Debates of 27 Nov 2018

MR SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:14 a.m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Hon Members, correction of Votes and Proceedings and the Official Report.
Votes and Proceedings dated Monday, 26th November, 2018.
Page 1… 8
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu — rose —
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Yes, Hon Majority Leader?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 10:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I have been up for a while. You called page 7 and I noticed that under the Hon Members who were absent, I see number 3, Agyarko, Emmanuel Kyeremanteng, Ayawaso West Wuogon. I want to believe that this is an innocent error. Certainly, we have recognised that he is no longer a Member of Parliament and I believe the appropriate thing would be done.
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Majority Leader.
Page 10 …11
Hon Members, the Votes and Proceedings of 26th November, 2018, as corrected is hereby adopted as the true record of proceedings.
We have the Official Report of Tuesday, 13th November, 2018.
Hon Members, any corrections?
Mr Samuel O. Ablakwa 10:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, there are a few corrections to point out.
Column 1111, under Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, the second paragraph - “We recognised the problem and creates institutions...” It should be “created” and not “creates”.
Then column 1112, the second paragraph -- “Now there need to be a clear …” that should be corrected to be “Now there needs to be a clear policy…”
Mr Speaker, Column 1113, the last paragraph should be “… Department of Social Welfare…” not “… Departmental Social Welfare…”
Mr Speaker, the next one is column 1116, the last but one paragraph - “… compassion is to speak to those who find themselves in vulnerable positions.” “… to speak for…” not “… to speak to…”
Finally, column 1118, the third paragraph, “… undertake their responsibilities …” not “respon - responsibilities”. Let us delete “respon…”
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa, for this scrutiny. When I saw you entering, as we were doing the Votes and Proceedings, I stated that in case you had something to point out -- and I must commend it. I appreciate it.

In the absence of any further corrections, the Official Report of 13th November, 2018 is hereby adopted as the true record of proceedings.

Hon Members, at this juncture, we would move on to item listed number 4, Statements. We are on Committee on Defence and Interior. I will call Hon Collins Owusu Amankwah.

10: 24 a. m.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 10:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, even though the House has taken a decision to schedule Questions after the debate on the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for each day, I would beg of you and indeed seek the concurrence of my Hon Colleagues, since we have just one Question for today and the Hon Minister is here. If you could allow for that Question to be taken, the Hon Minister then could exit to continue his normal businesses. Respectfully, we could limit the time for the Questions and give ourselves --
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Hon Majority Leader, is it Question 465?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 10:14 a.m.
Yes, Mr Speaker, Question 465.
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Thank you, Hon Majority Leader, for the reminder. I recognise the presence of the Hon Minister.
Hon Members, we would take Question 465, by the Hon Member for Garu.
The Hon Minister may please take the seat.
Yes, Hon Member for Garu?
ORA L ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 10:14 a.m.
MINISTRY OF INNER-CITY AND 10:14 a.m.
ZONGO DEVELOPMENT 10:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Minister.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Alalzuuga 10:14 a.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker, based on the Hon Minister's Answer in outlining the various initiatives that the Ministry is taking to improve businesses or the livelihood of the people in the Zongos, I would want to find out from him, whether part of the Zongo Development Fund that was provided in the 2018 Budget Statement is going to be used for those activities that he listed.
Dr Abdul-Hamid 10:14 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, these programmes are being executed actually by the Zongo Development Fund. The Ministry actually provides only policy guidelines and directs the Zongo Development Fund as to what the President's vision is, but the real execution of these policies and programmes are done by the Zongo Development Fund, with supervision from the Ministry.
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Hon Member, are you done?
Mr Alalzuuga 10:14 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to ask my second follow-up question.
Mr Speaker, I would want to find out from the Hon Minister whether the Zongo Development Fund, as provided, was meant to help re-structure the Zongos, or perhaps it was meant to be used for their daily activities, or the transactions that he talks about in his response?
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Yes, Hon Minister?
Hon Minister, did you get the question well?
Hon Member, please, I could not even get your Question clearly, so you may please come again.
Mr Alalzuuga 10:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, my question is to find out whether the Fund was meant to be used to develop or transform the infrastructure in the Zongos, or it was meant for those things that he talked about. This is because from his Answer, I realised that it is more about collaborating with institutions, banks and other organisations, instead of tackling some physical developmental activities.
That is what I would want to know. I would want to know whether that is what the Fund was actually meant for? This is because I thought the Fund was meant to tackle the development of the Zongos directly.
Dr Abdul-Hamid 10:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker, the remit of the Zongo Development Fund is already captured in the Zongo Development Fund Law, which was passed by this august House. Per that law, the Zongo Development Fund is a Fund that is responsible for the execution and transformation of the Zongo communities. But as I said, there is no institution in this country that can operate in isolation.
Mr Speaker, the State has institutional arrangements. For example, I mentioned the NBSSI because it is the State institution that is responsible for the promotion of small scale businesses. The Ministry of Business Development is responsible for the promotion of businesses. So truly, it is only wise that the Zongo Development Fund, working
under the auspices of the Ministry, collaborates with these Agencies and so on to be able to execute the programmes on the board.
So when we are talking about books, for instance, one necessarily would have to talk to the Ghana Library Board and so on. Therefore the collaboration with other institutions is not a shirking of the responsibility of the Fund per se; it only accentuates the wisdom of the State in establishing these other institutions.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Alalzuuga 10:14 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, my final follow-up question is to find out from the Hon Minister the number of Zongos in the country that his Ministry has actually intervened in so far, by way of the interventions that the Inner- City and Zongo Development Ministry has done. I would also want to find out if he knows the number of Zongos that we have in this country?
Mr Speaker 10:14 a.m.
Yes, Hon Minister?
Dr Abdul-Hamid 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, per the research that was done by the Ministry under the direction of the previous Minister, we have 1,080 Zongo communities across the country.
Mr Speaker, to answer his question as to how many of these Zongo communities have been touched directly by these projects and programmes so far, there are about 15 to 16 Zongo communities that have been touched by the initiative so far.
Mr Speaker, that is because it took some time for the Zongo Development

