu (viii) Chandayili (ix) Kpalguni (x) Nyashila (xi) Dingoni (xii) Gbanteni.
*469. Alhaji Mumuni Alhassan (Salaga North): To ask the Minister for Energy when the following communities will be connected to the national grid: (i) Zantum (ii) Chongase.
*447. Mr Richard Mawuli Kwaku Quashigah (Keta): To ask the Minister for Health how many new health workers have been engaged since 2017 till now.
*461. Dr Mark Kurt Nawaane (Nabdam): To ask the Minister for Health when the arrears owed health facilities in the Nabdam District by the National Health Insurance Authority will be paid.
Presentation of Papers --
Report of the Finance Committee on the following:
Third Addendum Supplemental to the Master Facility Agreement dated 16th December, 2011 (as amended by an Addendum dated 21st June, 2013 and an Addendum dated 15th December, 2017.
Third Subsidiary Agreement between the Republic of Ghana and China Development (CDB) for an amount of one hundred and eighty- five million, five hundred and seventy thousand United States dollars (US$ 185,570,000.00) in relation to Coastal Fishing Landing Sites Project under the Tranche B Facility.
Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (Ellembele) 11:22 a.m.


Fourth Subsidiary Agreement between the Republic of Ghana and China Development Bank (CDB) for an amount of two hundred and ten million, six hundred and sixty thousand United States dollars (US$ 210,660,000.00) in relation to the Accra Intelligent Traffic Manage- ment Project under the Tranche B Facility.

Second Addendum Supplemental to the Five Party Agreement (FPA) dated 13th June, 2012 as amended by an Addendum dated 21st June, 2013, and a second Addendum dated 15th December, 2017.

Additional Accounts Agreement between the Republic of Ghana and China Development Bank (CDB).

Charge Over Additional Accounts between the Republic of Ghana and China Development Bank (CDB).

Deed of Confirmation to Offtaker Agreement between GNPC acting on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Ghana as Seller and UNIPEC Asia Company Limited as Buyer.

Deed of Security Confirmation between the Republic of Ghana and China Development Bank (CDB).

Deferred Payment Agreements between the Republic of Ghana represented by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Roads and Highways AND Synohydro Corporation Limited setting the terms and conditions of the deferral of payments under the EPC Contract Agreement in respect of Construction/Rehabilitation of

Selected Roads and Interchanges in Ghana - Phase 1.

Addenda to the Commercial Agreements.

Motion

That this Honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019.

(Moved on Thursday, 15th Novem- ber, 2018 by the Minister for Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta and seconded on Tuesday, 20 th No- vember, 2018 by the Hon Member for New Juaben South, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah).

(Conclusion of Debate) Consideration Stage of Bills --

Right to Information Bill, 2018. (Continuation)

Committee Sittings.

Questions *478. Ms Joycelyn Tetteh (North Dayi):

To ask the Minister for Roads and Highways when the construction of the following roads will commence: (i) Tsrukpe - Botoku (ii) Sabadu - Awatey (iii) Vakpo - Wusuta (iv) Botoku - Bradatornu.

*452. Mr Samuel Nartey George (Ningo-Prampram): To ask the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources the current state of expansion works on the previously called “3-District” and now called “6-District” Water Project in

Aveyime, which serves over 30 communities in the Ningo-Prampram District.

*453. Mr Mutawakilu Adam (Damongo): To ask the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources when the Damongo Town Water System will commence.

*454. Mr Kobena Mensah Woyome (South Tongu): To ask the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources when the following communities will be connected to pipe-borne water: (i) Dorkploame and its environs (ii) Atsieve (iii) Gordorkope.

*455. Mr Kobena Mensah Woyome (South Tongu): To ask the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources when pipe-borne water supply to the following areas will be improved since connection to the national source took place over seven years ago: (i) Kpotame and its environs (ii) Toflokpo (iii) Agbakope (iv) Agbagorme (v) Hikpo (vi) Tordzinu.

*456. Mr Kobena Mensah Woyome (South Tongu): To ask the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources when the project to treat water and supply same to the Republic of Togo from the South Tongu District Capital, Sogakope, will commence.

Statements

Motions

(a) Adoption of the Report of the Finance Committee on the Financing Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA)

for an amount of seventy one million, one hundred thousand special drawing rights (SDR 71.100.0) [equivalent to US$100.00 million] to finance the proposed Ghana Secondary Cities Support Programme.

(b) Adoption of the Report of the Finance Committee on the Financing Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of twenty- one million, four hundred thousand special drawing rights (SDR 21.400.0) [equivalent to US$30.00 million] to finance the proposed Financial Sector Development Project.

(c) Adoption of the Report of the Finance Committee on the Request for waiver of Import Duties, Import VAT, Import NHIL, ECOWAS Levy, EXIM Levy, Special Import Levy amounting to the Ghana Cedi equivalent of two million, twenty-eight thousand, eight hundred and sixty-three euros (€2,028,863.00) on goods to be procured in respect of the Enhancement of Road Safety (Phase II)—Turnkey Implementation of Photovoltaic- Based Street Lighting Pro- gramme in selected communities.

(d) Adoption of the Report of the Finance Committee on the Financing Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for an amount of fourteen million, two hundred thousand special drawing rights (SDR
Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (Ellembele) 11:22 a.m.


SPACE FOR TABLE 11.22 P.M,

PAGE 7
Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah 11:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I think there is a typographical error on page 1, where we have 18. It should be 17.
The other one has to do with the Consideration Stage of the Right to Information Bill, 2018. I would want to plead with the Business Committee as well as the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to consider winnowing the amendments. This is because we have close to about 107 amendments to be considered, and I do not think that we would be able to finish it before this Meeting ends.
I would want to appeal to the Business Committee, as well as the Leadership of the Constitutional, Legal and Parlia- mentary Affairs Committee to do some winnowing with Members so that those who have brought in their amendments could converge somewhere for us to speedily pass this Bill.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Dr Anthony A. Osei 11:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to address the minds of the Leadership of the Business Committee to the attached schedule. The Estimates for the DACF Administrator is being assigned to the Special Budget Committee.
My experience in this House is that the entire House sits down to review the matter for the District Assemblies Common Fund; it does not go to the Special Budget Committee.
So I am wondering why this change is being made and the reasons for it. This is because we have the plenary where the DACF, NHIS and the GETFund are discussed. They are not given to the Special Budget Committee.
So if the Business Committee has taken that decision, I am wondering what the explanation is and why we need to accept it.
Mr Ras Mubarak 11:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, in commenting on the Business Statement for the ensuing week, I would wanted to know if there is a specific schedule for the debate on the Financial Policy for the remaining sectors. This is because I realised there is no indication as to which sectors we would address from Monday onwards, and in getting Hon Members ready for the debate, I would appeal that an indication be given to the House as to what is going to happen between Monday and Thursday, which sectors are we looking at and the rest of them.
Mr Speaker, I believe if we were to give that indication, especially with the coming weekend, it would give Hon Members adequate time to prepare for it.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Samuel O. Ablakwa 11:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to commend the Hon Deputy Majority Chief Whip for the Business Statement. I would want to draw the attention of your good self and the House that you gave a ruling in this House on the matter to do with the accidents on Madina-Adentan road. You asked the Minister for Roads and Highways to appear before us in two weeks.
That two weeks period has now elapsed and there is no indication as to when the Minister would appear. So I would want to remind all of us that if there is a challenge, let us know so that it does not appear that the Speaker's directive is being flouted.
So if the Majority Leadership could let us know what is going on and why the Minister for Roads and Highways could not appear within the two weeks period that the Hon Speaker of Parliament gave.
Dr A. A. Osei 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I just want to follow up on my good Friend's suggestion. Under normal circumstances, we want more time but in the past, what used to happen was that when we are going to debate, Committees select individuals who focus on different aspects of the Budget.
What we are seeing is that everybody talks about the same thing. But if it is structured such that the Committee on say, Education, five people pick different aspects, 10 minutes is a lot. Then we could be focused. The problem is that people talk about “borla” and so on. I agree with him.
I agree with him that the quality of debate is important but it should focus on the priorities. Every sector is big enough that if we were given 10 minutes, for example, on financing education, we could speak a lot for 10 minutes.
If we tried to speak for 20 to 30 minutes, we would be here forever. Let us try and focus on priorities and structure it so that not everybody on each Committee would say the same things over and over again. Otherwise, the quality would certainly
deteriorate. I think Leadership could take note of the structuring which is important.
Sometimes we go from finance and in the middle, we go to education. That is not proper structure, people lose track. Ten minutes is a lot of time to be able to say what we want to say about the Budget Statement. We should go to the past and see how it worked.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
In fact, the time agreed by Leadership now is about 50 per cent more than in the last Parliament. In the last Parliament, the lead speakers were allowed 10 minutes, then the supporting speakers were allowed five minutes. Lead speakers are now allowed to speak for 15 minutes and then supporting contributors are allowed to speak for 10 minutes. I think that it is a lot.
I keep the time here. So far, for those who are given 15 minutes, only about one has used all the 15 minutes. For those who are given 10 minutes, just about two or three have used all the ten minutes. Most of them used about seven or eight minutes. The rest play to the gallery. If we use it effectively, it is a lot of time. However, the Leaders would discuss that and advise the House.
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Let me deal with Hon Agbodza and then come to you.
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza 11:42 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity. I also want to thank the Hon Second Deputy Majority Whip for the Business Statement.
Mr Speaker, I would like to add to what Hon Ablakwa said. Maybe, it is up to Leadership to see how we could work these things out in the various Caucuses to enhance the quality of debate.
If you noticed after the first day of the debate, the enthusiasm has waned. First of all, the Hon Minister for Finance did not even turn up to listen to the debate on his Budget. He sent two of his Deputies who are our Colleagues. Today, as we are about to start, not even his Deputies can be seen in the Chamber.
So, I ask the question: When we do the debate, do we do so for our own sake or say things that he should take on board?
Mr Speaker, if we count those on the Majority Side of the House, there are about 27 or 28 Hon Members of Parliament. On this Side, there are about 32 or 33 Members of Parliament (MPs).
Somebody would say it is not about quorum, far be it from that. However, what message do we send to the public? That in a critical moment like this, when major decisions are being taken about the interventions that would stop the hardship among others, the person supposed to stop the hardship is not even here?
I think as leaders, we should find out why Members of Parliament especially Members of Parliament from the Majority Side of 169 Members are not turning up to Parliament to even listen to their own debate.
What exactly is the problem that the Majority cannot even bring their people, yet every day, we come to Parliament and are told our side is the Minority Side? Yet, if you count, the Minority are more than the Majority. I do not even know whether it is the lack of inducement or enthusiasm from the Majority Side.
They should encourage their members to come to Parliament and also bring the Hon Minister for Finance to listen to the debate on his Budget. This is because I cannot take any decision; he is the one
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Hon Members, I am glad that the Hon Member for Adaklu has brought this matter up. The whole of this week, daily, I check the number of MPs present as recorded by the Votes and Proceedings. Yesterday, it was recorded that there were 188 of us.
Today, I am sure that by the close of the day, the record would reflect that about 200 of us were in the House and that is not true. Where are they? Maybe, the Business Committee should check, so that the recording of presence in the House would be done in the Chamber. This is because I think that people write their names and go and sit in their offices. They do not come.
In my view, it is one of the biggest indictments of this Seventh Parliament. In the Fifth Parliament, I was in the Minority and probably because we did not have offices, it was always full. The Majority was always here in their numbers -- At least, half of the Members were always here. I do not know whether because MPs have offices, they are more comfortable.
Probably, we should take the keys and let people hang around without offices, then they would pay attention to the business of the House. The numbers that are recorded in the Votes and Proceedings are not reflected in the Chamber and it is a major indictment on all of us in the House.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 11:42 a.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for giving me the opportunity.
While I commend my Hon Colleague on the other Side of the House for ably presenting the Business Statement to the House, I just want to make one or two applications.
On page 5, the Report says that the Estimates would be brought to the House and I want to emphasise that point. Ministries, Departments and Agencies must do well to give the Estimates to their Committees on time to ensure proper scrutiny of the Estimates and to enable those Committees to be able to present Reports to plenary in time, so that we would be able to give approval to the Budget as early as possible.
Secondly, some of us as Whips are always worried when issues of attendance to the House are raised. If you would remember, the whole of the week, it may be only once that we closed at exactly 2 o'clock. We always closed at about 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock.
The work of MPs is not appreciated by those who do not come here to witness how MPs strain themselves to be here from morning to evening. It is even worse, sometimes coming from Ministers who are not MPs and have not been Members of this House before. They fail to appreciate how their Colleagues in this House put in extra efforts.
I must commend some of the Ministers, especially the former Ranking Member of the Finance Committee and the current Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation. They take special interest in the Budget Statement and debate. Thank God he is a member of the Economic Management Team.
However, the buck does not stop with him. That is why the Hon Member for Adaklu made a case that the Hon Minister for Finance who calls the shots must be
here to take note of most of the points raised because some are very sensitive.
Mr Speaker, you would remember that even yesterday, a point on education was raised on the Budget Statement and the Hon Minister for Education, under whose Ministry it was captured, was not aware that that point was in the Budget.
The Minister for Finance has to be here to take notes. This is because the Minister for Education said it was a proposal, but it was in the Budget Statement. So it is important that when MPs raise those issues, the Ministers would be here to take note. Whether it is a proposal or something in the Budget Statement, what are we approving? Are we approving a proposal or the Budget for 2019?
Thirdly, to ensure that there is maximum attendance, I think Members -- [Interruption] -- I can see your frustration. You have said it time and again and they have chastised us as the Whips to ensure that MPs are always in the Chamber. You are right, and I was happy when you said that you were glad that the Hon Member for Adaklu has raised it.
We must cooperate to build consensus. We must come and sit here, especially the young MPs to listen to the seniors when they debate. That is how to learn and honour MPs like Hon A. A. Osei, Hon Benjamin Kunbuor, Hon Bagbin, Hon Papa Owusu-Ankomah et cetera. That is the best way we can learn.
One cannot see parliamentary practice and procedure in any book anywhere. It cannot be obtained in Harvard or Cambridge Universities; it can only be obtained in the Chamber. The Chamber is like a palace. If one does not frequent the palace, one would not know how well things are done there.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minority Whip, thank you. We are doing the Business Statement.
Mr A. Ibrahim 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to conclude by saying that it should be included in the Business Statement at least, a day within the week, preferably Wednesday, for a Joint Caucus meeting so that Leadership together with the back bench from both Sides of the aisle would all meet to iron out all these issues.
We have less than a month to pass the Budget. If the attendance is always like this, it is frustrating, but even though it is frustrating, it is communication. That is why there is the need for a Joint Caucus meeting next week.
Mr Speaker, I request that there should be a Joint Caucus meeting on Wednesday either before or after Sitting.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.
Mr Anim 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, Hon Bedzrah raised an issue on winnowing on the Right to Information Bill, 2018, which has been well taken. Leadership would consider that advice and would do lots of winnowing on the amendments that have been proposed.
Mr Speaker, the schedule for the Reports on the Annual Estimates as indicated by Hon Akoto Osei has been noted and those few mistakes would be corrected and re-presented to the House.
Mr Speaker, the attachment by the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways would be reconsidered and the issues would be discussed. With regard to Hon Okudjeto Ablakwa's issue, it would be discussed with the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways hopefully within the week --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Hon Deputy
Majority Whip, I would want to inform the House that the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways was here yesterday, and we did not give him space. He has actually delivered the Statement and we have copies. He is ready, but it is the House that has not programmed him. If he comes today and there is space, we would allow him to make the Statement.
Mr Anim 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, yesterday he was here, we could not find time for him.
So he would come and take it as well.
Mr Speaker, with regard to the time scheduled for the debate, both sides of Leadership decided on the time. If we look at how the Finance Committee debated, it would be realised that both Sides of the aisle looked at critical and separate areas for each Hon Member who debated and I believe that should be the way forward. If that is done, the 10 minutes allotted for each Hon Member would be all right. We would see how best to improve that in the coming week. Mr Speaker, on attendance, you have picked that one already.
Mr Speaker, on the application for Joint Caucus meeting, Leadership would find space next week to hold it as planned.
Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Mr A. Ibrahim 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I expected the Hon Acting Chairman of the Business Committee, to withdraw the appendix that was attached to the Report of the Business Statement because it was not even presented and discussed at the Business Committee sitting.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Hon Deputy Majority Whip, the Hon Deputy Minority Whip says the appendix was not one of the things that was discussed at the Business Committee.
Mr Anim 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I accordingly withdraw.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Very well. Hon Members, the Business Statement as presented is hereby adopted.
At the commencement of Public Business.
Hon Members, item numbered 5 -- Presentation of Papers.
Mr Anim 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, with regard to item numbered 5, the Finance Committee has indicated that it is not ready, so with your leave we could take item numbered
6.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Very well.
Hon Minority Leader?
Mr Haruna Iddrisu 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I concur with my Hon Colleague. We could move to the debate on the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019. This is to let the Finance Committee appreciate that if this particular Payments Systems and Service Bill, 2018, has a consequence on the Budget Statement, they cannot keep on deferring when the Report should be ready.
They are accordingly reminded to work on it as expeditiously as possible. If it has a consequence, I would not know, but I am assuming rightly that there is a relationship with the request from the Hon Minister for Finance to raise the needed revenue using this particular vehicle, so the back and forth of ‘‘they are not ready'' would not be tolerated next time.
Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, it was the Hon Minority Leader who once said in the House that ‘'one cannot come to his mother's funeral and weep more than him''.
Mr Speaker, we are prosecuting Government Business and we have said that the Committee's Report is not ready. Unless of course a person has a special relationship with my mother.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Hon Chairman of the Committee, I beg to differ. This is a Business of the House and you chair a Committee of the House. It is Mr Speaker's Committee that you chair, so your Report is not your mother's funeral. [Laughter] The Business of the House must be dealt with expeditiously.
Hon Members, item numbered 6.
We would start with the Committee on Roads and Transport.
Hon Samuel Ayeh-Paye, you have 15 minutes.
MOTIONS 11:42 a.m.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:12 p.m.
Hon Member, you have one minute more.
Mr Ayeh-Paye 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, DVLA now has a chip-embedded licence, a licence that you can use a system to know all your driving details. In the year 2019, we are going to use the point-system to reduce and fight accidents in this country. If a driver is involved in an accident, because the licence is chip-embedded, we would have a process where we would deduct points from that driver's licence to make sure that at a point in time, a careless driver would not have the opportunity to drive in this country again.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I would want to wish Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addos Government all the best. They should make sure that the transport sector of the economy would do well and make sure that Ghana will be a prosperous nation.
Mr Speaker, thank you and God bless you.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:12 p.m.
Hon Kwame Agbodza, you also have 15 minutes.
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza (NDC- -Adaklu) 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, before I start, I would want to say a little prayer. My prayer is that, when the young children in the gallery grow up, their portion would not be NABCO but that they would get jobs at Terminal 3 and at Ho Airport. May their portion never be NABCO because NABCO can never be the vision of a country to provide sustainable jobs. I pray to God that that would not be your portion, children. [Hear! Hear!] [Laughter]
Mr Speaker, infrastructure holds the key to the sustainable development of this country. Whether it is One District, One
Factory, Free SHS or whatever it is; we need good communication and infrastructure for all these things to happen in a very meaningful way.
Mr Speaker, let me give you a brief on what this Government on the other Side inherited. The current Government inherited an oil production economy which the Hon Minister for Finance says would be producing over 70 million barrels of oil in the year 2019.
He is saying that he is going to earn more than one billion dollars through that. This Government never invested one cent to get that; it is just like a dadaba son who was well taken care of, did no work at all and then the father willed the entire estate to him.
Mr Speaker, we bequeathed to this Government a Road Fund that is yielding GH¢1.2 billion. Indeed, the previous Government took a loan on the back of the Road Fund to pay for loans that were taken in 2006 through to 2013.
It would interest you to know that by August this year, we would have finished retiring that loan but quickly, this Government had gone to borrow another GH¢600 million on the back of the Road Fund. So today as they cannot do anything about that, it is simply because they have encumbered that fund.
Mr Speaker, this Government also borrowed GH¢50 billion. Despite all these, the reality is that if you go to Tafo in Kumasi, behind the Christian Family Chapel, the roads are one of the worse in this country; my witness is Hon Dr A. A. Osei.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:12 p.m.
Hon Member, you would hold on. You invited the Hon Minister as a witness so --
Dr A. A. Osei 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Good Friend was flowing but it appears that without my support, people cannot accept what he is saying. So he chooses to use my name but he does not need a witness if he has the facts. [Laughter]
Mr Agbodza 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, he is a credible witness. Mr Speaker, if you go to Juaso --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:12 p.m.
Hon Member, add to it that Juaso is your hometown.
Mr Agbodza 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, yes; my mother partly comes from Juaso.
Mr Speaker, if you go to around the Azeez Night Club, GCB Bank Limited, Calvary Methodist Church, all in Juaso, the roads are very bad. My Wofa Attah is my witness.