Fund Secretariat to be fully established and working. I can assure the Hon Member that going into 2019, many more of these communities would be touched by these interventions.
Mr Speaker 10:34 a.m.
Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa?
Mr Samuel O. Ablakwa 10:34 a.m.
I am most grateful, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, from the Hon Minister's Answer, in the last sentence, he informs the House that in 2019, his Ministry would embark on a programme to provide classroom blocks and furniture to schools in Zongo communities as a way of improving access to education.
I have looked at the Ministry's programme for 2019 in the Budget Statement, from pages 160 and 161 specifically, paragraph 806 to 810. This does not feature in the Budget Statement. I would want to find out whether the Hon Minister has funding for this and why he is venturing into a territory that the Ministry of Education can carry out, because as regards building schools and furniture, the Ministry of Education has traditionally done that over the years.
Why is the Ministry venturing into that area? Does he have funding for that since it is not captured in the 2019 Budget Statement?
Dr Abdul-Hamid 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Budget Statement for 2019 only provides the broad contours of what it is that the Ministry hopes to do in 2019. But the details are mostly also dependent on what the Zongo Development Fund receives from these communities according to their needs. As and when these needs come in, the Zongo Development Fund assesses them and applies funding to those purposes.
Mr Speaker, the reason the Zongo Development Fund would also provide furniture and so on is that, in spite of the best efforts of successive Governments in providing adequate furniture and classrooms across our country, we are still in a deficit.
Therefore, there are certain communities in Zongo areas which, if they apply or appeal to the Zongo Development Fund as a matter of urgency -- The Fund just feels that it is only proper to intervene if the funding is available rather than fold our hands and wait for the Ministry of Education.
Indeed, on the Advisory Board of the Ministry, the Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, is a member of our Advisory Board. T h i s is so as to be able to have the linkages that are necessary for the overall development of the communities.
Dr Francis Bawaana Dakura 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I rise to find out from the Hon Minister; now that the Secretariat is fully established, do they have priorities that they have set for projects in the Zongos?
Mr Abdul-Hamid 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I stated at the beginning of my Answer that our priorities are determined by the vision of the President in setting up the Fund. The President's vision is in human development, which is the development of human capacity of our Zongo Communities and also the infrastructural needs of these people. So these are the two priorities; infrastructure and human development.
Mr Joseph Y. Chireh 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, in the Hon Minister's Answer on page 23, third paragraph, if I may quote:
“In collaboration with the Ministry of Business Development and
Access Bank, we are in the final stages of collaboration that will allow Access Bank to provide capital to businesses in Zongo communities. The programme should be rolled out in the first quarter of 2019.”
I would want the Hon Minister to answer me. Are they now going to turn the Ministry into a lending institution like the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre
(MASLOC)?
Dr Abdul-Hamid 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, it is certainly not. That is why I said it is the Access Bank that is going to do this. The people in our Zongo communities sometimes do not have the wherewithal and the capacity to approach these institutions.
Sometimes there are collaterals and other bottlenecks to access capital for the development of our communities. That is why the Ministry of Business Development is helping us to be able to loosen these bottlenecks in order to allow the Bank to do so.
Mr Benjamin K. Kpodo 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I had filed a request with the Ministry responsible for Zongo Development sometime back when Hon Boniface was the Minister at the Castle -- that is where the Ministry operates from -- regarding the request of the whole Zongo Community under this development programme, but I did not have any response until he left.
I would want to find out from the Hon Minister whether his attention has been drawn to this? This is because they relate to the very things that his Answer has provided; for education and other developmental agenda. Has his attention been drawn to that request, and what is his response to these demands?
Dr Abdul-Hamid 10:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to assure the Hon Member of this House that we are committed to article 36 (2) (d) of the Constitution, which says and I beg to quote:
“undertaking even and balanced development of all regions and every part of each region of Ghana…”
Therefore the needs of the whole Zongo communities are certainly going to be catered for. I am not sure the former Minister shirked that responsibility at all.
As I said, we have a pile of these requests from across the regions. Certainly, we hope that we would do it in such a way that every part of the country would be covered. In that sense, Ho and Hohoe Zongos for example, are prominent Zongos in the Volta Region, and they would be touched.
Mr Suhuyini Alhassan Sayibu 10:34 a.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to follow up on some of the questions that have been answered by the Hon Minister for Inner-City and Zongo Development.
Mr Speaker, the Question as put by an Hon Colleague was for the Hon Minister to tell us what programmes the Ministry has put in place to help improve livelihood in the Zongo communities. In answer to the question, the Hon Minister talks about the President's belief that this country as a whole would develop on its human resource.
Mr Speaker, I relate this to the budgetary provision under paragraph 807 where the Hon Minister for Finance, in presenting the Budget Statement talked about some of the activities the Ministry had engaged in in relation to the provision of five astroturfs.
Dr Abdul-Hamid 10:44 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the recreational parks are supposed to serve a social need. Traditional or old wisdom tells us that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. So these recreational parks are supposed to serve as places where our Zongo communities hold their Mawlid, their wedding ceremonies and Eid prayers. So they serve a social need of the community for satisfying gatherings and so on.
As to why Kyebi and Walewale were chosen, Walewale is a central town as far as the Mamprugu area is concerned. Therefore, in considering Mamprugu, the Ministry thought that Walewale should be chosen. Secondly, Kyebi and Oda are the central towns in the Akyem areas of our country. So in looking for Zongos in the Akyem areas, the biggest, which are the Oda and Kyebi Zongos, were also chosen.
Mr Speaker 10:44 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Minister, for attending to the House and answering our questions. You are dismissed.
Item number 5, Hon Majority Leader, is the relevant Paper by the Chairman of the Committee ready?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 10:44 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I believe the Hon Chairman of the Finance Committee is here, if we could deal with item numbered 5, and then we move to the item numbered 6.
Mr Speaker 10:44 a.m.
Very well. Item listed 5, Chairman of the Finance Committee?
PAPERS 10:44 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:44 a.m.
Item numbered 6, Motions.
Hon Collins Owusu Amankwah?
MOTIONS 10:44 a.m.
Mr Collins Owusu Amankwah (NPP- Manhyia North) 10:54 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this unique opportunity.
I rise to contribute to the Motion that this Honourable House adopts the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December,
2019.
Mr Speaker, in doing so, I would commend the current Government for touching on all the critical sectors of the economy.
Mr Speaker, before I enter my area of interest, which is the security of the State, I would like to point out a few facts as far as the health of the economy is concerned.
Mr Speaker, is it not a fact that the real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth increased from 3.7 per cent in 2016 to 6.4 per cent in 2018, within the 22 months of the NPP's Government?
Mr Speaker, is it not a fact that fiscal deficit reduced drastically from 9.3 per cent in 2016 to 4.5 per cent in 2018 as I speak?
Mr Speaker, is it not a fact that our public debt to GDP dropped from 73 per cent to 64.4 per cent as I speak?
Mr Speaker, so I was flabbergasted to hear the Minority spokesperson on Finance, Hon Ato Forson, claiming that Nana Addo's Government has increased our public debt from GH¢122.2 billion to GH¢170. 8 billion.
Mr Speaker, the fact is - and our venerable Hon Majority Leader keeps correcting them -- that in doing proper debt analysis, one must work out the country's ability to repay its debt. So I am surprised that the largest opposition party is talking too much. They are becoming very irritating and annoying to majority of people this country -- [Laughter].
Mr Speaker, I do not want to bore the House with the economic indicators which only point to the positive direction.
Mr Speaker, is it not a fact that the formation of Unemployed Graduates Association of Ghana under the previous NDC Government is no more attractive with respect to the introduction of the
Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) models which have given jobs to over 96,000 graduates in terms of income-earning and capacity-building opportunities in this country?
Mr Speaker, to my area of interest. On the issue of security and as part of the President's vision to re-tool and equip the Ghana Police Service, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Ghana, the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, and the Chairman for the National Security Council has deployed over 300 vehicles to the Ghana Police Service within the shortest possible time.
Mr Speaker, in order for the Ghana Police Service to be a world-class policing service, His Excellency the President has remained committed to providing them with the needed logistics so as to make it a first-class police service in the whole wide world.
Mr Speaker, in relation to the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ministry of Defence, under the able leadership of the Hon Minister for Defence and his affable Deputy would continue with the SSNIT Housing Project that was abandoned by the previous NDC Government, the projects located at the various garrisons in this country; Tema and Accra in the Greater Accra Region, Ho in the Volta Region, Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region, and Tamale in the Northern Region.
Mr Speaker, I am happy to announce that all these projects are at various stages of completion, as has been captured in the Budget Statement on page 181, paragraph 6. [Interruption] The Budget Statement is here, so Hon Members make reference to what I have just quoted.
Mr Speaker, in line with the 2016 Manifesto of the great NPP, the construction of the first phase of the four 16-unit housing of the

Barracks Regeneration Project would be ready by next month, and the Ministry would start the second phase of the Barracks Regeneration Project next year.

Mr Speaker, on the Military Head Programme, I was particularly happy when the Hon Minister for Finance touched on the new 500- bed military Hospital at Afari near Kumasi.

I am happy to see the Hon Deputy Minister for Defence, Hon Maj. Derek Oduro (retd), who is in charge of this particular project. The NPP Government would definitely do justice to it as it is very dear to the military as well as the civilians of this country.

Mr Speaker, it is very refreshing to see that the Ghana Armed Forces capacity building has been intensified under President Nana Akufo-Addo's Government.

Mr Speaker, let me seize this opportunity to commend the Ghana Battalion (GHANBATT) 85 for their sacrifice and commitment. Ghana's flag is flying high; they are making us proud. Mr Speaker, the good people of Manhyia North salute GHANBATT 85 for the work they are doing for this country.

Mr Speaker, I would like to commend H. E. the President for doing justice to the issue of promotions within the Ghana Police Service. Mr Speaker, the President has done very well by making sure that the issue of backlog of promotions within the security services are on course.

As I speak now, a total of 785 promotions of senior police officers have been cleared and over 16,000 promotions of junior officers have also been effected.
rose
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Hon Member, do you stand on a point of order?
Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza 10:54 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr Speaker, I can understand the enthusiasm of my Hon Colleague, but I am sure we have less than 60,000 policemen in this country. How on earth could they promote 60,000 officers out of less than that number? [Laughter]
Mr Amankwah 10:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, it was a needless intervention because he should have listened to what I said. I said over 16,000 junior officers.
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Hon Member, that is un- parliamentary. Withdraw and continue.
Mr Amankwah 10:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, respectfully, I withdraw.
Mr Speaker, on the issue of recruitment, we saw that this year alone, over 4,000 personnel were recruited to enhance the numerical strength of the Ghana Police Service. Let me point out that per the United Nations standard on police- population ratio, every police officer must govern 500 civilians.
Mr Speaker, as we speak now, there should be about 230 police officers to every 100,000 people, but in Ghana, we have 127 police officers to 100,000 people. It is one of the lowest in this world.
So, Mr Speaker, as a government, we are committed to making sure that per the UN standard, we bridge the gap. That is the reason behind the President of Ghana's commitment towards the recruitment of more officers or personnel into the Service.
Mr Speaker, on the issue of the recruitment process, I have nothing against academic competence, medical scrutiny or the criminal record of prospective applicants.
On the issue of height as a requirement, I have a strong reservation, and I believe the time to review the existing law is now.
Mr Speaker, I say this because in this modern age, intelligence gathering is more of brainwork than physical strength. So I am surprised that somebody would be booted out because of his or her height.
Mr Speaker, I crave for your kind indulgence to refer the House to paragraph 965, page 185 of the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana. Mr Speaker, respectfully, and with your kind permission, I beg to quote:
“The Service also submitted the Non-Custodial Sentencing Bill to Attorney-General's Department for legal advice. In 2019, the Ministry will facilitate the speedy passage of the Non-Custodial Sentence Bill into law to help ease congestion of the Prisons. The Service will improve security procedures and safety as well as modernise infrastructure to reduce the incidence of escapes.”
Mr Speaker, I would like to appeal to the Office of the Attorney-General to, as a matter of necessity and urgency, expedite action on the draft Bill. This is because when the non-custodial sentencing option is fully considered, it would go a long way to ease the unbearable congestion in our respective prisons.
Mr Speaker, permit me to refer the House to paragraph 977 on page 187 of the Budget Statement which reads:
“In 2019, the Gaming Commission will procure a Central Electronic Monitoring System (CEMS) and intensify monitoring of gaming operations to increase mobilisation of non-tax revenue.”
Mr Speaker, let me seize this opportunity to commend the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Gaming Commission, Mr Peter Mireku, for doing very well as far as gaming is concerned in this country. He has brought a lot of reforms, and I am happy to inform the House that going forward, they would bring in a lot of revenue as far as gaming is concerned.
Mr Speaker, in line with the 2016 New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Manifesto, we believe in the strict enforcement of the existing laws by our security agencies without selectivity or bias. We are determined to make sure that we provide resources to our security services in order to deliver efficiently and effectively.
Mr Speaker, finally, with your permission, I would want to quote one of our forebears in the person of Dr J. B. Danquah. It reads:
“(The party's) policy is to liberate the energies of the people for the growth of a property owning democracy in this land, with right to life, freedom and justice, as the principles to which the Government and laws of the land should be dedicated in order specifically to enrich life, property and liberty of each and every citizen.”
Mr Speaker, I would like to end my contribution by saying that the current NPP Government remains committed to making sure that we beef up security in terms of providing the citizenry with public safety.
Mr Amankwah 10:54 a.m.


Mr Speaker, with these few words, I

rest my case.

11. 04 a. m.
Mr James Agalga (NDC -- Builsa North) 10:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the debate. In doing so, I will touch on the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Defence, notably the proposal by Government to increase the service period of the other ranks from 25 to 30 years. I would also talk about the Military Hospital project at Afari. Mr Speaker, I will then end my submissions by touching on some crime statistics.
Mr Speaker, first and foremost, I have gone through the 2019 Budget Statement painstakingly, and in the Budget Statement, all the Ministries that were newly created by President Akufo-Addo have been captured in terms of their performance and outlook, but one Ministry which is conspicuously missing from the Budget Statement in terms of policy direction is the Ministry of National Security.
Yet, this is supposed to be a very important Ministry so far as our national security architecture and its management is concerned.
My question is, is there a calculated attempt on the part of the Nana Akufo- Addo Administration to place the Ministry of National Security beyond parliamentary oversight and scrutiny, which is why in the Budget Statement, there is no single policy statement on that particular Ministry, yet when you go through the Appendix, you would find that whooping
sums of moneys have been allocated for the operations of that Ministry?
Mr Speaker, the attempt by Government to place the Ministry of National Security beyond parliamentary oversight is betrayed when quick reference is made to the 2017 Budget Statement presented in this House by the self-same Hon Ken Ofori-Atta.
Mr Speaker, in the 2017 Budget Statement, a lot was said about the Ministry of National Security. I would refer to page 130, paragraph 765 of the 2017 Budget Statement. Mr Speaker, with your kind permission, let me read paragraph
764:

Maj Derek Oduro (retd) -- rose --
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Hon Deputy Minister,
do you stand on a point of correction?
Maj Derek Oduro (retd): On a point of order. Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Hon Member on his feet made a very serious accusation on the Budget Statement that nothing was said apart from the allocation of funds to the Ministry of National Security.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague was the Deputy Minister for the Interior.
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Hon Member, at this stage, you would tell me what your objection is, please.
Maj Derek Oduro (retd): Mr Speaker, my objection is that, no country in the whole world exposes the expenditure of its security institutions --[Uproar.] —
Mr Speaker, for the past eight years, I have not seen any budget, so it has never been done.
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Order. Hon Member, you may continue.
Mr Agalga 10:54 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Reference is hereby made to paragraph 764 of the 2017 Budget Statement, which captures policy statements on the Ministry of National Security and I beg to read:
“The Ministry of National Security exists to advise and implement government policies and relevant issues on internal and external security to ensure the stability of the State.”
Mr Speaker, the 2016 performance and outlook for 2017 — Security Advisory Programme states and I beg to read:
“The Ministry analyses all security information and classified material presented by Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Research Department and took appropriate actions, good communications network…”

Mr Speaker, if anyone is in doubt with regard to the fact that the Ministry of National Security created by the President is subject to the scrutiny of this House, I would quickly refer that person to section 17 of the Securities and Intelligence Agencies Act, which clearly requires the