Mr Speaker, and if you go to Bekwai, behind the Bekwai Market and the James Spot, my Wofa Akwesi Joseph Osei Owusu is my witness. [Laughter] [Interruption.]
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:12 p.m.
I must decline to be the witness -- [Laughter]
I would say that one of the major beneficiaries of road investment is my constituency. [Hear! Hear!] [Laughter]
Mr Agbodza 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, that is just a snapshot of the nature of our roads. But
Mr Agbodza 12:22 p.m.
guess what, just recently, the President went to Ashanti Region and in other meetings, permit me to read what is reported by the Daily Graphic on August
10, 2018.
“President Akufo-Addo also hinted that by the end of the year, Accra- Kumasi Highway would be dualised as well as Sofoline.”
Mr Speaker, this was reported by Daily Graphic. On the same occasion, the President cut sod that many roads in the Kumasi Town would be constructed. I would want to find out from my Chairman, what the name of the contractor is and what it is they have done so far? Strangely, that has not been captured in the Budget Statement simply because they did nothing.
Mr Speaker, on the Road sector, it is pathetic to the extent that a Government that inherited ongoing projects in almost every district -- [Interruption] -- I was shocked when the President stood here during one of the State of the Nation Addresses and boasted that he was happy that Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) has suspended all cocoa roads in this country.

And that they suspect that some of the roads awarded were roads that never existed and that contract sums were inflated.

Mr Speaker, today, I dare the President and the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD to show us the Report of the Cocoa Road Review. They cannot because what they said was a total lie. I dare them to show the country the Report that shows that some of the roads did not exist and contracts of other roads were inflated.

Mr Speaker, let me tell you how sad that singular decision of COCOBOD is affecting this country. On a particular road called Samreboi - Prestea which is one of the highest cocoa growing areas in this country, a project awarded for 45 kilometres of road has been stopped by this Government. As a result, drivers would have to detour 175 kilometres to bring cocoa to Tema.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Finance is always looking for proceeds of cocoa to fund projects and the Chief Executive Officer of COCOBOD has the courage to allocate over GH¢300 million out of cocoa proceeds to operations. Somebody would ask the kind of operations they are talking about.

Mr Speaker, when we talk about roads, the previous government, NDC, did asphaltic overlays in almost every regional capital including Kumasi. In fact, the best road one could find in Kumasi and every other regional capital is the one done by former President John Mahama which is the asphaltic overlay. [Hear! Hear!] They should show us the roads they have done in Kumasi, Ho and Accra? They cannot show any!

Mr Speaker, let us go to bridges. We found money for the Volivo Bridge to be built but even for them to start work has become a challenge. This Government cannot do anything. The only project they continued is the one that we secured the loan and everything was done.

Mr Speaker, on railway, I would want to take the opportunity to thank the former President Mahama for his vision on the rail sector. Today, the singular project of building a railway between Tema and Akosombo has created thousands of jobs which are better jobs than NABCo. If I wish jobs for young people, I wish them jobs from the project between the

Tema and Akosombo railway project and not NABCo.

Mr Speaker, if we consider the economic impact of what that project would bring - -- [Interruption] -- But every day and night, we hear the Minister for Railway Development cutting sod or signing agreements to build rails in the sky, under a bridge or on the ground. We have not seen any up till now.

It is quite interesting that this Government is taking the issue of double tracking too far. It would interest you to know that the day the President went to Kumasi to cut sod, I am sure he was misled on that. He was misled to go and cut the sod for the Kumasi International Airport Phase II. The developer was already on site. I am told that later it was explained to him to understand that he would not do that again.

Mr Speaker, the President was misled into another thing. I hold here in my hands two publications from the Daily Graphic; one dated 21st March 2018, captioned, “Youth and Sports Minister, Isaac Asiamah has cut sod to Begin Work on a 10,000 seater multipurpose Youth Centre at Nuwunu in Ho, and the second on the 11th of July, 2018, Daily Graphic again captioned; “President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has Cut the Sod for the Construction of a multipurpose Youth and Sports Resource Centre at Adaklu in the Volta Region''.

Mr Speaker, paragraph 857 of this Budget Statement and Economic Policy says Government is building a multipurpose Youth and Sports Centre at Ho. The President came and told everybody that he was building a Youth and Sports Centre in Adaklu but the newspaper tells us another thing,

because, they are taking the double tracking policy too far. Both the President and the Minister for Sports have all gone to cut sod at the same location.

One appears to have gone to Adaklu and the other to Ho but if they had used Dr Bawumia's GPS location, they would have realised that it is the same place. [Laughter] -- I believe that there is a fault with Dr Bawumia's GPS and we need to correct it before the President is misled forever.

Mr Speaker, this is a serious issue for the people of Adaklu. The location is Adaklu. The NPP never wanted to build a Youth Centre in Adaklu. They wanted to build one in every regional capital. Ho does not have the land for that. So Adaklu donated 100 acres of land to build a Regional Sports Stadium which they decided to cut a bit out of.

So the location has always been Adaklu. While the Minister for Youth and Sports is calling the location Ho, the President is calling it Adaklu. I believe we need a more credible GPS to settle this issue once and for all.

Mr Speaker, on the aviation sector, I would want to thank former President John Mahama for his vision in that sector.

Today, we see a situation where everybody knows the name “Ghana” when it is mentioned though Terminal 3 of the Kotoka International Airport has been bastardised. At a point in time, even our Hon Colleagues from the other Side pretended that the whole Terminal 3 had been washed off. This never happened; everybody is aware that Terminal 3 is a flagship project started by the NDC.

Mr Speaker, just to let my Hon Colleagues know that unlike them, when the NDC utilised the oil revenues properly
Mr Agbodza 12:22 p.m.


Part of the funding of Terminal 3 is actually from the Ghana Infrastructural Fund (GIF) established by this House. So, all the moneys for the construction of Terminal 3 are not loans. It is just about GH¢192 million that is loan; the rest is paid for by the people of this country. That is the prudent way of utilising Government resources.

Mr Speaker, as a result of that, Terminal 2 has been refurbished and it is in good condition. In fact, Terminal 2 which used to be the flagship is now domestic. That is how far we have gone. Terminal 3 is like Heathrow Terminal 5.

Mr Speaker, the Ho Airport is actually ready. The President only lacks the courage to open it. A plane can fly to Ho Airport today and tomorrow; the Phase II of the Tamale Airport can start any moment from now; Wa Airport is ready; Kumasi International Airport Phase II is in progress. What has this Government done exactly?

Mr Speaker, they are talking about the fact that they have brought a new airline. Just as they have collapsed banks, under the watch of this Government, not only Antrak Airline but also Starbow Airline collapsed. It does not exist. So, if they collapsed one big airline and have brought one, have they added on? That is not genius --

Mr Speaker, I must say that the transport sector is doing very well as well.

The biggest investment we have done so far is the port expansion at Tema. That project has created 1000s of jobs and it would generate huge revenue to this country and I am grateful to the Hon Minister for Transport who is here in the Chamber.

Mr Speaker, I must say this; when Hon Ministers do not treat us well, we talk about it. Similarly, when they sometimes treat us well too, we must talk about it. As far as the Committee on Roads and Transport is concerned, the Hon Minister for Transport has been the most responsive to the relationship in the Committee.

Mr Speaker, the Takoradi Port Expansion Project is ongoing. Let the record be set straight that President Kufuor never started Metro Mass Transport Limited. All they did was to change the name of an existing public transport system and bought buses.

The offices of Omnibus Services Authority and others existed. Should former President Mahama have changed the name? Is that what they wanted? Today, we have Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) and other transport services. I would urge the Hon Minister to buy buses for them.

Mr Speaker, lastly, on the luxury vehicle tax, I would quote Dr Akoto Osei who said, and with your permission, I quote:

“MPs and Gov't Officials ‘will suffer' for Luxury Vehicle Tax”.

Mr Speaker, could you tell the Hon Minister that it is not the MPs but the contractors who have got pickups on site who are being punished for it?

It is also the young man who has got a tipper truck to haulage sand who is being punished for having this. So a tipper truck can never be luxury vehicle and we are saying that that tax is obnoxious and must be -- [Inaudible] -- [Hear! Hear!]
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:32 p.m.
Hon Member, you are not on the list for the debate today.
Dr A. A. Osei 12:32 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is debating and he keeps mentioning my name. [Interruption.] -I do not know why? He just mentioned my name again. It is not everything that we say in this House. He should stop mentioning my name otherwise, he would go to heights that he does not want. [Laughter] --
Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways (Mr Kwabena Owusu-Aduomi): Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the honour done me this afternoon to also contribute to the debate on Government's Budget Statement and Economic Policy for the year 2019.
Mr Speaker, Hon Agbodza's submission of when I was the Hon Ranking Member and also on the other Side--- The difference is that I backed mine with figures, statistical data, but he is only talking.
When I hear one talk about Road Fund, my heart just breaks and if the Hon Ranking Member who at that time was the
Dr A. A. Osei 12:32 p.m.


In December 2015 when as the Hon Ranking Member, I assessed the work done by the Ministry of Roads and Highways, a total amount of GH¢1.3 billion was just enough for the Ministry's activities in respect of routine and periodic maintenance, upgrading and rehabilitation.

So, when there was a proposal from their end to increase the fuel levy from 7 to 40 pesewas per litre, we supported that idea because we knew that it was going to generate about GH¢1.2 billion as he indicated. Therefore, we all supported it so that the Road Fund will be able to solve all the challenges that we have on our roads.

Mr Speaker, they went to the extent of awarding roads left, right and centre, in fact, uncontrollably, and that put this Ministry into this hardship.

They also went ahead to mortgage these Road Funds and collected a loan of the same amount of the projection of the annual accruals to the Road Fund. They had GH¢1.2billion that would come into the Roads Fund but they went to borrow another GH¢1.2 billion.

When you are in the Ministry, you would not even know which projects they had paid for. It is never true that after that the Ministry or Road Fund had borrowed
Dr A. A. Osei 12:32 p.m.
any GH¢600million and I challenge him to produce documents to that effect.
What happened was that the United Bank for Africa (UBA) charged the Roads Fund exorbitant rates and we had to refinance that loan so that the Road Fund would be able to [Interruption.] - At that time, out of the amount that we had from every quarter, we were not even making GH¢10 million for our works.
Therefore there was the need for us to refinance the loan rather than borrow. We also had it at a lower rate where the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) and Fidelity Bank bailed us out of this outrageous interest rate that we had from the UBA.
Mr Speaker, so if this Hon Ranking Member talks about the Road Funds, it just breaks my heart because it is the mismanagement of the Road Fund that has plunged our roads sector into all these problems. So I am surprised about his effusions.
The President never said that we had “dualised” the Accra-Kumasi roads but he said that we were going to “dualise” the Accra-Kumasi highway and if he is saying that nothing had been mentioned in this year's Budget Statement, I want to refer him to paragraph 732 of page 149.
I am surprised that people just get up and talk. They need to read the Budget Statement and know what is there and that was why I say that the difference between his submission and mine was that I backed mine with figures; statistical data statistical data that even the then Hon First Deputy Speaker of Parliament (Mr Barton Odro) had to verify with me from my documents; just a delay of my time.
Mr Speaker, what is he talking about on asphalt overlay? Yes, they did well by providing our roads with asphalt and today we are also continuing with that exercise.
When you go to Kumasi, Accra and Tema, a lot of our roads are being provided with asphalt overlay and so what is their problem? So they do not come to this Chamber and tell Hon Members that they have been proactive in providing asphalt overlay as we are also providing same to preserve our roads.

Mr Speaker, such are the submissions that we do not even have to listen to. His behaviour reminds me of the bird that muddies the water upstream and runs downstream and asks, who did it. If the roads sector is suffering, it is because of their mismanagement but not anything else.

That notwithstanding, our Government through the Ministry for Roads and Highways, continued with routine and periodic maintenance activities and this is our mandate.

Despite the fact that the Roads Fund is in an unhealthy situation, we are still doing what we can within the limits of these constraints that we have with the Road Fund.

I do agree that we still have huge arrears owed to contractors but we are still working within this limit. As a result, we

have huge backlog of maintenance and that is the reason why there are potholes on our roads.

Mr Speaker, we know that not much of our routine maintenance has been done. When you go through page 100 paragraph 533 of the 2018 Budget Statement as compared to paragraph 721 page 146 of this year's Budget Statement, you would realise that not much activity has been done on routine maintenance.

As at September, we had feeder roads of 41 per cent and 22 per cent of urban roads but we believe that by the end of the year, these percentages will move up.

Notwithstanding these challenges that we have and in order to significantly reduce our road maintenance backlog, programming for 100 per cent maintenance is going to start in the year 2019 and this is what we are going to do especially with the Department of Feeder Roads.

The percentage of our network in gravel and earth state still continues to be high; about 77 per cent, and the clamour for roads in communities to be tarred are becoming greater. That is the reason why when you go through paragraph 727 and 729 of this year's Budget Statement, the Government is going to embark on major construction works which include most of the roads that we have here.

Mr Speaker, not all the targeted roads are indicated in the Budget Statement, but about 3,000 kilometres of roads would be
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:42 p.m.
Hon Member, you have one minute left.
Mr Owusu-Aduomi 12:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, bridges would be constructed, especially the Yapei-Buipe-Daboya bridge and we would also construct interchanges because of the traffic congestions in our cities so that vehicles could move freely.
Mr Speaker, that aside, the Government is also aware of the safety on our roads, therefore we would provide a lot of road signs and street lights at dark areas to improve the safety on our roads.
Mr Speaker, I had a lot to say but my time is very limited and so I would end here. I would want to add that in accordance with the National Assets Protection Project which is on page 73 of the NPP Manifesto, the Government has shown tremendous willingness to complete projects that were started by the predecessor Government in order not to lock the billions of cedis. When we go to paragraph 726 on page 147 we would find this there. All the roads that they indicated as having been neglected by the Government is not true.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity given me and I believe that everybody would support this
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:42 p.m.
Hon Adjei- Mensah.
Mr Isaac Adjei Mensah (NDC -- Wassa East) 12:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2019 Financial Year.
Mr Speaker, in so doing, I would focus on the road sector and concentrate on road maintenance and rehabilitation. Mr Speaker, I would show with statistics and details as to how far and how best this Government has performed. Indeed, the performance of this Government in the road sector has been very bad, poor and unsatisfactory. Indeed, it has been very irresponsible.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague admitted in his presentation that in terms of maintenance, they have not done much and they have accepted that they have done abysmally.
Mr Speaker, to be honest with him, if they have been bequeathed with an asset -- As of the time that we left office, the NDC left about 73,000 kilometres of road network in a reasonably good shape and all we expected was that these assets would be maintained and protected.
Mr Speaker, we know that road infrastructure is very expensive and so --
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:42 p.m.
Hon Member, hold on.
Sorry, I was not paying attention. What has he said that merits you being on your feet?
Mr Owusu-Aduomi 12:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague is attributing to me that I have indicated to this House that the Ministry of Roads and Highways has done abysmally. Mr Speaker, I did not say that. I said that within the limits of these challenges that we have, our performance in routine maintenance has not been that high.
I even indicated the percentage achieved by the Department of Feeder Roads as 44 per cent as at September 2018 and that of the Department of Urban Roads as 21 per cent. Mr Speaker, I did not say that it is abysmal.
The year has not ended and by the time we reach December 2018, we would have achieved more percentages. Mr Speaker, he should let the House know what I said but not to attribute something else to me.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:42 p.m.
Hon Member, you are out of order. Let the record reflect the exact words of the Hon Member. Please, let us stick within what has been said and not what has not been said.
Mr I. A. Mensah 12:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I said that I heard him say that they have not performed as expected as far as road maintenance is concerned and I am classifying that performance as abysmal and irresponsible. Mr Speaker, because --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:42 p.m.
Those are your words and not his.
Mr I. A. Mensah 12:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, yes, but he admitted that they have not performed because of challenges. I classify this non-
performance as abysmal and irrespon- sible. Mr Speaker, I say this because road infrastructure are built with a lot of capital. It is very expensive and so when we have them, we need to ensure that we protect them.
The structural integrity and the investment must be protected in this sector. So, why would such assets be bequeathed to them and they do not want to maintain them?
Mr Speaker, consistently, this Government has performed abysmally in road maintenance in the history of this country. In 2016, in the areas of routine and periodic maintenance and rehabilitation, this Government has consistently defaulted or virtually missed all the targets.
Mr Speaker, I beg to refer to page 2 of the 2017 Budget Statement where the Hon Minister said that he had set himself a target that with regard to routine maintenance, they would go through 11,900 kilometres of trunk roads. For feeder roads, they would go through 22,950 kilometres and with the urban roads, they would go through 10,200 kilometres.
Mr Speaker, what is the performance? Mr Speaker, the performance stands as this in the 2018 Budget Statement. For trunk roads, they were able to go through 10,250 kilometres which is below the target. The Department of Feeder Roads budgeted for 22,950 kilometres -- the chunk of our roads are feeder roads and with the about 73,000 kilometres of road networks, feeder roads is about 42,000 kilometres.
Mr Speaker, they budgeted for about 22,900 kilometres. Nobody forced them. Per their performance, they thought that
they could go through with 22,900, but at the end of the day, they were able to do below 50 per cent. They did 10,679 kilometres.
Mr Speaker, the issue is that all the roads in the rural areas have been abandoned. When this Government came to power, they said that they would review all the projects and contracts, but at the end of the day, they were not able to do that. All the roads are going bad virtually every day and majority of the radio stations in this country talk about our road situation.
Mr Speaker, when the Hon Deputy Minister is here and tells us that they have not been able to meet the target, it tells us that our roads are going bad. My worry is, we spent so much money in this sector and they come in to say they would do more, but at the end of the day, the results are very bad.
Mr Speaker, again in 2018, they set another target but they could not meet it. My concern is that if they set a target and they were not able to meet it, then it is only fair and proper that they give reasons when they come here. I heard my Hon Colleague mention the Road Fund, but who forced them to give the target?
In performance management, if you set a target and it is not met, then you would have to give reasons. Mr Speaker, as far as I am concerned, this Government with all these statistics has failed and performed abysmally and it is very irresponsible of then.
Mr Speaker, what they have in their hands is what they have and not what they have procrastinated. They are going to the Chinese for loans, but if they do not have that capacity, culture and tenacity to maintain roads, then what is the justification that Ghanaians would
Mr I. A. Mensah 12:52 p.m.
allow them to go for the loan? Mr Speaker, if it is a grant, they would say they would not give us the money until we prove to them that we have the attitude and culture of road maintenance. Mr Speaker, they have actually defaulted.
Mr Speaker, I have demonstrated that in the history of this country, they have performed so abysmally. I will give them the statistics. It is there in the 2019 Budget Statement. I have given them the statistics for 2017.

Let us go to the area of periodic maintenance. Under periodic maintenance it was budgeted, and I refer to page 92 of the 2017 Budget Statement. They said they were going to do periodic road maintenance. They budgeted for 350 kilometres. For the Department of Feeder Roads, they budgeted to do periodic maintenance for 300 kilometres and for urban roads, they were going to do 350 kilometres.

What is the result? The result was that, for trunk roads, it was abysmally poor and bad. They performed 119 kilometres, still below target and for the Department of Feeder Roads, they did 205 kilometres.

Mr Speaker, my concern is that, nobody has forced them; they have the mandate and they are steering. They told themselves that they could do so much.

At the end of the day, that could not be done. There are records in the Ministry to show that in the history of this country, the worse period of road maintenance and management is the 22-month period of Nana Akufo Addo.

Mr Speaker, I am still concerned that in the 2019 Budget Statement that was read

here, Could you imagine? We were here when the Hon Minister said, for the year 2019, with regard to rehabilitation on the trunk roads, they would rehabilitate 5 kilometres. five kilometres of trunk road would be like from here to Makola.

With a road network of about 15,000 kilometres, they told us that -- Maybe, it was a typographical mistake. It is there that they would rehabilitate 5 kilometres out of the 15,000 kilometres, and they tell us they care about the maintenance and management of our resources? Should we clap for them?

We left the resources, about 73,000 kilometres, in reasonably good shape, and we want this Government to demonstrate the willingness and preparedness and the capacity to do the work. That is not being done.

Mr Speaker, we are concerned. What is the guarantee that with all these moneys that they have they would even perform? This is because, consistently, in 2017 and 2018, they could not meet the targets. What are they telling us about 2019? That is the performance that I am talking about.

My concern is that we need to approve this Sinohydro Agreement. What is the guarantee that they would be able to maintain all these assets that we are going to put up? That is why we need to come and correct it. They take all these loans and construct the road but because of their bad records in road maintenance, we probably have to come back and take over.

Mr Speaker, it is critical to note, and my Hon Colleague understands that.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
You have one minute.
Mr I. A. Mensah 12:52 p.m.
My Hon Colleague understands that in 2016, during the 2017 Budget performance outlay, it was
demonstrated and shown that, indeed, the NDC Government did very well in trunk and urban roads routine maintenance and that record has not been broken. So, I believe that we need to put in real perspective.
In wrapping up, Mr Speaker, I would also want to talk about the Road Fund. The Road Fund is dedicated to the maintenance of roads. Therefore, when we reviewed the Road Fund kitty, what we had was the 40 pesewas coming in, and at the end of a month, we were getting to over GH¢100 million.
Now, we cross over the deal with United Bank of Africa (UBA) right back in June/July, right from June/July upwards that is different from what we set from the road tolls and so on.
This is from the Energy Levy. When the Hon Minister came here, we did not hear about it. And of course, in the Budget Statement, there is no mention of the Road Fund. We need to know the state of the Road Fund. What has happened to the Road Fund? They have to tell us, and we expect the Hon Minister to come back and demonstrate to us that indeed, we have so much in the kitty.
Mr Speaker, GH¢1.2 million is close to the total allocation for the Ministry. What is happening?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
Your time is up.
Mr I. A. Mensah 12:52 p.m.
The target that was set in the Budget Statement is very bad.
I am just wrapping up, Government has performed
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
Hon Moses Anim?
Mr Moses Anim (NPP -- Trobu) 12:52 p.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to speak to the Motion.

Mr Speaker, as I speak to you, that road has deteriorated to the point that we have to go and repair it. This is a road that contractors of this country were supposed to go and learn from its contractor; the best ever constructed road in this country. Today, that road has deteriorated.

Mr Speaker, when the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways came to answer a Question in this House, the Road Fund by then had been encumbered to the tune of GH¢1.2 billion. We all know that the annual inflow of the Road Fund was GH¢1.2 billion. The loan was taken from UBA at an interest rate of 30.8 per cent. Arrangement fees attached to that loan alone was GH¢38 million.