I would urge President Akufo-Addo, if he does not intend that that particular Ministry would be subject to parlia- mentary scrutiny, he should cause it to be immediately scrapped. After all, under the former President, John Mahama led Administration, there was no Ministry known as the Ministry of National Security.
rose
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Order! Hon Agalga, one moment.
Yes, Hon Member, do you stand on a point of order or correction?
Mr Amankwah 10:54 a.m.
On a point of order. Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this kind permission. The Hon Ranking Member of the Committee on Defence and the Interior is repeating certain comments here which I find to be strange in that, when it comes to the policy of National Security, we have been advised, and he knows that even their budget has been captured.
Mr Speaker, respectfully, I would like to refer the House to page 2010, item numbered 48, the total budget for the Ministry of National Security is here, but when it comes to its policy, we all know that security is very delicate and sensitive. I am surprised that it has been captured, so all his concerns have been addressed in this Budget Statement.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Amankwah 10:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, this is the budget for the Ministry of National Security. Their budget, that is the grand total.
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Page?
Mr Amankwah 10:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, page 210 -[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Order! Page 210?
Mr Amakwah 10:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the total budget for the Ministry of National Security is GH¢554,919,923.00, so I am surprised at his comments.
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Hon Member, please continue.
Mr Agalga 10:54 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I now turn to the Ministry of Defence.
Mr Speaker, on page 181 of the Budget Statement, a proposal is made by government to change the length of service of the men and women of the other ranks of the Armed Forces from 25 years to 30 years. This is a policy initiative captured in the Budget Statement.
Mr Speaker, a Legislative Instrument (L.I.) has been laid to that effect, but the point that needs to be made is that we are here talking about a fighting force. A fighting force is one that must be agile; a fighting force is one that must be youthful, but a policy which seeks to extend the service period of the other ranks from 25 years to 30 years, in my view, is a misplaced priority and should not be pursued.
Mr Speaker, why do I say so? A fighting force which is aged cannot have the spirit and efficiency to defend our territorial
integrity. I have done a lot of research on this subject area; in the United Kingdom, for instance, the maximum period of service for service men and women is 22 years.
In the United States of America, the maximum period of service for other ranks is 18 years. So, we are even more advanced in terms of the service period because ours is 25 years and we are now seeking to extend it to 30 years.
Mr Speaker, have we thought about the health implications, the fact that the extension of service is going to place a burden on our financial resources because we would have to spend more money on the health needs of aged troops?
rose
Mr Speaker 10:54 a.m.
Order!
Hon Minister for Defence?
Mr Nitiwul 11:14 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr Speaker, I think that the Hon Member is trying to mislead this House. [Interruption.] This policy was brought to this House in the form of a Legislative Instrument L.I. 1332. This Parliament has accepted it and as at yesterday, the 21 days have elapsed and it has become law.
So if the Hon Ranking Member is now back to debate this matter, that is up to him. [Interruption] He was part of the Committee that looked at it and approved
Mr Speaker 11:14 a.m.
Order!
Mr Iddrisu 11:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, ordinarily, I trust that you are ensuring order and giving fair opportunity to Hon Members. We agreed even in your absence, led by the First Deputy Speaker and Leadership of the House in Koforidua, to allow the Budget debate to flow. My Colleague, Hon Collins Owusu Amankwah who had the first opportunity had “was it not a fact” as his theme.
When he got to public debt, we could have risen and some Hon Members could have interjected because on page 53, paragraph 218, it is a fact that public debt is GH¢170 billion, and this was quoted by the Hon Minister. Mr Speaker, to respect his opportunity to debate, we let it go.
Yet, he is the same person interjecting in order to disrupt the thinking of our Hon Ranking Member on the Committee of Defence and the Interior. As for the Hon Minister for Defence, he has every right to respond to him. He should wait for his opportunity. We do not find this acceptable.
Mr Speaker 11:14 a.m.
Hon Minority Leader, this lies entirely in my discretion. You know that on both Sides of the House, there have been interjections this morning. Therefore it cannot be said that debate must flow when there is a “factual statement” that an Hon Member finds to be wrong.
Nothing would stop me in terms of flow to let that go, not matters of figures. In all
our Commonwealth, where a Minister for Defence sits in the House and there is a statement he wants to correct, definitely, the Speaker would allow him. Shall we make progress?
Mr Agalga 11:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I wish to bring to the attention of the Hon Minister for Defence the fact that the L. I. in question has not become law. The Report was supposed to have been laid yesterday and it is yet to be considered by this Honourable House, so he should advise himself accordingly.
Mr Speaker, let me touch briefly on the military hospital at Afari.
rose
Mr Speaker 11:14 a.m.
Hon Minister for Defence, respectfully, do you have anything to say about that?
Mr Nitiwul 11:14 a.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, with L.I.s and Consti- tutional Instruments (C. I.), it is not the debate of Parliament; it is the number of days that matters. Yesterday was 21 sitting days, so it has lapsed and it is law. It is not about the debate and that is what the Hon Member should know.
Mr Agalga 11:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, unless the Hon Minister is saying that laws are not subject to criticism, I do not think that he has any valid point there.
Let me touch on the Military Hospital project at Afari in Kumasi. The 2019 Budget Statement said that the Military Hospital project at Afari near Kumasi is 40 per cent complete.
Mr Speaker, with the greatest of respect, that statement is very misleading. Once again, it is an attempt by the NPP Administration to take ownership of the
Mr Speaker 11:14 a.m.
Hon Member, you are now going into the area of motive. [Interruption.] You said their motive is to take control of something that has been done. It is on record, and I want to draw your attention to it that our rules say that it is not proper. [Interruption]
Hon Members, no amount of shouting would prevent me from doing what is right. You are talking about motives of others and it is a very serious matter in this Honourable House. Please withdraw and proceed.
Mr Agalga 11:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I withdraw.
I refer to the 2017 Budget Statement in which the Minister for Finance told this Honourable House that the project was almost complete and would be commissioned in September, 2017. It is captured in the 2017 Budget Statement.
Mr Speaker, I have done a lot of research on this matter. I have in my hand a report dated 30th April, 2018. It is found on graphic.com online. In this report, the hospital project at Afari was said to be 90 per cent complete. As at the time the NDC left office in 2016, it was 80 per cent complete.

I propose to touch on some crime statistics --
Mr Speaker 11:14 a.m.
Hon Member, I have given you three minutes already. I want you to know that I have graciously given you three minutes because of the interruptions. Please conclude.
Mr Agalga 11:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, the police transformational agenda has been an abysmal failure. Crime statistics from 2016 to 2017 show that armed robberies increased by 25 per cent. Crime statistics further show that in 2018, armed robberies increased by 45 per cent.
What that means is that the police transformational agenda is not working. The police visibility patrol concept and accessibility concept which started during the former President, John Mahama's era are now dead.
There is a correlation between police visibility and crime rate. They should work on that so that this country can be safe and secure for economic transformation.
Mr Ridwan Dauda Abass (NPP -- Sissala East) 11:24 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, 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.
One of the factors that contribute to productivity in every workplace is when one has a good working environment which includes good accommodation, good offices, good working vehicles and many others.
Mr Speaker, the accommodation situation of most of our security agencies in this country is nothing to write home
about. Two weeks ago, I visited Burma Camp and realised that most of these officers had converted their verandas into rooms. Their refrigerators and other belongings were left outside.
You would see a family of four, sharing a single room. This has compelled most of these officers to partition their verandas into rooms. This reminds me of a police officer friend in Tumu in my constituency. Anytime this officer was on duty and he saw signs of rain, he would have to leave the office to go home to reposition his belongings because of roof leakages in his room.

Mr Speaker, I believe 2019 would have a different story.

Mr Speaker, with your permission, I beg to quote paragraph 938 on page 181 of the Budget Statement:

Mr Speaker, to mitigate the accommodation and housing deficit in Ghana Armed Forces, the Ministry continued with the construction of the SSNIT Housing Project. The projects, located at the various Garrisons in Accra, Tema, Ho, Tamale and Sekondi-Takoradi, are at various stages of completion. In 2019, the projects will be continued and completed.

Mr Speaker, the Hon Member on the other Side of the aisle said that during the NDC Administration, 80 per cent of the work was done, but I would want to say that 80 per cent of work done does not mean the work is completed. We would continue and complete it.

Mr Speaker, the NPP Government, having the health needs of the good

people of this country at heart had a 500- bed Military Hospital at Afari near Kumasi under construction and it is about 40 per cent complete.

Mr Speaker, a total number of 1,212 fire volunteers have been trained to ensure the reduction of bush fires. Last year, one of the best farmers from my constituency had his farm burnt because of bush fire, and I believe that if Safiu, whose farm was burnt down was trained, this would not have happened to him.

Mr Speaker, the Ghana National Fire Service is ready to train more fire volunteers in the coming year, and people like Safiu would not go through the pain of losing their farms through bush fire.

Mr Speaker, there is a popular name in Ghana today, which is “the Special Prosecutor”.

We all know the level of corruption that bedevilled this country some years back, where guinea fowls fled to Burkina Faso and could not find their way back to Ghana; where computers were distributed to schools and on arrival, majority of them did not work; where buildings were put up to house guinea fowls but the guinea fowls were not available; where sectors paid millions of hard earned tax payers money to companies to plant five million trees in the Savannah zone but only accounted for seven hundred thousand trees.

Mr Speaker, in 2014, officials of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) uncovered a GH¢ 7.9 million deep rooted rot at the National Service Secretariat.

Mr Speaker, this Government is very committed and as such it has allocated an amount of GH¢180 million to the Office of the Special Prosecutor to enable him deliver on his mandate.
Ms Helena Adjoa Ntoso (NDC -- Krachi West) 11:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity given me to contribute to the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending, 31 st December, 2019.
Mr Speaker, the theme for the 2017 Budget Statement was “Sowing the seeds for Growth and Jobs''. In 2018, the theme was “Putting Ghana back to work''. In 2017, the seeds did not germinate so in 2018, the people of this country were sent back to work.
The people of this country have now worked, so the Government has given the theme for the year's Budget Statement as “A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity''.
If the people of this country have worked for a strong economy and are therefore asking for a stronger economy, they have asked me to ask the Hon Minister for Finance that when one works, one has to reap and enjoy the fruits of his

Mr Speaker, yesterday, an Hon Colleague said that when NDC was in power, what we did was to “create, loot and share”. Any person who lives in a glass house and throws stones needs serious deliverance. [Hear! Hear!].

The beneficiary community is Kalba, but there is no nursing training there as well. Mr Speaker, if this is not “create, loot and share”, what is it?

In 2016, this House passed the Ghana Immigration Service Act, (Act 908) and in section 24, the personnel, for the first time in the history of this country, were allowed to possess and use fire arms in line of duty. Two years on, they are not armed. In the 2019 Budget Statement, there is no mention of arming the Ghana Immigration Service.