Mr Speaker, when we put the Question to the Hon Minister what was the purposes of taking that loan, we were told there were two issues. One was to pay for a Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) loan that was taken by the Government and the second was to pay arrears.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
Hon Leader, hold on; switch off your microphone.
Mr I. A. Mensah 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, he is talking about estimates. I believe we are debating policy.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
I am not hearing you.
Mr I. A. Mensah 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I said I thought we were debating policy and not estimates. He was talking about estimates.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
Hon Member, continue.
Mr Anim 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I believe the Road Fund was even discussed by him. I am talking about the Road Fund.
Mr Speaker, the Answer by the then Hon Minister was that, the NDC Government led by John Mahama was to pay out of the GH¢1.2 billion.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
Hon Member, it is NDC Government led by President John Mahama.
Mr Anim 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the NDC Government led by President John Mahama was to pay arrears out of that loan of GH¢506 million. The then Hon Minister answered, and we were all here, that the GH¢506 million arrears was not paid and they took a loan of GH¢1.2 billion with two purposes. They paid the SSNIT loan and did not pay the GH¢506 million.
Mr Speaker, as I speak to you, it is a burden that this current Government is paying. The Road Fund was so encumbered to the point that in 2017, we started payment and we paid GH¢600 million.
In the second year, we realised that we could not sit down and as a result of that, Fidelity Bank and GCB Bank came to the aid of Government. In fact, Fidelity Bank was even ready to give out the loan at 28 per cent on reducing balance.
Mr Speaker, they took the loan at 30.8 per cent on the principal; fixed interest payment running through. Mr Speaker, if you want any Government that is so prudent, it is the NPP Government led by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo.
Mr Speaker, as I speak to you, the infrastructural deficit of this country is US$30 billion. [Interruption.] The source is the Mid-Year Budget Statement, 2018, read in July 2018 in this House by the Hon Minister for Finance. They should go and check. The infrastructural deficit of this country is US$30 billion; the NDC and its antecedents have been in Government for 27 good years. So who caused it?
Mr Speaker, as I speak to you, today, we have leveraged on the bauxite needs of this country. We have leveraged the bauxite that they wanted to give to an individual and not to the state and today, we have got a Sinohydro Project to the tune of US$2 billion to build more roads for this country.
The Sinohydro project, as the 2019 Budget Statement has it, is scattered all over the country, and they would also go to benefit.
Mr Speaker, let us approve this Budget Statement.
1.02. P.m.
All of us would benefit from that. Therefore, when I hear Hon Agbodza, who has only 38 polling stations as a constituency and also a district, would benefit from the Sinohydro Project, and he says there is nothing in this Budget Statement, I wonder.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
Hon Member, you have mentioned Hon Agbodza's name.
Mr Agbodza, what do you want to say to that?
Mr Agbodza 12:52 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr Speaker, this is a very serious matter. This is the Budget Statement presented by the Hon Minister for Finance.
The gentleman, who is our Leader, is a Senior Member of this House. He said Adaklu has been mentioned here to benefit from Sinohydro. Can he quote the paragraph, or withdraw?
Mr Anim 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the Sinohydro project is scattered all over the country, and every Hon Member of this House would benefit from it.
Mr Speaker, the Road Fund, as it is said, was meant for routine maintenance.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
Hon Leader, is Adaklu mentioned in the Budget Statement under Sinohydro project?
Mr Anim 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I generally said we all would benefit from the Sinohydro project, including the Member of Parliament.
In any case, he does not enter his constituency through the air. [Laughter] He enters by the road. He does not have an airport in Adaklu. Does he have an airport in Adaklu? So long as he would benefit, it benefits all of us.
Mr Speaker, the 2019 Budget on roads and transport puts in an infrastructure of about US$2.5 billion as said by the Hon Minister, the highest ever. Railway and aviation would benefit. We have begun to solve all the infrastructural needs of this country that they were not able to solve when they were in power.
As a matter of fact, I wonder why the NDC compares their eight-year infras- tructural development to ours when we have been in power just under two years.
They are matching their record of eight years to the under-two-year development that we have brought to this country.
The first thing we have done is to continue the routine maintenance that we are all aware of.
Secondly, they should look at the railway development that we have brought in this country. It is all there for Ghanaians to see. All we have said is that this House must support this Budget Statement that is so prudently presented, and with the implementation, all of us would see the infrastructure that we need.
We would be transparent, truthful and honest to this country and make sure that Ghana's purse is really controlled. We are not going to inflate any project in this country. We would make sure that quality roads are constructed. We would not come and tout a contractor who does abysmally and says that he is so perfect in constructing roads.
As I speak, when you go to my constituency, a lot of roads have started; local roads on the interchange have started.
Mr Speaker, President Kufuor left office with an African Development Fund (ADF) support for the Pokuase-Awoshie road, a 15-kilometre road. When the NDC came to power under President Mills and President John Mahama, they could only do 10 kilometres of that 15-kilometre road. They left five kilometres which we have come to continue and inculcated into the interchange.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:52 p.m.
You have one minute.
Mr Anim 12:52 p.m.
Today, the local roads for the interchange at Pokuase and its enclave have started. The drains have started and
Mr Kwadwo Nyanpon Aboagye (NDC -- Bikoye) 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to say a few words on the Budget Statement and Economic Policy.
Mr Speaker, before I start, I would like to go back to one or two places, because the reference to the Sinohydro project and other contractors have made me a bit sad.
The very first asphalt in Ghana was done on the Accra-Nsawam road by Swedru Contractors in the 1980s. As at now, Swedru Contractors are lost. There are many other contractors, even like the State Construction Company (SCC), which have collapsed.
Now we bring in outsiders to come and do our work. We propagate Sinohydro to come and do things, but what has happened to our local contractors? In the Akan language, we say “ohohuo embedi amanianfon”, to wit, the stranger should come and eat in our own house while our own people go hungry.
The Hon Member said that they have leveraged the bauxite for our roads, and
then he said that it was going to an individual. Maybe, an individual but it was a company, and that is Ghanaian. Now, he wants the Ghanaian to go out of business and the Chinese would come and take everything. Is that fair?
Some Hon Members 12:52 p.m.
No.
Mr K. N. Aboagye 1:12 a.m.
I believe we should rethink our priorities, because it is not good enough. They are developing China. If you go to Ceylon, they had a port which has been taken over by China because the Sri Lankan Government cannot pay for it.
Mr Speaker, if I may go on, if you look at page 101 of the 2018 and page 147 of the 2019 Budget Statement respectively, the projects which have been listed are exactly the same. Does it mean that in 2018 nothing was done?
We as politicians perhaps give our people too much hope. We list the projects, but in the end,, we are not able to do them. Therefore our people always say politicians do not speak the truth. We should cut our coat according to the size of our cloth and not mislead our people.
If you look at the 2017 Budget Statement, where the comparison of the road percentages are listed -- Mr Speaker, I would get the page for you. If you look at Berekum-Seikwa road, in 2016 we had 81 per cent and in 2017, 88 per cent.
Mr Speaker, in 2018, nothing is shown, and that of 2019 does not even appear in the Budget Statement. Does it mean that the road has been completed? If not, then what has happened?
Mr Speaker, let us take the Nkwanta- Oti Damanko Road. In 2016, we had 35 per cent, in 2017, 39 per cent. In 2018, we had
nothing there, and it is not mentioned in the 2019 Budget Statement at all.
Mr Speaker, the Hohoe-Jasikan Road passes through a part of my constituency. When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his entourage travelled on the eastern corridor roads, they got stuck and for hours they were there.
This was around a town called Santrokofi. After that, the regional Minister promised that within two weeks, work would commence on that road, but up until today, nothing has been done. As at now, it does not even feature in the 2019 Budget Statement at all. What are we telling our people? That we do not keep to our promises?
Mr Speaker, an Hon Member spoke about the Sinohydro project coming to address all our problems. The Hon Agbodza said his Constituency, Adaklu, was not mentioned. My Constituency, Biakoye, was also not mentioned -- [Interruption.] None.
Mr Speaker, if I may go a bit on routine maintenance, a lot has been said. We in the road sector know that if we allow maintenance to go bad, then in the end, we would lose our roads. This is because whatever be the amount of money that would be put into the construction of the roads, if at the end, if there is no maintenance, the road would go bad.
Mr Speaker, when the Yapei and Buipe bridges were closed for repairs earlier this year, a lot of the traffic passed through the eastern corridor. Unfortunately, the eastern corridor roads were not in existence, and so a lot of the traffic had to pass through my constituency, Biakoye Constituency -- the roads from Kpando to Worawora, before they branch to the Buem District.
Mr Speaker, as at now, all the roads have been ruined -- all the roads are bad. If no maintenance is done between now and the next raining season, and if something happens to the Yapei and Buipe bridges and they would have to be closed down, there would be no way for vehicles going to the north, Burkina Faso and Niger to pass.
Therefore, we would have to take the eastern corridor and the Kpando- Worawora roads very seriously. Otherwise, we can have a catastrophe on our hands, but none of them is mentioned in the Budget Statement.
Mr Speaker, I would like to go on to the Volivo Bridge. It has been mentioned in the contract. It was as far back as 2009 when that project started, but as at now, the sod has not been cut and no construction has gone on.
Mr Speaker, however, this is another critical link. When the Adomi Bridge had to be repaired, we had to divert traffic either through Sogakope or the ferry, which was put in place before the traffic between the Eastern Region and the Volta Region could go on. As of now, work on that has not started, but what is the problem?
The problem is that the Government of Ghana is supposed to construct the road from Asutsuare Junction to the bridge, and also from the other end of the bridge to Asikuma, but as of now, nothing has been done, and there is nothing in the Budget Statement to show that it would come on.
Mr Speaker, the Volivo Bridge on the Volta River is a grant from the Japanese Government. So we only need to do our part and we would get that money for free. I believe we would have to look up to our priorities to get things going.
Mr K. N. Aboagye 1:12 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would also want to touch

An Hon Member -- It is with you!
Mr K. N. Aboagye 1:12 a.m.
Please it was an arrangement with the Brazilian Govern- ment and we had to do certain things in order for the grant to become operative. As of now, nothing has happened at the Obetsebi-Lamptey Circle.
I would therefore recommend to Hon Members that between 2.00 p. m. and 5.00 p. m., they should take their time and drive on the Graphic Road toward Odorkor, and see the type of congestion on the road. It would take a person four hours to go from the Graphic Road to Odorkor. That is not good enough.
Mr Speaker, in terms of cost, we incur a lot in traffic, in terms of the fuel, our health, and waste of time. It is something that we do not calculate, but if we do not do something about the congestion on that side of town, then a lot of money would go down the drain.
This is because we have signed contracts which we have not attempted to operationalise. So the Hon Minister for Finance and the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways should look --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 a.m.
Hon Member, your time is up.
Mr K. N. Aboagye 1:12 a.m.
The Hon Ministers should look at the activities that surround
the operationalisation of the contract for the Obetsebi- Lamptey Circle flyover.
Mr Speaker, on this note, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate.
Mr First Deptuy Speaker 1:12 a.m.
Hon Members, we would now move on to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, and we would start from the Hon Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere.
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 a.m.
Yes, Hon Leader?
Mr Anim 1:12 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to appeal to you to permit the Hon Minister to make his Statement, so that just after that, we could continue with debate on the local government.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 a.m.
Yes, Hon available Leader, what is your take on it?
Mr Agbodza 1:12 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I have been directed by the Hon Leaders to say that they agreed that we would pause and let the Hon Minister, who was here yesterday and could not get the opportunity to make his Statement do so.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 a.m.
Very well. Hon Members, the Hon Minister is
here upon a direction that I gave that he should brief the House on the steps that he is taking to deal with road safety two weeks ago.
So the Hon Minister would be allowed to read his Statement.
STATEMENTS 1:22 a.m.
Minister for Transport (Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah) 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to make a Statement in this august House and also to apprise you on the policies and programmes the Ministry of Transport is instituting to address avoidable road accidents --- the role of the citizens and the Responsibility of Government.
Indeed, this year has been a very bad year for road safety in the country, considering that the issue of road traffic crashes has been highlighted daily in the media, including the crash involving the Hon Deputy Minister for Communications, Hon George Andah, on the Kasoa - Winneba Road and the series of pedestrian knockdowns on the Madina- Adentan highway, which led to the huge public outcry two weeks ago and consequently, the spontaneous demon- stration by the community on 8th of November, 2018, after the death of a first year student of West African Senior High School.
Available statistics on road traffic crashes and casualties as at 30th October this year indicate that 11,159 crashes have so far been recorded nationwide, involving 18,063 vehicles, 3,156 motor- cycles which have resulted in 1,921 persons killed and 11,130 persons injured.
It must be noted that 2,602 pedestrians were knocked down over this period, out of which 626 were killed. These statistics show increases in all the parameters, with the exception of pedestrian knockdowns which shows a decrease of 5.48 per cent over the same period last year, 2017.
Mr Speaker, our worry is that, many families have had to grief over the painful demise of their relatives and loved ones in such unpleasant situations.
While we discuss the road safety situation, we must recognise that the road safety challenge is one largely borne out of our own failures to act proactively and responsibly as public agencies in responding to road safety issues quickly with policy and real interventions.
Most of the crashes could also have been prevented if road users had been disciplined and demonstrated responsi- bility for safe road use practices and compliance with existing road traffic regulations as drivers, pedestrians, passengers, motorcyclists and operators of road transport services.
We wish to express our deepest condolences to the families of all those who have lost their lives through road traffic crashes and wish all the injured speedy recovery.
Mr speaker, road safety has become a public health issue and it is increasingly gaining attention locally and globally, largely due to the rising trends in the number of persons losing their lives and getting injured through road traffic crashes and the resultant social and economic burden on individuals, families and societies.
Mr Speaker, we cannot continue lamenting, rather we need to move on as a country to jointly and collectively be responsible and put in place pragmatic measures to stop the carnage on our roads, by sensitising and educating road users to be disciplined in safe road use practices and obey road traffic regulations.
Mr Speaker, change is obviously the way forward. We need 1:22 a.m.
Change in the policy and standards that will enable adequate investment in road infrastructure for dualisation of our major highways, by-passing towns and villages and separating vehicular traffic from pedestrians;
Change in standards for training of our drivers;
Change in policy to regulate our public road transport system;
Change in the attitude of road users,'
Change in the way we enforce road traffic regulations by the use of modern technology;
Change of policy to relocate transportation of heavy goods to rail and water; and
Change in the way we appropriate funds for road safety activities.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I express my sincere gratitude to the House for inviting me to apprise Hon Members on policies and programmes being instituted by the Ministry to address the numerous road safety issues confronting the country.
Once again, my deepest condolences to the families of all those who have lost their lives through accidents ,crashes and thus wish all the injured persons speedy recovery.
Thank you.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 p.m.
Hon Members, I would admit two contributions only, including the Leadership. So where
Leadership would want to contribute, there would be one Hon Member from each Side, but if Leadership do not want to contribute, then it would be two Hon Members from each Side.
Mr Samuel Nartey George (NDC -- Ningo Prampram) 1:32 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much and I thank the Hon Minister for Transport for the Statement that he has made.
Mr Speaker, in reading the Hon Minister's Statement, it is heart-breaking to realise that as a nation, successive governments have failed in an attempt to drive down the carnage on the roads.
If we look at the statistics the Hon Minister for Transport provided in his Statement, it would be realised that with the exception of pedestrian knock downs, all other forms of accidents on our roads have gone up. As a nation, this is a sad reality that we must all take responsibility for.
Mr Speaker, in the Hon Minister's Statement, he said that public agencies have failed to act proactively, and that is one of the root causes of the issues that are seen as a result of carnage on our roads. It is important that these public agencies should begin to embrace their activities and their actions further.
On this particular line, I would want to again congratulate the Hon Minister and the Government for the Cabinet decision to upgrade the National Road Safety Commission to an Authority. That would give it more bite to fight the carnage on our roads.
However, just making it an Authority would not mean that the carnage would stop; they would need proper resourcing and that must be a priority of the Government.
Mr Speaker, the ten pick-up vehicles that we are told are made available are woefully inadequate, even for the Greater Accra Region alone, if proper road monitoring would really have to be done.
Ten pick- up vehicles in the Greater Accra Region would serve nothing, and we are talking of ten pick-up vehicles for the whole country. We would need to see more resources committed to this fight to end the carnage on our roads.
Mr Speaker, with the exception of you, I would not be able to speak for any of the other ambassadors. I know you are very law abiding because I have seen you several times on the road when you drive.
However, with the Hon Minister asking Hon Members of this House to be ambassadors for road safety, has the Hon Minister addressed his mind to how some Hon Members of this House drive on the road? With the way and manner in which some Hon Members of this House break the law, which includes the use of sirens and flash lights that are not supposed to be used, how then do we become advocates for road safety?
When Hon Members drive anti-traffic in their V8s with a flash light and a siren that they are not supposed to use, how do we become advocates for road safety when we ourselves are perpetrators of carnage on the road?
Mr Speaker, we need to be careful how we pick an advocate -- [Interruption.] -- Hon Collins Owusu Amankwa, I do not have a flash light on any of my vehicles.
Mr Speaker, it is extremely important that the advocacy does not just become a
media talk shop, but we walk our talk as advocates to make sure that the carnage on our roads are brought to an end.
Mr Speaker, again, with the issue of road markings -- with regard to the Adentan-Madina stretch -- this stretches across several governments and political dispensations. When that road was constructed, several portions of it had no road marking, so it would be realised that people criss-crossed on that road anyhow and motorist are also not guided on the use of the road.
Mr Speaker, we spend millions of dollars and take loan as a country to construct roads. Three lane roads are constructed on both sides which makes it six lane roads and four lanes out of the six are dedicated to street side venders and we sit aside and watch aloof and expect discipline on the roads when we see law enforcement agencies and even Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies go to take tolls and levies from road side hawkers who have taken over the roads that loans were taken to construct.
Mr Speaker, if we want to take a loan to construct a market, we should do that, but when there is a market which has taken over the road and it creates traffic, road users would try to make up for the time they spent in that traffic that was caused by the market on the road side.
Mr Speaker, we need to ensure that as we clean the roads and make them properly motorable, the right things that have to be done must be done without fear of political repercussions. Because if we want to work as a country, these are the things that must be done.
Mr Samuel Ayeh-Paye (NPP -- Ayensuano) 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to take this opportunity to thank the hardworking Hon Minister for Transport for the wonderful Statement.
Mr Speaker, listening to him, what he has submitted to the House should clearly indicate that the National Road Safety Commission, the Ministry of Transport and the Government has done what is expected of them to reduce accidents on our roads, even though the figures keep going up. So the question one may ask is; why the increase?
Vehicles have been provided, roads and bridges are being fixed, and money has been released to the National Road Safety Commission to educate the public, yet the figures keep going up. Technically, there is something that must be looked at in addition to what the National Road Safety Commission, the Ministry of Transport and the Government would do.
Mr Speaker, statistics show that 95 per cent of the Transport system or the transportation in this country is being done by road. Road alone takes about 95 per cent and so there is pressure in that sector. Once the pressure keeps increasing, definitely, there would be more accidents.
There is the need for us as a country to use other modes of transportation, and that is why rail transport is coming. There is the need for us to offload the pressure from the road transport to rail transport, and also try to have airport or airstrips in all the regional capitals so that we could start going into the aviation industry to reduce the pressure on the roads.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
Hon Chairman, under what law would they do that? You have not passed a law that gives them —
Mr Ayeh-Paye 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, that is why I said that we need to speed up action on it; so that there would be a process. The law must be amended so that we would start practising it at a point in time.
At times it is difficult to trace them because the driver would drop the licence that the point had been deducted and then go in for a new licence, as somebody would go to an Embassy or gets a passport he or she goes with new data to get a new passport. They would do same.
There is the need for us to go into our data system and make sure that we build proper identification, so that we can know driver “A” holds license “A”, and when all the points on his licence get finished, he cannot go in for a new licence. When these things are done, we can use them to check or control human behaviour to reduce accidents on our roads.
Mr Speaker, another issue we ought to do with is the type of vehicles that we use in the road transport system. Everybody wants to sit in his or her own car; it is time we went into the buses system, where coaches or buses would be used to transport passengers.
At times when one sits by the roadside and looks at what is happening -- We are rather moving vehicles instead of moving passengers. This is because if one should count the number of vehicles that would pass at a go, as compared to the passengers in the vehicles we would end up saying that we are rather moving vehicles instead of moving passengers.
So the Ministry of Transport should try to assist the Private Road Transport Associations to get buses instead of the mini-vans that we use today. Converting vans into mini-buses is also one of the main reasons why some of these accidents happen.
Mr Speaker, I am very happy that the Hon Minister for Transport made mention of converting the National Road Safety Commission into an Authority.
If we go to the rail industry, we have the Ghana Railway Authority and we have the Ghana Rail Company Limited. They have only one Agency, that is the Ghana Rail Company Limited Yet, they have Ghana Railways Authority that controls the activities of the rail sector.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
Leadership, what is the position? If you are contributing or deferring to somebody, please tell me.
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim (NDC — Banda) 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to make a few comments on the Statement.
Mr Speaker, I cannot proceed without commending the Hon Minister for coming to brief the House about what the Ministry is doing to avert any eventuality after what happened in Adentan.
Mr Speaker, the figures in the Statement are very alarming, and with your permission, I beg to read the last paragraph on page one:
“Available statistics on road traffic crashes and casualties as at 30th October this year indicate that 11,159 crashes have so far been recorded nationwide involving 18,063 vehicles including 3,156 motorcycles which have resulted in 1,921 persons killed and 11,130 persons injured.”
Mr Speaker, this is so alarming. I would not want to comment so much. I believe the way our institutions operate, the lack
of coordination among sectors and Ministries — When they talk about the Adentan road et cetera, people mention the Ministry of Roads and Highways.
The question I ask is, have we finished the construction of the road? When we finish constructing the road, then the safety aspect would come in. If we have finished constructing the road and we have not completed the safety aspect and all those things are happening, it is very worrying.
I think the Ministry of Transport should coordinate with the Ministry of Roads and Highways to make sure that not only that aspect of road, but all other roads which have similar problems are fixed.

Mr Speaker, beyond that, over the weekend, we went to Koforidua. I returned to Greater Accra in the night - around 9.00 p.m. When I was entering Accra from Ayi Mensah to Sakumono, the whole place was dark. Then I told my driver when we got to Adentan that this was where the incident happened; we witnessed a situation where every place was dark.

Mr Speaker, we have not learnt lessons. People were still crossing the street without any road sign anywhere. Then I asked myself, if we constructed a beautiful road and we did not put in place the safety aspect -- road markings, zebra crossing, among others, it would make everybody to cross the road anywhere. We cannot continuously blame the drivers. If we blame the drivers, we must as well blame ourselves.

So when we got there, I asked my driver to slow down because there would be multiple crossings and we witnessed them. But my worry was when all the
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:52 p.m.
Majority Leadership?
Mr Moses Ayim 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I yield to the Hon Member for Mpohor Consti- tuency.
Mr Alex Kofi Agyekum (NPP -- Mpohor) 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I just want to add my voice to the points raised by my Hon Colleagues. In doing so, I would want to
thank the Hon Minister who made the Statement for giving us this update.
Mr Speaker, there are three critical areas that I would want to emphasise on briefly.
The very first one is the incident that happened which culminated the action which government has taken. Mr Speaker, we as a House and as legislators must always guard against certain negative public perceptions. When they started these public outcry, everybody was talking about the fact that we were insensitive until certain things happened, especially when it is got do with us.
I am happy the Hon Minister has taken certain measures which are going to improve the situation. But what I would want to ask is, why should agencies mandated to perform these tasks renege on their duties until the unexpected happens?
Mr Speaker, we are not going to call those who have died back. If you look at that particular stretch of the road, systematically, people have died and the public outcry did not receive any attention.
All of a sudden, someone wanted to cash in as if there was some inertia on the part of this present Government for doing what is expected. I think that one was unfortunate and I am happy-today, the Hon Minister has come to this House to update us on what is happening.
Mr Speaker, transforming the National Road Safety Commission into National Road Safety Authority is not the only panacea if compliance and enforcement is going to be relegated. So I would want to see some bite if that Authority comes
into full force ensuring that whatever is supposed to be requisite standards and sanctions are enforced. By so doing, we would then be making a headway, otherwise, it would be business as usual.
Mr Speaker, thirdly, I would like to plead with Hon Members not to take offence on it. The Hon Minister who made the Statement was making Hon Members of Parliament Road Safety Ambassadors.
The question that I would want to ask my own Colleagues is -- we would want to do introspection -- what was so crucial yesterday when we were going to commiserate with the families of our departed Hon Member that we also contravened road safety regulations? I would want to ask.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:52 p.m.
Hon Member, you would hold on.
Hon Members, having regard to the state of business, I direct that the House Sits outside the regular Sitting hours.
You would continue, Hon Member.
Mr A. K. Agyekum 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I was just saying that many a time, Leadership has warned us not to put on sirens as individual Members of Parliament. I also wanted to add that let us also be considerate and prove to the public that where it matters most, we show leadership.
If we are supposed to go for a programme at 2.00 p.m., what prevents us from starting the journey at 12.30 or 1.00 p.m. so that we get there on time? But many a time, when it is about 10 or 15 minutes to the time, we break all traffic regulations to get there.
Mr Speaker, when we are going, the public sees us and ask why is it that these people who are our leaders break the
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:02 p.m.
Thank you, Hon Members. I would just want to share some few observations.
First, the Hon Member for Ningo- Prampram mentioned the act of impunity
often exhibited by people in authority including Members of Parliament. In my view, that is growing and it is so because law enforcement is almost nil.
I urge you to strengthen the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) to arrest and prosecute MPs who breach the rules just as they would arrest other public officials or non-officials. In that way they would give a signal. It is growing and emboldening other people who are breaching the rules.
Indeed, any member who is not in the security agencies is not entitled to put those lights and sirens in their vehicles. They are offences and so, we should ensure that Hon Members who have done that are prosecuted and removed from office.
Second, it is suggested that Hon Members should be ambassadors. I believe that if one accepts to be an ambassador of road safety, it is one's responsibility to respect the rules and all Hon Members who wish to see road safety improvement should accept to be ambassadors of road safety and behave well on the road.
Hon Minister, the last one I would want to say is that, on page 7, you spoke about L.I. 2180 section 154 but you only said that you directed Road Safety Commission to intensify campaign and education.
We are constantly and regularly embarking on education. If we do not add enforcement, it would come to nought. We always would want to blame somebody else for a calamity. We do not talk about the “us” in the equation.
The pedestrian is as much a part of the road safety challenge as the trader on the road or as a mother who leaves a seven year old child to cross the road to school.
Indeed, Hon Members, under the criminal code, if a child under seven years old crosses a road, the parent has to be prosecuted. It is the law of this country.
If we leave a child of seven years or younger to cross the road by himself or herself, the parents should be prosecuted. All these laws are in place. What is left is for us to enforce them to achieve the safety we want.
I thank you.
Hon Minister?
Mr K. O. Asiamah 2:02 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much.
I have indeed taken the concerns of Hon Members of this House and I can assure you that I would incorporate these concerns into our master plan. Just to make it known to this House that earlier this year, the Chief of Staff issued a directive to all Hon Members of the Majority Caucus and the Executive that anyone who is not mandated by law to put a siren in his or her car should remove it because it is an offence. We have indeed directed the Police to cause the arrest.
Mr Speaker, as a Minister for Transport, I do not have a siren in my car because per the law, I am not mandated to have one. If I am looking for any other persons to help me in road safety advocacy, I believe this is the right place I would have to come to because Members of Parliament (MPs) themselves must make sure that they help me advocate for people to know that they are not supposed to do the wrong things.
Mr Speaker, I would also want to assure the Hon Member of Parliament for Ningo- Prampram that yes, we do not recognise
the deficiency of National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) because we cannot give a gun to a seven year old boy to go for hunting. That is the reason we are changing their mandate to ensure that they have the requisite mandate to ensure compliance.
We know that the Pick-up vehicles may not be enough but I am not trying to debate anybody on this issue. When we came to office, regional officers did not even have one pick-up vehicle. So as a start, we have purchased Pick-up vehicles for all regional officers. That does not mean that we would not provide them the requisite logistics that they need.
Mr Speaker, yes, people criticise the Agencies for not enforcing the laws in their line of duty, but as you know more than I do, road safety is a shared responsibility. So if we presume that the Agencies are not up to standard and we take our destiny into our own hands, some of these accidents could have been prevented.
So, as much as we blame the Agencies for not performing their duties, I would also want to entreat pedestrians to take responsibility for their own lives.
Mr Speaker, I do not intend to speak much but as I said, I have taken on board the concerns of Hon Members of this House. I would incorporate them. I would still ask them to become road safety ambassadors to preach the gospel to our people either in our villages, cars or wherever we find yourselves.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:02 p.m.
Hon Members, take that part on a lighter note. The more critical issue is that, first, let us be law abiding.
Thank you, Hon Minister, for coming to brief the House.
We shall continue with the debate on the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government, 2019.
Yes, Hon Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere?
MOTION 2:02 p.m.
  • [Continuation of debate from column 2496]
    • Mr Benjamin Yeboah Sekyere (NPP--Tano South) 2:12 p.m.
    I thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity given me.
    I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2019 Financial Year. We cannot afford to let the people of Ghana not to see whatever Government is doing so far as local government is concerned.
    Mr Speaker, fortunately, I am your Chairman on the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development. I would want to also thank Government for
    the flagship programmes that he is embarking on at the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
    This Budget Statement and Economic Policy is one that enables us to face the future. It gives us confidence and delivers hope to every average Ghanaian.
    Mr Speaker, one of the cardinal principles underpinning democracy is the election of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs). In the 2017 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, paragraph 304 of page 62, the Government promised to review relevant sections of the Local Government Act of 2006, Act 936, to ensure the election of MMDCEs.
    When we come to paragraph 358 of page 73 of the 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government, the President re-stated the power to revoke appointments to District Assemblies. The Ministry then reviewed the Local Government Act in line with Government's vision to ensure the election of MMDCEs.
    Mr Speaker, this roadmap was reiterated in 2018. In 2019, in paragraph 464 of page 102, the Bill for the amendment of the Constitution has been gazetted and a referendum would be held in 2019 to ensure that MMDCEs are elected. This is a government which never fails in its promises.