Mr Speaker, experience is the best teacher. Patrolling the borders, especially from Beat 9 to Pillar 83, is not easy without arms. The smugglers are armed and economic saboteurs are armed. I have done that work for eight years and so I am speaking from experience. When a person is even armed, it is not easy, let alone patrolling the borders without arms.

Mr Speaker, I would want to bring to the attention of the Hon Minister for Finance that an Act of Parliament, Act 908 has been passed for the Ghana Immigration Service to be armed. This was stated in paragraph 759 on page 129 of the 2017 Budget Statement.

It was also stated in paragraph 758 on page 134 of the 2018 Budget Statement. My concern is about why it was silent in the 2019 Budget Statement. Something would have to be done about it.

Mr Speaker, I would want to move to NADMO, and on page 185, paragraph 962 of the 2019 Budget Statement and with your permission, I beg to read:

“Mr Speaker, the Ministry through the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) launched the operation Thunderbolt to respond to the Bagre Dam Spillage. The team patrolled on the flood waters 24/7 to respond to the emergencies in the three affected Northern Regions, made up of 41 districts and 686 communities. Also, the spillage affected 81,532 victims, caused the deaths of 17 persons, destroyed 75,607 farms, and 10,676 houses, contaminated 43 wells and collapsed 52 bridges. Government supported 57,066 victims.”

Mr Speaker, it means that, 5,925 victims have not been attended to. My concern is that, before the spillage from the Bagre Dam, Accra was hit with floods, same with Kumasi. Volta Region was also hit with tidal waves and rainstorms.

This Budget Statement does not speak about the Ashanti Region, the Volta Region or the Greater Accra Region. It speaks only about the three Northern

Regions, and that was as a result of the spillage from the Bagre Dam.

Mr Speaker, my concern is that, if the Hon Minister concentrates on just 57,066 victims that have been attended to, then he is misleading the people of this country. This is because we have thousands of people in the Ashanti, Greater and Volta Regions who are yet to be attended to.

They have recorded the deaths of 17 persons but the NADMO records show 34. Nobody enjoys people dying. But the fact must be told to the people of this country that 34 persons died in the floods. So that if we have to attend to the bereaved families, then we have to do that and not to reduce the figures as if we have to address only 5,925 victims.
Mr Speaker, I beg to quote from Proverbs 4 11:34 a.m.
8 — [Interruption.]
“Love wisdom and she would make you great, embrace her and she would bring honour to you.”
And this is an advice to the Hon Finance Minister — The contributions that we are making towards the 2019 Budget Statement is not about NPP or the NDC but about the wellbeing of the people of this country — [Hear! Hear!] — And so he should embrace the contributions from the opposition Side of the House so that it would bring honour to himself.
Mr Thomas Donkor Ogajah (NPP — Wulensi) 11:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the Motion before the august House in relation to the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.
Mr Ogajah 11:34 a.m.
Mr Speaker, we are constructing the 60 per cent — [Interruption.]

Mr Speaker, a cursory look at the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for the 2019 fiscal year which was presented to this House by the Hon Finance Minister
Mr Speaker, I beg to read from page 184, paragraph 955 11:44 a.m.
“Mr Speaker, to significantly reduce illicit arms flow, the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons under the Weapons Collection and Destruction Programme, destroyed 2,892 seized illicit arms from the Ashanti Region and organised an international capacity building programme for officers from selected institutions on the implementation of arms control instruments.”
Mr Speaker, in fighting crime, one needs to completely destroy the ammunitions or weapons that the various individuals use to commit crimes, and by so doing, the Weapons Collection and Destruction Programme destroyed 2,892 illicit arms from Kumasi.
There is no doubt. It is a remarkable improvement on the past records and for this reason, I commend the Hon Minister for the Interior, the National Commission on Small Arms as well as the Security Agencies for a good work done.
Mr Speaker, it is refreshing to note that the 2019 Budget Statement did not neglect the fight against illicit small arms.

Mr Speaker, the area which catches my attention in the 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy has to do with programmes aimed at managing crimes in the country.

In the area of crime management, the Ministry of the Interior through the Ghana Prisons Service did so well in 2018 to equip inmates in our prisons with employable skills to enable them fit into the job market after they are released.

Mr Speaker, with your indulgence, I would refer the whole House to paragraph 965 of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government for the list of measures taken in this effect. It states and I beg to quote:

“The Service also submitted Non- Custodial Sentencing Bill to Attorney-General's Department for legal advice. In 2019, the Ministry will facilitate the speedy passage of Non-Custodial Sentence Bill into law to help ease congestion of the Prisons.”

Mr Speaker, still on crime management, we could all bear witness to the fact that in just 22 months at the helm of affairs we have been able to procure and deliver 179 motorbikes to combat crimes.

Mr Speaker, I would beg your leave to read paragraph 795 of page 144 of the 2016 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government;

“The construction of the new 500- bed military hospital at Afari near Kumasi is progressing steadily and it is expected to be completed on schedule. It is expected that the project would be completed in

2016.”

Mr Speaker, this is their own Budget Statement and Economic Policy. They are talking about 80 per cent but this is their own Budget Statement.

Mr Speaker, it means that the Hon Member on their Side misled the House.
Mr Speaker 11:44 a.m.
So Hon Member, in conclusion?
Mr Ogajah 11:44 a.m.
Mr Speaker, going forward -- [Interruptions] -- by fighting crime, we would need men to do that.
Mr Speaker 11:44 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Hon Alhassan Mumuni?
Mr Mumuni Alhassan (NDC-- Salaga North) 11:44 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the Motion numbered 6 on today's Order Paper.
Mr Speaker, the only positive thing that I have seen in this 2019 Budget Statement and Economic Policy is its elephant size volume as compared to the previous ones.
Mr Speaker, the dynamics of national security have indeed changed. There is the need for us to have another look at how we manage the affairs of this nation. It is not only when we have violence or conflict that we think about national security.
When there are high taxes on spare parts from Abossey Okai and Suame Spare Parts dealers, that poses security threats; when fuel prices are high and commercial drivers only work to pay fuel stations, that poses security threats; when contractors have done some work on various projects and they are not paid, that poses security
Mr Mumuni Alhassan (NDC-- Salaga North) 11:44 a.m.


Mr Speaker, when we suspend galamsey for more than one year and we do not do anything to revive that sector, that poses security threat. [Hear! Hear!] Even when men are not able to perform in the night because of mental and psychological stress, that poses security threat. [Laughter] -- [Hear! Hear!]

Mr Speaker, this calls for a national conversation as to how we could bring stakeholders together to think about how to manage these sectors. This is because every sector of this nation has a role to play to ensure that we have peace and security in this country.

One would realise that this country, unlike other advanced countries like the USA, where anytime a President is elected he has a security policy that is sent to Congress so that once it is passed, every sector of the economy has a look at what need to be done to ensure that they are secured, we do not have such arrangements. So, it makes things very difficult for us to assess what we put in place to ensure that we have a secured environment.

Mr Speaker, the Vice Chairman of your Committee on Defence and the Interior said that the Police Service has indeed been retooled and so they are doing well. The crime rate is on the increase and the Police Service is rated on crime rate.

In 2016-2017, the crime rate in Ghana was 27 per cent; in 2017 and 2018, the crime rate is 45 per cent. This shows that the crime rate is on the increase.

Mr Speaker, let me say that --
rose
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Members, order!
Do you stand on a point of correction?
Mr Owusu-Amankwah 11:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, this is a House of record. It is therefore prudent that the Hon Member provides the source of his information.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Member, do you have anything to contradict that?
Mr Owusu-Amankwah 11:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, yes; when it comes to the statistics of crime, one must be specific when one quotes. Is he talking about petty thievery or robbery? He has been advised, so I am surprised. It is because of propaganda that he wants to throw out figures that are not grounded in any document.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Member, you are told that your purported facts are not grounded in any documented evidence. What do you have in support?
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I have a document here.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
What document, please?
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
It is “Robbery topped crimes in 2017, increased by 27 per cent”. It is a report by the Ghana Police Service. [Interruption.] I would tender it when I finish.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Member, you would want to table it?
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
I would table it when I finish. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Members, Order. [Pause.]
Now that I have the document, please refer to the appropriate area. I have two documents, tell me what is what.
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would have to refer to -- [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Members, order.
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for indulging me.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Member, you would show me per your purported document that what you said is correct.
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
It is the Ghana Police Service Report, 2016/2017. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Members, order.
Hon Members, when it comes to facts and figures, this Honourable House cannot be taken for granted, please.
Hon Member, your purported document does not seem to --
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the report is here - Ghana Police Service 2017 Report.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Do you stand by it?
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
Yes, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Please read. [Interruption.]
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would read the portion that indicates and backs this --
“A total of 1,772 robbery cases were recorded at the end of the year 2017 as compared to 1,397 cases in the year 2016.”
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Members, order.

As per this document:

“Robbery topped crimes in 2017, increased by 27 per cent ...

Robbery attacks in the country shot up by 26.8 per cent in the year 2017, latest statistics from the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has indicated.

A total of 1,772 robbery cases were recorded at the end of the year 2017 as compared to 1,397 cases in the year 2016.

This shows an increase of 375 robbery cases as against 2016.”

Hon Member, is that the essence of your argument?
Some Hon Members 11:54 a.m.
Yes.
Mr Speaker 11:54 a.m.
Hon Member, you may continue. [Hear! Hear!]
Mr M. Alhassan 11:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much; may you live long.
Mr Speaker, there is the need for us to have a look at the various security agencies that we have in this country.
Mr Speaker 12:04 p.m.
In conclusion?
Mr M. Alhassan 12:04 p.m.
Mr Speaker, you will realise that if not for the previous Administration which beefed up the fire tenders in this country to reach up to 209, there would not have been a single addition of a fire tender in two years. Looking at our population, how can we solve this fire situation when we have rampant fire outbreaks here and there?
I would just want to conclude, as you indicated that the Ghana Prisons Service is experiencing a lot of congestion in the
prisons. It took the bold initiative of ex- President Mahama to visit the Nsawam Prison and when he saw the congestion, he directed the former Hon Minister for Finance to allocate GH¢50million for the construction of a remand prison at Nsawam. What have they done to ensure that this remand prison is completed?
Mr Speaker 12:04 p.m.
Hon Member, thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Hon Members, we are on Lands and Forestry.
Mr Francis Manu-Adabor 12:04 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the --
Mr Speaker 12:04 p.m.
Hon Member, I assume you are the Hon Ranking Member?
Mr Manu-Adabor 12:04 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am the Hon Chairman of the Committee.
Mr Speaker 12:04 p.m.
Sorry.
All right, you have 15 minutes.
Mr Manu-Adabor 12:04 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year 2019 financial year.
Mr Speaker, I will concentrate on the lands sector of the Ministry. We all have our problems when we go to the Lands Commission to register our interest to acquire lands.
I have met several Hon Members in the Ministry and at the Lands Commission trying to register their lands and the problems they go through. In addressing this particular problem, the NPP Manifesto on page 92 paragraph 2 states with your permission :
“Several years of reforms under the Land Administration Project (LAP) have still not led to an efficient and well-functioning regime of titling, fixing of boundaries and ownership tracing.
“In this direction, the NPP will:
a. speed up land services and enhance the accuracy of land certificates and records by investing in turning the Lands Commission into a true digital organisation, to reduce the need for clerical or administrative paper shuffling and to free professional staff to focus on technical, policy strategy and land administra- tion issues, where required.
b. commit to ensuring that turnaround time for land registration is reduced to 30 working days.
c. fully decentralise Lands Commission and land services to the district level…”
Mr Speaker, we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect change in results. If we continue to do things the old way, we would get the same results. And so, with your permission, I quote the Budget Statement of paragraph 553:
Land Administration and Management Programme
“Mr Speaker, the Ministry through the Lands Commission developed and adopted the roadmap to roll out the Ghana Enterprise Land Information Systems (GELIS). The
Phase I of the project is expected to be piloted and operationalised before the end of 2018 in the following areas in Accra; District 01, District 03, District 19 and District
20.
554. The GELIS when completed will transform the records of the Commission from manual to digital and provide consolidated central records to further improve service delivery through the introduction of online services for various land documentation processes”.
Mr Speaker, we all travel very often and in Sweden, if you want to get information about a particular parcel of land, you sit behind your own computer at home and because every parcel has a unique identifier, you quote that identifier and then you get all the information covering that parcel.
However, here in Ghana, we do not have any parcel identification system so the introduction of the Ghana Enterprise Land Information System (GELIS) is a step in the right direction.
Now, that is the digital form of land delivery in Ghana. We have started the GELIS and now, at the Lands Commission, all operations are digital and one does not move from one office to the other. They started last year and it is now almost operational.
Mr Speaker, what we are going to gain from this GELIS is that in the nearest future, when we want information about our land, or when an Hon Minister comes to the House to answer land related questions, we could display all the information on the screen because of the
GELIS.
Also, when one is answering particular road related questions, the road could be displayed on the screen for people to see and that will be a proper evidence-based
Mr Manu-Adabor 12:14 p.m.
information for Ghanaians to see how the roads and buildings are as well as all the information that we need at the Lands Commission.
Mr Speaker, when the GELIS is fully operational, we will get the fundamental data for other information to be logged onto it. When we go to the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), they have information about the population of the country.
Also, in the office of the Land Use and Spatial Planning office, they have data about land use, but how to merge the data for decision makers is our problem in Ghana.
So, when we get that fundamental information from GELIS, then it means that if we have a unique identifier, we could merge all the data from other sources so that decision makers will not get any problem in moving from one office to the other.
What it means is that when we take Lands Commission information and then we use that unique identifier to log onto a particular house here in Ghana, we could even get the number of people living in it.
Mr Speaker, so, if we fully operationalise that information, then it means that it will not even be necessary for Ghana to do census with time.
When we read paragraph 557 of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government with your permission it states and I quote:
“The Lands Commission will also scale up the establishment of Client Service Access Units to cover all the 10 regions. To decentralise land administration services to selected districts in the country, the
construction of the Greater Accra and the Volta Regional Office complexes will continue in 2019.”

“These include the digitisation and automation of land registration processes, the production of up to date and accurate maps through the development of orthophoto maps and other spatial data.”

Mr Speaker, since 1974 when the whole country was flown over for orthophoto maps to be developed -- It has never happened in the history of Ghana. But under this Government and with this Budget Statement, in 2019 we would fly across the whole of Ghana and get orthophoto maps for all the districts in Ghana.

As we sit here, we have district planning officers in our various districts, but they are all sitting down because they do not have the base maps to produce layouts for the villages and towns.

Mr Speaker, we have land-use and spatial planning officers sitting in our district offices but they are not working because they do not have the base maps to produce layouts for the villages.

So when we go to the towns and villages, you would see that people are still developing without layouts and when there is fire outbreak the fire tenders would have a difficulty in entering some of the districts to extinguish the fire. So we are still creating slums in this 21st Century where everything has been computerised.

Mr Speaker, so when we get these orthophoto maps, it would serve as the base for every database in Ghana.

Mr Speaker, in our districts, our maps still have overlaps. There are some communities that do not know the exact districts that they are in, but the orthophto mapping system would address this problem.

So, this is an innovation that we all have to applaud because in 1974, when they were flying over the whole country, the country was divided into two; the northern sector was flown over by the Terra Surveys from Canada and the southern sector was flown over by Ordnance Survey from the United Kingdom.

Mr Speaker, most of these maps are now outdated and we do not have any means of updating them other than to fly over the whole country once again and be very conscious of developments in the country.

Every physical work that is done would sit on a piece of land, so land information should be paramount to the country so that we could get investors who would have confidence in the titling system.

Mr Speaker, so with the orthophoto mapping and the Ghana Enterprise Land Information System (GELIS), it means that we would develop a database that we would have confidence in and the land administration system in the country could be recognised as a unique one.

Mr Speaker, the Vice President started a programme called the digital address system and now that we are to develop a database we would need a unique identifier. So the digital address system would be the unique identifier which would sit in other organisations so that we could merge our data and analyse it for decision making.

Mr Speaker, the Forestry Commission always talk about the forest cover, but the only way to access the forest cover and the current one is to map the whole country so that in classification we would know the number of acres of the forest that we still have, the plantations being developed and the forest that has been depleted.

Mr Speaker, during the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) when General Arnold Quainoo led the Ghanaian military to Liberia and returned to Ghana, he conceded on a Ghanaian television station that they could not fight because they could not trace the position of the enemy.