    Mr Speaker, all over the world and in most parts of Africa, leaders try to amend the Constitution to ensure that they extend their stay in power and to rule. Under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, he is ready to delegate his powers as the appointer of Metropolitan, Municipal and District

    Chief Executives (MMDCE's) to the local people to ensure that they go through elections and bring out the best candidate who can rule them.

    The Government has demonstrated real commitment to deepen democracy to ensure that funds are also available for these programmes. As we have been moving around with our Committee, Hon Members will attest to the fact that people are very happy in most places for the Government's decision to allow this to happen.

    Mr Speaker, on the District Develop- ment Fund (DDF), the Ministry has completed the integration of the DDF principles with the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) to serve as a counterpart fund to trigger the release of development partners components of

    DDF.

    All those who have been Municipal Chief Executives, for example, Hon Ampem and others, will attest to the fact that throughout the years, they have been suffering as to how to get the funds as far as DDF is concerned.

    Under the good leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo, we have managed to use the DACF as a counterpart fund to ensure that DDF is easily accessible and almost all the District Assemblies now have that fund for development.

    To deepen democracy, all the newly created 38 Districts under Nana Akufo- Addo are now in full session. We have the District Chief Executives (DCEs) in their offices and all the core staff including the Coordinating Directors who have been posted to their various offices; and the offices are functioning. This is good leadership by example.

    Mr Speaker, the most important aspect is that 35 out of 48 administrative blocks being constructed for the District Assemblies have been completed and handed over to their respective officers. Out of this, five of the blocks are at the various stages of completion.

    For 11 years now, 20 additional district offices from the year 2007 during President Kufuor's era are now going to benefit from administrative blocks. This is a government which ensures continuity.

    I am surprised that under the eight years of our former President and his administration, none of these offices were constructed from 2007 till date. [Hear! Hear!] This is good leadership we also have to emulate and talk about.

    Looking at the Disability Fund, your Committee managed to go to some selected District Assemblies in the three northern regions of the country and we got to know that as at the time of moving around, some of the resources in the Disability Fund were still sitting in the accounts.

    When we asked, they said that the amount had been fully paid and some District Assemblies were getting as much as GH¢199,000 and so on, which shows that the fund has been increased from 2 to 3 per cent.
    rose
    -- 2:12 p.m.
    Mr Sekyer 2:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:12 p.m.
    Hon Member, hold on by switching off your microphone.
    Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza 2:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I did not intend to truncate the flow of my Hon Colleague but he made a comment that I will correct for the records. The District Assembly from which Adaklu was carved out was Agortime- Ziope. It was created by President Kufuor. Indeed, when the late President Mills and
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:12 p.m.
    Hon Member, do you know that fact?
    Mr Sekyere 2:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, per page 102 of paragraph 467 of this year's Budget Statement, it was stated that in the year 2007 -- [Interruption] -- of which I know that if Hon Members were committed to it, we would have budgetted for its completion now. So, personally they did not go out to do any of these things that we were told.
    As an Hon Chairman of the Committee, I am also not privy to that information and so, maybe, he could quote his source and show documents to support it.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:12 p.m.
    Very well.
    We will take note that he drew your attention to that.
    Mr Sekyere 2:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I was talking about the Disability Fund. I am very comfortable that my Hon Member who signed would also let them know that under the leadership of this President, Disability Fund has been increased from 2 to 3 per cent.
    Most of the District Assemblies that we visited, the funds are there and there have been directives that this time, they should not use them for feeding or Transportation, instead, they should be

    Mr Speaker, when we talk about utilisation of the DACF, the Auditor- General's Report shows that infractions on the DACF has reduced by 40 per cent due to proper monitoring, proper internal and effective operations of which under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo, you cannot dare nor decide to steal any of these DACFs; proper monitoring is going on.

    Also, the Ministry of Finance has set up a platform to ensure that we automate collection of revenue under the President's tenure of office.

    Under the Local Government Service, we have been able to employ 1,049 staff including procurement officers and human resources directors for which we have to commend the Government for a good work done.

    Mr Speaker, also at the department of community Development, Government is ready to give training to 4,781 people under the Technical and Vocational Skills within community vocational technical institutions.

    Very soon in the year 2019, Government is going to train 1,250 people after the damage of galamsey. Within a short time, we had -- the Akyem people boast of

    this adage: “Akyemkwaa a onum Birem nsuo” to wit An Akyem person who drinks from the Birem river.

    Within four years of a President who never cared, we managed to destroy all our waterbodies and now, under the leadership of Nana Akufo-Addo, we have the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) for 18 affected districts and all these people in these districts sum to 500 for this year. In the year 2019, we are going to train 1,250 to ensure that they are able to sustain themselves without engaging in galamsey activities.

    Mr Speaker, on sanitation, we have been going around the country and meeting stakeholders to determine how best we could solve this issue on sanitation.

    At the District Assemblies, we have been finding out what is happening and I am very happy that this has been fully interrogated by the Hon Kpodo in almost all the District Assemblies that we have visited. We have realised that the aspect of sanitation that has been causing most of the problem is funding. The cost that was left for this administration to pay is enormous.

    If we look at the Appropriation Bill, there was arrears of GHC179, 111,304 to be paid. Mr Speaker, in a particular budget, if we managed to pay this in arrears then how would we get funds to finance the rest of the sanitation problems? All these happened under the watch of a particular administration.

    When we come to 2008, under the same Appropriation Bill, we would see that per the budget formula, the DACF Secretariat

    earmarked GHC104, 690,950 to also pay arrears and this is beyond human understanding.

    Mr Speaker, this country deserves better and we need to ensure that District assemblies are given the needed funds to function. We could not manage under this mess, a situation where instead of the funds going to the right channel -- I do not know where it goes.

    Mr Speaker, on these District Assemblies that were put up, we went to a northern part of the country and it had a nice building plan but I do not know the type of engineers who supervised the work because with my size, I could not even enter the washrooms.

    The doors and sinks are so close such that anybody who is of the size of Hon Mills cannot enter that building. What kind of leadership are we giving? We need to ensure that there is value-for-money and we have to ensure that those who supervise would do the right thing to save this country.

    Mr Speaker, the local government system deserves better and I believe that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo has done well and I know that during the Appropriation Bill, all Hon Members would support this House to ensure that the right thing is done for it to be passed so that Ghana becomes better.

    Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity.

    [Hear! Hear!] Mr Edwin Nii Lante Vanderpuye (NDC

    -- Odododiodioo): Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion on the Budget Statement for the year 2019.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:22 p.m.
    Hon Vanderpuye, hold on.
    Mr O. B. Amoah 2:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, my good Hon Friend, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, is misleading this House and he must be checked before he goes on. He cannot state on this Floor that the President has taken moneys from one Ministry to create another Ministry. What is the basis?
    Mr Speaker, where in the Budget Statement does it state that this money was meant for the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, but it has been taken to the Ministry of Special Initiatives? He has no basis to say this, he is misleading this House and so he should withdraw before he proceeds.
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I would ignore what the Hon Deputy Minister has said.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:22 p.m.
    Hon Member, you cannot withdraw. Just do not say that. Move on.
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the issue was clearly in the Budget Statement. Capping was done in this House where moneys were taking from the DACF and other Statutory funds and used to finance projects which hitherto were being embarked upon by the district assemblies to --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:22 p.m.
    Very well. If you insist on the Budget Statement then tell me where the moneys that were capped were allocated to.
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Special Budget Statement in this House in 2018.
    Some Hon Members 2:22 p.m.
    Where?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:22 p.m.
    Just avoid interpretations which would lead to arguments if you insist and you cannot prove it in the Budget Statement then --
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, was the budget capped?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:22 p.m.
    Yes, it was.
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:22 p.m.
    What was the capping used for?
    It was used to finance projects under the Ministry of Special Initiatives.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:22 p.m.
    It was used to pay you in this House. Could you prove that or not? So do not make allegations or interpretations which would lead to problems. Let us move on. [Interruption.]
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I do not know what my Hon Colleague is saying I should withdraw because the statement is a fact in this House. I could say on record that in the Budget Statement of 2019, it has been stated clearly that the Ministry has awarded contracts for 20 new District Assembly offices to be built -- District Assemblies that were created in
    2007.
    Mr Speaker, if District Assemblies that were created in 2007 have not gotten accommodation then why do we create more districts? Mr Speaker, the President in his State of the Nation Address of 8th February, 2018, said and I beg to quote:
    “Mr Speaker, I am convinced that the creation of new regions alone would not open up the country. That would not on its own convince our young people that they do not have to come to Accra to make a living.”
    Creation of District Assemblies alone would not make decentralisation effective if the decentralised offices do not have accommodation from which to operate and deliver services to the people they are supposed to be dealing with. So, a prudent management of the economy would necessitate that when we create District Assemblies then we must give them accommodation before we continue to create more.
    Mr Speaker, there is an Akan proverb that says “emmoa eko edidie mmaa fie a yen ka bi ngu mu” to wit if animals are sent out to graze and they have not returned others are not sent out to join them. The ones who have been sent out should be accounted for before others are sent out.
    Mr Speaker, the Budget Statement has spoken about equipping the District Assemblies with the required staff. It is on record that up till today the staff that are needed in the District Assemblies,
    especially physical planners to plan the development and embark on our new Spatial Planning Act in the District Assemblies are lacking.
    Mr Speaker, we have one engineer serving five districts and it becomes very difficult. That is why we have people who build in areas without proper docu- mentation and do not restrict themselves to the planned development of the area.
    Mr Speaker, the Budget Statement also spoke about provision of facilities at the local level under what is called local level development. Here, the Budget Statement talks about providing markets in Tamale, Asokore Mampong, Asesewa and one other place. This was a project that has been in the Budget Statement since 2017.

    This Budget Statement is talking about completing feasibility studies and now how contracts would be awarded. Are we being told that as of when the Hon Minister came to stand here in March, 2017, to talk about these markets that they were going to construct and rebuild feasibility studies had not been done? How?

    Mr Speaker, I would want to quote the Budget Statement reference in paragraph 311 of the 2017 Budget Statement. These markets have been constructed. Today, we are being told that feasibility studies have been completed and the contracts would be awarded.

    I am asking, in 2017 when the Hon Minister came to stand in front of us and said contracts were going to be awarded for these markets, does it mean feasibility studies had not been done?
    Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah 2:32 p.m.
    On a point of order. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, I would have the opportunity to contribute to this debate, but I should not let the Hon Member go away with palpable falsehood. Nobody at the Births and Deaths Registry has been dismissed.
    If somebody has been transferred from one region to another, does it mean it is a dismissal? Somebody in the Volta Region has been transferred and somebody from the Upper East Region has been asked to replace him, does he call that dismissal?
    Mr Speaker, this is a House of records. If he says people have been dismissed, he should give us the list of those who have been dismissed. Nobody has been dismissed, he should take it from me. I am in the Ministry, and nobody has been dismissed. He should not make a false statement and get away with it.
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I withdraw the word “dismiss” and replace it with “reassigned”. [Interruption.]
    Mr Speaker, they were miraculously reassigned over frivolous excuses that they were registering aliens. Registration in the Volta Region was actually suspended for months, and this is what has contributed to the low registration in the year when government has pumped moneys into the Births and Deaths Registry in order for us to be able as a country to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of a particular number of registrations per year. Vital statistics and civic registration is a very important tool for development planning in the whole of the world.
    Mr Speaker, under the Sustainable Development Goals programme, this particular requirement of countries is being seriously pursued, but here we are taking decisions to frustrate the registration of people in regions, and we are not achieving the targets we set under civil registration and vital statistics by ourselves.
    Mr Speaker, inadequate funding to the Department has been very obvious, and that is why under the former President
    John Dramani Mahama's Administration, we started the move to make sure that the Births and Deaths Registry keeps, at least half of the moneys they generate for their own operations.
    Up till today, that has not been effected. So they have to depend on the same kitty as everybody, making their activities very difficult to carry out.
    Mr Speaker, I would take this opportunity to say that, as a country, we must all be interested in the relocation of the Births and Deaths Registry because with the start of the Marine Drive Project, that very important department would be affected. Also, with the new Information Technology that has been built there, if we are not careful with its relocation, the whole registration system may break down.
    Mr Speaker, the Urban Agenda is very important for us as a country. Under this, there should be an integration of urban development with sustainable and resilient programmes that would make it possible for us to have all-inclusive developments in the country.
    This programme which was started in 2016 to review our development paradigm has not seen any serious attention, and I am surprised that in this Budget for 2019, there was no mention of the Urban Agenda at all.
    Mr Speaker, under the John Dramani Mahama Administration, effort was put in place to have what we call Street Naming and Property Addressing System. This was aggressively pursued within a short time by the District Assemblies. Some of them struggled to even raise the necessary funding to be able to embark upon this project.
    With the advent of the NPP Adminis- tration; Nana Akufo Addo's Government, something was introduced called “Jack, where are you?”, A GPS system which has made it almost imperative for the Street Naming and Property Address Programme that was started to be shelved.
    Mr Speaker, today, as I stand here, I do not even know whether “Jack, where are you” is operating or not. Very soon, when I go out there, I would try and see whether I could see Hon O. B. Amoah from my “Jack, where are you” on the phone.
    It is becoming clear that if we want to have proper database and statistics in the country, we must go back to the programme we started with the street naming and property addressing.
    Mr Speaker, the Land Valuation Department is another key decentralised department of the District Assemblies. Today, I was happy that the Minister for Finance in the Budget Statement said there is the need for us to encourage the District Assemblies to raise the needed property rates in order to advance their Internally-Generated Fund (IGF) mobilisation.
    Most of the Distric Assemblies have not revalued their properties. They do not even have the means to be able to value their properties. That was why it was thought wise in 2016 by the Mahama Administration to further decentralise the work of the Land Valuation Department into the District Assemblies so that they can help the District Assemblies to revalue the properties so that they can mobilise revenue.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:32 p.m.
    Hon Member, you have one minute.
    Mr Vanderpuye 2:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, today, this has not been done.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:32 p.m.
    Hon Owusu Aduomi?
    Mr Kwabena Owusu-Aduomi 2:42 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, do not be surprised. I am with the Local Government and Rural Development Committee. Time changes.
    Mr Amed Ibrahim 2:42 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I can see the energy from my Hon Colleague on the other Side, but we are speaking on the Financial Policy of Government. If it were to be the Consideration Stage of a Bill, I would say he could speak more than once, but on this, out of 169 Hon Members, if the men are finished, I would agree, but if they still have men, they should bring them.
    Mr Speaker, if there are no men, we would permit two.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:42 p.m.
    I am trying to determine whether you are eligible to speak twice, let me be sure.
    Mr Anim 2:42 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon First Deputy Minority Whip did not cite any Standing Orders. There is nothing that prevents the Hon Members from debating a Motion. He is a Member of the Local Government and Rural Development Committee, nothing stops him.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:42 p.m.
    Very well, go on.
    Mr Kwabena Owusu-Aduomi (NPP-- Ejisu) 2:42 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much for another opportunity to contribute to the Motion on the Budget Statement.
    Mr Speaker, just a reaction to my Friend, Hon Nii Lantey. The fact that the activities that the District Assembly may be doing would be the same as that of the Ministry of Special Initiatives does not mean that moneys have been transferred from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to the Ministry of Special Initiatives. They may be the same activities, but it does not mean that.
    Mr Speaker, creation of more districts is relevant. When you go to page 141 of the NPP Manifesto, the NPP led Government is committed to bringing governance to the doorsteps of the people. This is the first statement that we made.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:42 p.m.
    Why did you stop? Anyway, Hon Leader?
    Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 2:42 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, when I was on my feet earlier, my Hon Colleague on the other Side said I had no objection, but if they had no men to speak, they could allow the Hon Deputy Minister for
    Roads and Highways to speak another time. I was not against it.
    My Hon Colleague on the other Side said I had no issue because I did not cite any Standing Order.
    Mr Speaker, in that regard, I would like your ruling on this. With your permission, Order 86 (4) says;
    “No Member shall speak more than once to any Question except --
    (a) at the Consideration Stage of a Bill; or
    (b) in explanation, as prescribed in paragraph (5) of this Order; or
    (c) in the case of the mover of a substantive motion wishing to reply,…”
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways has spoken today, and we are considering the Motion on the Financial Policy of the Government. He is not the mover of the Motion. In that regard, I would like to make a humble appeal to you to disqualify him.
    If out of 169 Members of Parliament, they cannot bring just two persons to speak on the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, they should let us adjourn the House and close.
    Mr Speaker, I make a humble suggestion to you.
    Mr Anim 2:42 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I believe strongly that you had earlier granted the Hon Member permission to debate the Motion, and if my Hon Colleague really wants to challenge your ruling on that then he should come by a substantive Motion.
    Hitherto, what he mentioned, that no Member shall speak more than once to any Question, is this a Question?
    Mr Speaker has given his ruling already, he has granted the Hon Member permission to debate. So I believed that the Hon Member is engaging us in a needless interruption. We should allow this debate to continue. This is very needless interruption.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:42 p.m.
    Hon Members, first, we must understand that Standing Order 86 deals with rules of debate, and therefore, it is appropriate to raise the issue, but the question that is before us is whether or not we adopt the Motion moved by the Minister for Finance or it is a Question that we are debating . [Hear! Hear!]
    The issue though is that, when you had the opportunity to raise the issue you said they should go on. When you cede your right, then, it would lie ill in your mouth to come mid-way through to raise the issue.
    Let it be on record that under our rules, on a particular Question, no Hon Member is entitled to two bites of the cherry. However, because you are halfway through, I would allow you to proceed to a close, but I would not admit any such things any further.
    Please proceed.
    Mr Owusu-Aduomi 2:42 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much for your generosity.
    Mr Speaker, in accordance with the NPP Manifesto, on page 141, we are committed to bringing governance to the doorsteps of the people. The Government's programme is to ensure increase in participation of the people in democratic governance and promote development.
    Mr Owusu-Aduomi 2:52 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, in view of this laudable
    policy, the Government created additional Municipal and District Assemblies. My Hon Chairman has already mentioned the new District Assemblies that have been filled with District Chief Executives and Coordinating Directors, so I would not bore the House with this.

    To have a good environment to work, the new District Assemblies are also putting up buildings. I would also not touch on this because it is in the Budget Statement.

    What I want us to realise is that the Government is also pursuing the policy to have MMDCEs elected and that has also been touched on. These are all to promote good governance and also bring democratic governance to the doorsteps of the people.

    In addition to this, it is not only by word of mouth, but the Government has also moved on. They had regional days workshops to sensitise and create awareness on this policy of electing MMDCEs.

    Stakeholders, traditional authorities, civil society organisations (CSO), MMDCEs, Assembly Members, Members of Parliament (MP), political parties and the media participated. That shows the seriousness of this Government in pursuing that policy. Mr Speaker, in 2019, a referendum on this policy would begin because the Bill that gives us the authority to go ahead has been gazetted.

    Revenue generation internally at the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA) is key to the operations of the Assemblies. Most of the

    Assemblies have adequate sources of revenue generation.

    However, they face challenges which, when supported by the Government could be solved. In all the MMDAs that we have visited, the prominent challenge associated with their internally generated funds (IGF) is lack of adequate and reliable data on properties and businesses. This has been almost everywhere.

    Mr Speaker, it is good to note from paragraph 299 of page 71 of the 2019 Budget Statement that the Government would partner MMDAs to register properties and businesses and also assist them to assess these properties. We have the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) and a lot of staff and we would use these personnel to do all these registration assessments.

    Another challenge is that, lack or inability to do proper valuation of these properties to enable the MMDAs put appropriate fees and charges on them is predominant in all the District Assemblies. It is gratifying to note that the Government under that same paragraph would assist the MMDAs to employ simplified and inexpensive tools for the valuation of these properties.

    Mr Speaker, this Budget Statement is a very good one which I believe all Hon Colleagues should embrace. I am surprised that the Hon Member who spoke previously said that there was no hope for this Budget Statement. There is a lot of hope in it as far as local governance is concerned.

    The Government would partner the MMDAs to ensure that revenues are generated internally. This would significantly improve the amount of revenue the MMDAs would generate at the District Assemblies.

    Also, while increasing the revenue generation, the third challenge that is also predominant in almost all the Assemblies that we visited is the leakage of revenue. Government would ensure that a very reliable system of generating and distributing bills would be employed come

    2019.

    In 2019, an electronic payment platform that would automate the collection of revenue and administration of rates would be in place. What is more appetising and better than this policy that the Government wants to employ? Hon Members should refer to page 71, paragraph 299 and they would see all these.

    Mr Speaker, the Government would also ensure that the use of IGF, especially the 20 per cent that should go into infrastructure, is also adhered to strictly.

    On this note, I would want to commend my colleague Hon Members of the Par- liamentary Select Committee on Local Government on the intensity that they have put in monitoring the operations of District Assemblies, ensuring that what is expected of these District Assemblies is done as per law.

    Mr Speaker, I also commend the Government for the bold initiative to ensure that revenue generated internally is improved, so that the assemblies would get adequate funds to do whatever they are supposed to do to assist the people they serve.
    Mr Thomas Nyarko Ampem (NDC -- Asuogyaman) 2:52 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the
    Motion for the approval of the Budget Statement for the year ending 31 st December, 2019.
    This Budget Statement talks about a few things under local government and a striking one is on the election of MMDCEs. It is refreshing to note that the 2019 Budget Statement captures that. My only concern is that we all know that looking at the voting records, the voter turnout records in this --
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:52 a.m.
    Hon Member, please hold on.
    Dr A. A. Osei 2:52 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is a good friend of mine and I would want him to do things right in the House. The Motion is not about the Budget Statement of the Government. He should at least, pay attention to the Motion and follow it. Since he is my friend, I would want to remind him to go back, so that he could contribute to it.
    This is because if he is contributing to the Budget Statement -- page 2 of the Order Paper -- then he is my Friend.
    Mr Ampem 2:52 a.m.
    Thank you, my Hon Friend. It is well noted, you are a senior Member.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:52 a.m.
    Hon Member, still hold on. Yes, Hon Assibey- Yeboah, what is it?
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:52 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I refer the House to Standing Order 86 (1), under Rules of Debate, which reads:
    “A Member desiring to speak shall rise in his place, and address the Chair only after catching Mr Speaker's eye.”
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:52 a.m.
    Hon Member, please continue to address me from your place, that is where you are. Continue to address me from there. [Laughter.]
    Mr Ampem 2:52 a.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
    As I was saying, we plan to hold a referendum in 2019 for the election of MMDCEs and I would like to draw the attention of this Government to the voter turnout in our District Assembly Elections because they intend to hold it together with the local level elections.
    Since 1998, the voter turnout has been very low. It was about 41.6 per cent in 1998 and dropped to 33 per cent in 2002, 39 per cent in 2006, 37 per cent in 2010 and about 39 per cent in 2015. We know that we need a minimum of about 40 per cent voter turnout for the referendum to carry, so we need to ensure that we embark on vigorous education for us to achieve this.
    It is also very worrying because we have heard executives of the NPP make statements that the decision to elect MMDCEs is unpopular among the rank and file of the party. That is worrying and a huge threat to the President's desire.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:52 a.m.
    Hon Member, who said that?
    Mr Ampem 2:52 a.m.
    The General Secretary of the NPP. [Interruption.] He said that and it is reported all over, so my advice is that --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:02 p.m.
    Hon Member, you were in this House when the Hon Minister brought the amendment, and the process is ongoing. Whatever anybody says, let the record reflect that the President is following through with the process.
    Mr Ampem 3:02 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I agree with that. I only asked that we need to make sure that the education starts in good time and then we must whip up everybody in line because the President cannot afford to add this to the tall list of failed promises that he made to the people of this country.
    Mr Speaker, I have been very worried about the amount of moneys that have gone to the MMDAs for their activities through the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF). For lack of time, I would name just a few District Assemblies.
    The first is the Mion District Assembly. In the year 2016, the amount of direct transfers that was sent from the DACF to the Mion District Assembly was GH¢1.8 million. This dropped to GH¢1.6 million in the year 2017, and in the two quarters that have gone so far in the year 2018, it is GH¢703, 000. Mr Speaker, if it continues along this rate, it would be realised that the 2018 transfers would even be lower than what went in the year 2017.
    For the Bawku Municipal Assembly, in the year 2016, GH¢1.6 million was sent. In the year 2017, they received GH¢1.4 million and in the first two quarters of 2018, a total of GH¢544,000 has been received. If this trend continues, they would receive far less than what they did in the year 2017.
    Mr Speaker, this is worrying because the functions that the District Assemblies are expected to perform have not been reduced; they are the same functions. In
    effect, they are even asked to do more because they are expected to support the Government flagship programme.
    On the back of this, it is more worrying because in the year 2016, tax revenue was about GH¢26 billion. It increased to GH¢34 billion in the year 2017 and it is projected to be about GH¢38 billion in 2018.
    Mr Speaker, when tax revenue is even increasing, the amount of moneys that the District Assemblies receive is even dwindling and this does not support decentralisation. That is why Hon Edwin Nii Lantey Vanderpuye said that this Government is recentralising almost everything in this country.
    Mr Speaker, we visited a number of District Assemblies - and the Budget Statement also mentioned the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) projects and the number of things that are being done, but there is something that is worrying. Every Assembly has its own medium-term development plan and they have listed a number of projects throughout the District Assemblies through consul- tations to find what they would do in the next four years.
    Mr Speaker, the District Assemblies have their priorities, but someone sits in Accra and decides that they must be given toilets and et cetera. Why do they not channel the IPEP project and sit with them through the District Assemblies and find out what is in their medium term development plans and then tailor the development to suit them? Why are there straight jacket things that everybody should be given toilet or boreholes when they are not the priorities of every District Assembly?
    Mr Speaker, on our trip to the District Assemblies, the District Chief Executive
    (DCE) of the District Assembly at Twifo Hemang lamented seriously that he heard that a toilet was being constructed in a community and the District Assembly was not even aware.
    Meanwhile, the topmost priority of that Assembly is a polyclinic. If they have allocated moneys to a District Assembly why do they not sit with them and ask about their priorities? Even if it would be awarded from Accra or from the Jubilee House, they should sit with the District Assemblies so that it would fit into their medium term development plans.
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:02 p.m.
    Hon Member, please hold on.
    Yes, Hon Deputy Majority Whip?
    Mr Anim 3:02 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member just said that contracts are awarded from the Jubilee House. [Interruption] Contracts are not awarded from the Jubilee House so he should correct himself.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:02 p.m.
    Hon Member, proceed.
    Mr Ampem 3:02 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in his contribution to the debate, the Hon Oppong-Nkrumah referred to some earlier contributors and used the anoma kokone principle. Today, Hon Owusu-Aduomi repeated the same thing, but I said to myself that fortunately they are Akans and understand the best description of nepotism.
    It is called kokofu ball bo. Yenim wo a, ye passe wo, yennim wo a yenpaa se wo. [Laughter] That is the best description of nepotism in this country.
    Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah (NPP -- Akuapem South) 3:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thank you for this opportunity to contribute to the Motion that this House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December,
    2019.
    Mr Speaker, when it comes to decentralisation, I can say on authority and with emphasis that this particular President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo, has become the champion -in several respects. [Hear! Hear!].
    We have heard about how the President has championed the issue of electing MMDCEs and we all applaud him. It is a bold step by a President who is ready to cede and to share power. That is the first aspect of it.
    Mr Speaker, as we have heard, we have gone through the process and now, the Bill has been gazetted as provided by the Constitution, but that is only one small aspect of it. I read through the Budget Statement, and realised that 2,648 projects under IPEP have been spread across all the Districts Assemblies. [Interruption]. It is in the Budget Statement. If they have not read it, I am sorry for them.
    Mr Speaker, when it comes to the Planting for Food and Jobs programme, every district would benefit. So much has been put in there and I can say that under Modernising Agriculture in Ghana (MAG), which is under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Develop- ment, we have managed to provide one pick-up for each District Assembly for agriculture officers to pursue agriculture.
    This is the President who is pushing decentralisation. Of course, One District One Factory (1D1F) all happen under District Assemblies.
    Mr Speaker, besides that, so much has been sent to the District ssemblies that anybody who says he or she cannot see has chosen and pretended to be blind.