This is because of the lack of maps. But now that we would get maps in Ghana, the military, the Ghana Police Service and all the security services would get data so that we could police and control crime in the country.

Mr Speaker, there is something called cadastral system and I remember that during the last Parliament, an NDC Hon Member of Parliament asked me what cadastral system is. This is because when he goes to the Lands Commission that word is used over there.
Mr Speaker 12:14 p.m.
Hon Member, please withdraw.
Mr Manu-Adabor 12:14 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to withdraw.
Mr Speaker, an Hon Colleague asked me what cadastral map is and I answered that a cadastral map is simply a map that has been produced by a licence surveyor and checked and approved by the director of surveys. When we fly over the whole country our cadastral systems in the country could be up to date.

Mr Speaker, you would be surprised to note that the road from Apedwa Junction to Bunso Junction, which was constructed in 2001 is not on our map because our map was developed in 1974 and we have not updated our records since then.

Mr Speaker, if we finish with the orthophoto maps and the records are updated, then we could use only drones to do change detections and then update our maps.

Mr Speaker, I would want to conclude by reading paragraph 559 of the Budget Statement which talks about the Mineral Resources Development and Manage- ment Programme. With your permission, it says:

“Mr Speaker, the Minerals Commission under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources collaborated with the Inter- Ministerial Committee against illegal Mining to develop a roadmap for the lifting of the ban on small-scale mining in the country.”

Mr Speaker, I would want to sound a warning here that this is our country and we do not have any other country to live in. If because of political expediency we tell people that if they vote for us we would lift the ban without recourse to the damage that the illegal miners are causing to our water bodies.

Mr Speaker, when any mining lease is released to a person, that person is supposed to stay 100 metres away on each side of a river. Mr Speaker, but when we go to the grounds all our water bodies are damaged.

When we tell people that we would lift the ban without exercising the laws governing the lease of mining, then we

should also tell them that very soon Ghana would be importing water to consume.

Mr Speaker, thank you very much.

Hear! Hear!
Mr Speaker 12:14 p.m.
Hon Akandoh.
Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh (NDC -- Juaboso) 12:14 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019.
Mr Speaker, upon reading through the 2019 Budget Statement I would want to say that this Government must get serious with land issues in this country.
All other things are done on land and so if we begin to get our land issues wrong then our development in this country would continue to suffer. An impression has been created as though migrating from manual records to digital records is being done by this particular Administration, but that is inaccurate.
Mr Speaker, in the year 2016, all the scattered departments under the Lands Commission were brought under one umbrella and that is where we created the one-stop shop.
All these things were done in order to ease the frustrations that people go through when their documents are being processed. It was done through the GELIS.
In 2016, before the former Administration left office, we bequeathed to the current Administration a migration from the manual records to a digitised platform.
Mr Speaker, so it is inaccurate for the Vice President to have said on 30 th November, 2017, that Ghana was now going to migrate the manual records unto
a digital platform. We bequeathed that to the current Administration before handing over power to them.
Mr Speaker, what they actually promised in the 2017 Budget Statement was that they would give us a turnaround time of 30 days.
Mr Speaker, as I speak now, the volume of records that we migrated from the manual records to the digital platform is what exists today. Not a single volume has been added.
Mr Speaker, what they promised us was to give us a turnaround time of 30 days, and as I speak to you, the turnaround time is in multiples of months, if not in years. That is what they promised the good people of this country.
Mr Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Hon Members, the Hon First Deputy Speaker would take the Chair.
Hon Member, you would please continue.
Mr Akandoh 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, that is what they promised the good people of this country. So they should stop the talking, and walk the talk.
Mr Speaker, one very important and critical aspect under the Lands and Natural Resources and Forestry Commission that needs debate is the area of our preservation and protection of what our forefathers have left for us.
In this era of high rate of degradation, what any responsible Government should seek to do is to protect the few forest reserves that are left for this country.

12. 26 p. m. --
MR FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER
Mr Akandoh 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the Atiwa Forest Reserve has been declared by the United Nations (UN) as a globally significant biodiversity area. So we earn so much, and any responsible Government should be thinking about a non-consumptive approach to the eco- tourism.
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Hon Member, you would hold on. Turn off your microphone.
Yes, Hon Deputy Minister?
Mr Owusu-Bio 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of correction. The Hon Member on the Floor has been grossly misleading this House with untruths.
Mr Speaker, he says that the current Government has given out our bauxite deposits in Nyinahin and the Atiwa Forest Reserve for US$2 billion. The Hon Member was in this House when the House passed the Ghana Integrated Bauxite and Aluminium Development Authority Act of 2018.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Hon Member, I would want you to focus on what he said that is misleading.
Mr Owusu-Bio 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it is misleading because this House has passed the Ghana Integrated Bauxite and Aluminium Development Authority Bill 2018 and based on that, we also passed the Ghana-China Bauxite Barter Arrangement Agreement here. What was said was that we would use US$2 billion and that US$2 billion is almost about one per cent of our entire bauxite deposit.
Mr Speaker, his Government gave that concession free of charge to Mr Ibrahim Mahama -- [Interruption] -- without the payment of any money. [Uproar]
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Hon Deputy Minister, your point did not come out clearly, so I am not sure if I understood your submission.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Owusu-Bio 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the point is that the US$2 billion is just one per cent of the entire bauxite deposit, and that is what we have exchanged the bauxite for. But, they gave it out to Mr Ibrahim Mahama --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Hon Member, it is all right, I get you.
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Yes, Hon Deputy Minority whip?
Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, is the Hon Minister blaming this House or he is contesting the facts that are being brought by the former Hon Deputy Minister for Lands and Forestry, the Hon Kwabena Mintah Akandoh?
By saying that we are misleading the House is he saying that because we passed the Ghana Integrated and Aluminium Development Authority Bill, Bauxite that the Hon Akandoh talks about -- Or is he saying that the House did something wrong by passing the Bill? Which is which? And which is the misconception that he talks of?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Hon Member, what I understood the Hon Member to be saying was that Ghana's bauxite is worth a lot more than US$2 billion, and so he has not sold it for less.
Hon Member, let that be your --
Hon Member, you may please proceed.
Mr Akandoh 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, all that I am saying is that it is not anything difficult. I am inviting this Government to do a proper evaluation of the Atiwa Forest Reserve. There are a lot of significant species in Atiwa Forest Reserve that can never be found in any part of this world. It is one of the things that makes Ghana very significant on the globe.

Mr Speaker --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
Hon Member, you should not invite me because your opinion is known.
Mr Akandor 12:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, just sitting down and giving our bauxite deposits in exchange of US$2 billion is a lazy man's approach. There are more natural resources in this country that we have not discovered.
The only body mandated to discover such minerals in this country is the Geological Survey Department, which is now an “Authority”.
Mr Speaker, this Government inherited an Act passed in this House, and what they are supposed to do, is to constitute a Board and bring a Regulation to this House to operationalise the Act.
It has been almost two years, and the common constitution of a Board has not been done by them. So if we are looking for minerals to develop this country, then that is the surest way to go, not this lazy man's approach.
Mr Speaker, with all respect, I doubt if this Government listens to the debate we do in this House. On this same thing, we drew their attention to it during the last year's debate. As I speak to you now, what is difficult in constituting a Board to operationalise an Act? But they are going around giving our reserves for free. [Interruption] --
Mr Speaker, I believe that we must begin to be very serious when it comes to this sector, and with these few words, I thank you for the opportunity.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:24 p.m.
We would now move on to the Hon Ebenezer Nartey.
Mr Ebenezer (Nii) Narh Nartey (NPP -- Ablekuma Central) 12:34 p.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague, who just spoke, is a former Hon Deputy Minister for Lands and Forestry --
[Interruption] -- No, rather, he is the former Hon Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources.
Mr Speaker, when the Hon Member was the Deputy Minister at that time, he was in charge of mines and had the oversight responsibility, but he relaxed.
So if my Hon Colleague tells us that the Government promised to issue certificates within 30 days and they have not been able to do it, then I would want to advise the Hon Ranking Member to get his facts right when debating on the Floor of the House.
Mr Speaker, I would want to put on record that in 2017, the Land Title Registry, currently the Land Registration Division issued 5,860 certificates to applicants. That has never happened in the history of this country since the inception of Land Title Registry.
Mr Speaker, I have worked at the Land Title Registry for seven good years.