    Mr Speaker, some of my Hon Colleagues here would say that they have been to the Districts Assembles and they come back to tell us that we have sent so much money to the Districts and we should just make sure that we monitor the DCEs so that they apply what has been sent there very well.

    Our Hon Colleagues confess, and if they want me to mention names, I will do so; but I will not go that far. They are members of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development who have gone around the country and they have come back to tell me that so much has been sent to the District

    Assemblies and we should just make sure we monitor them to do the right thing.

    Mr Speaker, the argument that there is five per cent capping and so not much money goes to the Districts Assemblies is interesting. It is one thing to cap and send the money and another thing not to cap and not send the money. Unfortunately, under the NDC, the 7.5 per cent figure which was even raised by former President Kufuor, was in the books but the moneys they sent were lower than what we sent under 5 per cent capping. The records are there and I can give figures.

    Mr Speaker, in 2017 —

    Mr Ampem — rose --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:12 p.m.
    The Hon Member says he would give figures. Let him do that before you raise any issues. What are you objecting now?
    He says we would provide figures, then you can challenge the figures.
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in 2017, at the last count, GH¢663,183,029.70 had been sent to the districts, compared to 2016 which was GH¢461,245,117.86. These are figures from the DACF Administrator and they can challenge them.
    Mr Speaker, besides that, for a long time, on performance review, using the Functional and Organisational Assess- ment Tools (FOAT), they did not even pay the counterpart fund for the money to be sent.
    The NPP came and we had to pay US$50million for the donor partners to release these funds for us to send them to the District Assemblies. They are there. The Hon Ahmed Ibrahim is a key member of the Local Government and Rural Development Committee; he has gone round and he knows that those moneys have been sent.
    Mr Ahmed Ibrahim — rose --
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:12 p.m.
    I have not called you to come into this debate; I just made a reference to you.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:12 p.m.
    Hon O. B. Amoah please hold on.
    Mr A. Ibrahim 3:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, this is where my worry is; because he mentioned my name. I know Hon O. B. Amoah does not lie, and he has cited me as being an active member of the Local Government and Rural Development Committee and we have been going round.
    Mr Speaker, truly speaking, we went round about 54 District Assemblies and the net receipt of every district assembly is on the descendancy. They received higher in 2016, but in 2017, it was lower; and 2018 is even far lower. That is what the Hon Ampem was —
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:12 p.m.
    What
    figures do you have to challenge what he has said?
    Mr A. Ibrahim 3:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the figures the Hon Ampem has given. Our report would come to this Floor because we brought it when we went last year and he should have a copy. When one goes through, it is clear. This 2018 report would also come. If they have released so much money and it does not go to the Districts, then where is it?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:12 p.m.
    Hon Member, you can only intervene to say that he said something wrong. You have not been able to challenge that and so you are out of order.
    Hon Member, please proceed.
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I will even give him additional figures if he wants. If we put the fourth quarter of 2017 and the first and second quarters of 2018 together, GH¢947milion has gone to the District Assemblies. The records are there and he can challenge them.
    Mr Speaker — [Inaudible voice] — the fact is that even in spite of capping, a lot has been sent to the District Assemblies.
    The point was also made about creating more District Assemblies and not catering for them. It is interesting that we could have people talk about this and they seemed to have forgotten so soon. It is true that District Assemblies were created in 2007 under former President Kufuor. As at now, we even have to look for money for 20 of these Districts to have their assemblies.
    Mr Speaker, our Hon Colleagues forget that in 2012, they created 42 districts and with these, every year, they told us that they were sending seed money and we
    never saw anything. Indeed, as we speak, we have come to complete almost all these offices.
    Mr Speaker, when the Akuapem South District was created in 2012, they used the Botanical Gardens and the Horticultural School as their offices. Just yesterday, new offices were handed over to the Assembly and they are moving in. They want to tell me that we created districts and regarding the 42 districts they created in 2012, we have come to complete almost all of them.
    The records are there and I do not need to make so much noise about it. But the fact is that they claim that districts were created in 2007 and we did not provide offices for them. They created one recently and they could not provide offices, and they want to make this a point for them? With all due respect, they are rather shooting themselves in the foot.
    Mr Speaker, I do not want to spend all the time trying to rebut what my Friends, especially Hon Nii Lantey Vanderpuye who, though was a former Deputy Minister said that he did not see anything on urbanisation. The most critical thing for me is that, we have made every effort to complete what we came to meet, and we are even championing more projects; the records are there.
    An Hon Member 3:12 p.m.
    Is it in the Budget Statement?
    Mr O. B Amoah 3:12 p.m.
    It is in the Budget Statement. Let me refer you.
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:12 p.m.
    The Hon Member has not read the Budget Statement.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to quote paragraph 479 of page 104 of the Budget Statement;
    “In 2019, the Ministry will begin the implementation of the Ghana Secondary Cities Support Project (GSCSP) as the successor to the Local Government Capacity Support Project; and Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP), jointly with the MoGCSP as the successor to the Ghana Social Opportunities Project.”
    Mr Speaker, beside this, as the Budget Statement continues, it also talks about Ghana Productive Safety Net Project which is also funded under this Government.
    If we look at what has gone on with local government, as I said, this is a President who has really championed decentralisation. So much is being pumped into the District Assemblies that one would not even believe that this is what should be happening, and everybody is asking if they could have been resourced so well and it did not happen?
    My good Friend talked about water and toilet. Which District Assembly does not need water and toilet? If under IPEP we send water and toilets to the districts, which DCE would complain that they have been given toilet or water? — [Interruption] — Who is he to determine the priority?
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:12 p.m.
    Hon Member, you have one more minute.
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:12 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, all in all, this Budget Statement has really catered for local government and has made adequate provision for the Local sector and I need to commend the Hon Finance
    Mr Benjamin Komla Kpodo (NDC — Ho Central) 3:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity. Unfortunately, I have to spend a few minutes to repudiate all those claims which my very good Friend made.
    Mr Speaker, I have a document from year 2013 to 2016 here which is coming from the Ministry of Finance website. There is evidence that throughout these years, releases and even allocations to the District Assemblies' Common Fund have been on the increase; it has never dipped as it is happening now. I can tender this document at the Table right now.
    Mr Speaker, if you look at the Budget Statements, every year, tax revenue goes up. So it is expected that when allocations for District Assemblies are being computed, the figures should rise and not dip. So, I do not understand why my Hon Colleague would be justifying annual reductions in the amount allocated to the District Assemblies.
    Mr Speaker, secondly, if we talk about decentralisation, I think there cannot be anything truthful beyond what the Hon Nii Lantey Vanderpuye said. In fact, we are in a period of recentralisation.
    When you want to give effect to decentralisation, the major thing is the fiscal decentralisation, and it is this Government that is tying the hands of the District Assemblies all across the country from day to day. That is what we are experiencing.
    Mr Benjamin Komla Kpodo (NDC — Ho Central) 3:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, earlier this year, you presided over a meeting here where we had to prevail upon the Hon Minister for Local Government and Rural Development to not instruct the District Assemblies to use their direct transfers for School Feeding Programme, Planting for Food and Jobs Programme and National Builder Corps (NABCo).
    You had to rule a second time that they should not do it. That is what we refer to as recentralisation when we should be looking for decentralisation.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member also talked about IPEP Projects; this is very sad. I have the 2019 Budget Statement with me. Let us turn to Appendix 14 on page 254; it lists IPEP Projects by regions. My region is the first one there and Ho Central is the item listed as number 7. A reference is made to Shia where a 10-Seater water closet institutional toilet with mecha- nised borehole is apparently erected.
    Mr Speaker, what I did was to immediately contact the Assemblyman for that community. I took a picture of the list and sent it to him. This is his response:
    “Please, last year, they promised to build WC toilets at the Senior High school but they could not do anything. They have not built any 10-Seater WC Toilet at Shia…”
    In fact, he used a statement there that I think is unparliamentary and so I would not want to read it.

    Mr Speaker, what I would want you to note is that these IPEP Projects are illusions; they are not true. Maybe, what we have to do is --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:22 p.m.
    Hon Member, you are speaking to one project, so speak to that one because it is true in other constituencies. Speak to the one you can speak to.
    Mr Kpodo 3:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, there are many similar projects. Even the borehole that I did in the community - I stood there that day when the workmen drilled the borehole in the year 2016. It was done before the elections. I fed the workmen in my house; they have listed that one too as their project.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:22 p.m.
    Hon Member, what has that got to do with this one? You can speak to what is in your constituency, each Hon Member can speak to his constituency. But I do not want you to speak to other constituencies.
    Hon Member, you said your Assemblyman says that is not true. I am not here to challenge that, but do not say “they are not true” because they are true in other places.
    Mr Kpodo 3:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I would proceed.
    Mr Speaker, when you open to paragraph 476 in the 2019 Budget Statement, I beg to read very quickly:
    “Mr. Speaker, Phase I of the redevelopment of the Kumasi Central Market and Kejetia Infrastructure Project to enhance socio-economic and commercial activities was completed.”
    This is not correct. I have witnesses - Hon O. B. Amoah is one of the witnesses,
    rose
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:22 p.m.
    Hon Member, hold on. Kindly turn off your microphone so that you do not lose time.
    Hon O. B. Amoah?
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:22 p.m.
    On a point of Order. Mr Speaker, Hon Kpodo says I am his witness; I am not his witness because I cannot vouch for what he is saying.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member is misleading this House. Indeed, if you refer to the paragraph 476, the project has a name. The full name of the project is “Kumasi Central Market and Kejetia Infrastructure Project” and Phase I is that which has been completed.
    Mr Speaker, in fact, as we speak, they have written to us several times for handing over. The Hon Member should take it from me that it is coming from the Ministry. We are moving on to the Phase II, so what is wrong with that paragraph?
    Some Hon Members 3:22 p.m.
    John Mahama Project!
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:22 p.m.
    Which John Mahama Project? [Laughter] When you go for a
    project and you did not do it or you did only 10 per cent of the project and we come to do 90 per cent, then you say John Mahama Project?
    Mr Speaker, I do not see why he should separate Kumasi Central Market and Kejetia Infrastructure Project when that is the full name of the project. If one aspect has been done, which is the Kejetia Infrastructural Project, and we are going to the Kumasi Central Market, it is the same project, except that it is Phase I and Phase II, and we are saying that Phase I has been completed and Phase II which has been approved by this House is to take off. I do not understand him.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:22 p.m.
    Hon Member, but that is what the statement says.
    Mr O. B. Amoah 3:22 p.m.
    Yes, Mr Speaker.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:22 p.m.
    - That “In the Budget Statement of 2019, the Phase II of the Project includes the construction of the over 10,000 additional stores and stalls will commence.”
    Hon Kpodo, so what you said was a misrepresentation of what is in the Budget Statement.
    Mr Kpodo 3:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, you would help the situation if we read the 2018 Budget Statement, paragraph 367 --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:22 p.m.
    Hon Member, that is not the point.
    Mr Kpodo 3:22 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the point is that --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:22 p.m.
    Hon Member, can you please first listen to me?
    Mr Kpodo 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, my statement is predicated on what is also on page 367 of the 2018 Budget Statement. That is why I am saying that if the commencement --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    So Hon Member, does that make this statement wrong?
    Mr Kpodo 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes, because the one they said would start in 2018 has not started.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    He said it would start in 2019.
    Mr Kpodo 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, no, and that is why I am urging us to read page 367 of the 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Hon Member, please, we are discussing 367 of --
    Mr Kpodo 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, what I am saying is that the 2018 Budget Statement -- [Interruption.]
    All right, Mr Speaker. I withdraw that point, but to add that the 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government stated that they would start the Kumasi Central Market Project. It has not started; it is being pushed again to 2019. This is what I am trying to emphasise.
    Mr Speaker, I believe what an honest Government should be doing is to give credit to who started this project. This project must be credited to H.E. former President John Dramani Mahama. [Hear! Hear!] It is not only the Kumasi Central Market Project but also the Ghana Urban Management Pilot Programme (GUMPP) in Ho, Sekondi-Takoradi, Tamale and Tafo in Kumasi. The projects were commenced by the former President. We should give credit where it is due.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Hon Member, your time is up; I would allow you 30 seconds more.
    Mr Kpodo 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Budget Statement and Economic Policy lists a number of infrastructural projects. Once again, these repetitions have occurred in this Budget Statement.
    There is a short road from Sokode- Gborgame to Ho of about 11 kilometres which was started in 2016. As we are here today, it continues to feature in the budget cycles that have --
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Hon Members, that brings us to the end of the
    debate on the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government for today.
    Yes, Hon Second Deputy Majority Whip?
    Mr Moses Anim 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, at this juncture, with your leave, we may do Presentation of Paper on the Order Paper Addendum.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Yes, Hon Second Deputy Minority Whip?
    Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I have no objection.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Very well.
    Hon Members, Order Paper Addendum — Presentation of Papers by the Minister for Finance.
    By the Minister for Finance — Second Addendum Supplemental to the Account Agreements dated 13th June, 2012, (as amended by an addendum dated 21st June, 2013 between the Republic of Ghana and China Development Bank (CDB).
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Hon Members, the time is 3:36 p.m. and I would bring proceedings to a close. The House is accordingly adjourned until Monday --
    Yes, Hon Ahmed Ibrahim?
    Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I tried to catch your eye so that I commend you. You have been sitting here since 11:00 a.m. I would want the Hon Minister for Finance to appreciate that since he is here with us. This is what we have been doing.
    Mr Anim 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, let me also take this opportunity to thank Hon Members and commend them for the extensive work done today. I would also want to thank you for sitting in all this while from morning without anybody supporting you. We are so grateful.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Very well.
    Hon Deputy Majority Whip and the Deputy Minority Chief Whip, I recall last week that I made this point that once we enter the Budget season, there is the tendency to Sit beyond the regular Sitting hours. I believe it is fair that you make arrangement for the facilities that support double Sitting so that Hon Members would be energised to continue the work.
    So please, take note and ensure that you prepare for extended Sittings.
    Mr Anim 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to assure the House that -- Do you not want to hear the good news? [Uproar.]

    Mr Speaker, the innovation is that the Majority Side does it in a special way. There would be lunch and then an addition in the evening. It would happen again and so we are assuring them that they would get it.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    All right, let me adjourn the House. The Whips should take note and ensure --
    Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 3:32 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I consulted my Hon Colleague on the other Side this morning, we seemed to have been chastised so much but it is not our fault. That was why when I saw the Hon Minister for Finance, I signalled him for him to appreciate what Hon Members go through.
    Mr First Deputy Speaker 3:32 p.m.
    Thank you, Hon Whips. Get new canes so that you can whip Hon Members properly.
    ADJOURNMENT 3:32 p.m.