One could not get a land title certificate within three days, but today, one can get land title certificate within three days. This is because we have competent Government and because we have people who are managing our land sector; that is what we are talking about.

Mr Speaker, if one would want to do a land search, we have a difference between the land title search where one has a certificate and land search where one goes with his site plan. We used to search for that for over three months and four months.

Today, when you go to the Lands Commission, within seven days, one can get his land title certificate. This is the Government that we are talking about.
Mr Ebenezer (Nii) Narh Nartey (NPP -- Ablekuma Central) 12:34 p.m.


Mr Speaker, the Forestry Commission thought it wise that our forest reserves are being destroyed, and when the competent President spoke against galamsey, we have an aspirant going about saying “we would do galamsey.”

The President in his own wisdom mandated the Forestry Commission. They have employed 60,000 youth under the Youth in Afforestation Programme. Hon Akandoh has about 50 youths in his constituency doing plantation. Hon Sayibu has people in his constituency --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Member, you mentioned his name. I was not going to recognise him, but you have mentioned his name.
Yes, Hon Akandoh?
Mr Akandoh 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague on the other Side made mention of the fact that there is an aspirant going round saying that a particular aspirant would do galamsey in this country.
Mr Speaker, this is a House of records. He must either substantiate or withdraw it. Which aspirant is that? I am inviting him to substantiate what he said. It is a pure speculation, and so he should substantiate it.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Member, did you say an aspirant is saying he would allow galamsey? Would you name which aspirant said that?
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it was one of the aspirants of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) yet to take part in a presidential primaries; the former President, John Mahama.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Member, you would hold on. That is a controversial matter, so I would want it to be clear.
Yes, Hon available Leader?
Mr Agbodza 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I have no intention of truncating the flow of my Hon Colleague.
Mr Speaker, you sat in the Chair when this House took very strong exceptions to the menace of galamsey in this House. For a Member of Parliament (MP) to say that he is aware of a Ghanaian -- you can forget about his status -- who says that he would encourage galamsey, I would want my Hon Colleague to give evidence of where and who said this? Otherwise, he must withdraw the statement.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
He has given a name, unless your are challenging him to provide evidence.
Hon Member, where is you source?
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, last year, the NDC decided to organise a health walk in the Ashanti Region, Kumasi to be precise. The former President who is now aspiring to become a presidential candidate said on the platform that, “Have you seen that the party that you supported has collapsed your jobs now? Have you seen that they have now banned galamsey? For me, I would not ban galamsey?” [Interruption.]
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Member, do you have any proof of what you are alleging he said? Were you present yourself or do you have a report on that?
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I heard it on radio and I watched it on television. The evidence is there, and I believe that the media in this House would help in getting these records.
Mr Speaker, even apart from that --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Let us restrict ourselves to what you said you heard on radio. Unfortunately, you do not have the evidence here. If you do not have the evidence here and you were not present yourself --
Yes, Hon Member, if you have the evidence yourself, I would want to see it; otherwise --
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, after that statement, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr John Boadu issued a statement to condemn that statement made by the aspirant.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Firstly, let us deal with what you alleged you heard. If you have the evidence of what you heard here, I would want to see it. If not --
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I have about six minutes, so I would get it for you.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
You would do what?
Hon Members, let us make progress. I would want to rule on this matter before we proceed. If he has the evidence, I would like to see it, and we would leave it there; if he does not have the evidence, I would make a ruling.
Hon Deputy Majority Chief Whip?
Mr Moses Anim 12:34 p.m.
Thank you, Mr
Speaker.
I think the Hon Member is asking for time to provide the evidence. [Interruption.] Can I finish?
Mr Speaker, if he asks for time, I have in my hand the Criminal Investigation Department, Ghana Police Service, 2017 -- I just want to make a point, with all humility.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Let me deal with this matter.
Mr Anim 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, our Hon Colleague at the other Side has provided some evidence to the Speaker on the crime rate. I have now just taken hold of a document that is very authentic that I am going to speak about very soon.
So if the Hon Member is saying he would provide evidence at a later date we should allow him. This is because I am also going to stand and debunk the evidence the Hon Member from the other Side gave. I have the current document comparing 2016 and 2017 on the crime rate.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Leader, you are out of order. I am dealing with the matter.
Mr Anim 12:34 p.m.
And I am going to table that one too. So how fraudulent that --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Leader you are out of order. Kindly resume your seat.
Mr Anim 12:34 p.m.
I am going to provide that one. I have the current information on the fraudulent evidence that he gave. I would tender that one too.
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
It was on Peace FM webpage on 28th April, 2018. With your permission, I quote former President Mahama, currently the presidential aspirant.
“Stop chasing illegal miners, Mahama to Government”
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Yes, Minority Leadership, do you want to respond to that? That is the evidence he has provided. Do you want to comment on that?
Mr Agbodza 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague rightly read a caption. He did not even tell us about the reporter; he just said peacefmonline. But the crux of the matter is that, he said President Mahama said he would encourage galamsey.
Mr Speaker, when you rightly asked him to provide evidence, he read a caption from a website saying President Mahama says “stop chasing illegal miners”, but that is different from saying that he said when he comes to power, he would encourage galamsey.
Mr Speaker, it is very simple for us to brush this aside, but if he cannot provide evidence, either an authentic statement or a voice statement, I do not think this country would accept the fact that the caption he read which says “stop chasing illegal miners” is equal to “I would encourage galamsey in this country”.
Mr Speaker, our humble request to you is that what he has read is not an evidence of what former President Mahama said in terms of galamsey. If he cannot provide the evidence, then he must humbly withdraw and provide a better evidence whenever he gets hold of that.
Mr Speaker, that is our appeal.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Very well.
Hon Members, this is my ruling. Whereas the evidence you provided alleges that a report says the former President says “Stop chasing illegal miners”, what you said by word of mouth here was that an aspirant says he would encourage same -- [Interruption.] -- Hon Members, can I finish my ruling? I have not given my ruling.
What you said and what you alleged he said are not the same. You would withdraw and then continue with your debate.
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you. But that is how I understand it, and I withdraw that.
One of the 14 aspirants of the NDC has said, and I beg to quote; “stop chasing illegal miners with your soldiers”.
Mr Speaker, this is somebody who has ruled this country for almost six years. Recently, I paid a visit to some mining areas, and it would interest you to know how our water bodies have been destroyed. About a month ago, a researcher came out to say that if we do not take care, we would start importing water in this country.
Mr Speaker, this is very serious. So if a President in his own wisdom believes that there is no need for us to import water, but rather we should protect what we have, and we have people saying that they would destroy it, then I am afraid; never again should we allow such people to come back and rule this country -- [Hear! Hear!] -- Never.
Mr Speaker, I know what the people in your constituency are going through in the hands of galamseyers, the number of people who are dying. And somebody is so happy that Ghanaians whose mandate he wants are dying, and he says, “Vote for me and I would let you die”? It would never happen, God forbid.
Mr Speaker, today, the Forestry Commission has turned people's lives around. All the 275 constituencies that we have, especially where we have forest reserves, the Forestry Commission is planting new trees, and my people on the other Side are benefitting from that.
I can say that my own Friend, Hon Eric Afful, knows. I know my own Friend, Hon Suhuyini Sayibu, is aware. My own Brother, Hon Akandoh, is aware. They are all beneficiaries of this 60,000 youth.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Member, you would hold on.
Mr Eric Afful 12:34 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.

Mr Speaker, I would like him to clarify exactly what Hon Eric Afful is benefitting from.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Member, if you would avoid mentioning Hon Members by name, then you would disable me from recognising them.
Mr Nartey 12:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, what I said was that, 60,000 youth have benefitted from the Youth in Afforestation Programme, and all the 275 constituencies in one way or the other have benefitted. And my brother, Hon Eric Afful, knows that his people have benefitted.
We have some youths not personally known to him, but the youth in his constituency who were worrying him for getting jobs are benefitting.
The Member of Parliament for Bole is not benefitting directly, but he has
pushed to the Forestry Commission the people who were worrying him that they need jobs. So it is indirect benefit to him.
Mr Speaker, the Lands Commission believes that it is not proper for all of us in Accra, especially, to be travelling from Ngleshie Amanfro, Kokrobite and Langba, to do registration of our land. Today, when you go to Ga East and Ga West, the Lands Commission has established new district offices.
So there is no need to travel from Kokrobite to submit one's document at 37 Lands Commission. You could go to Ga West Lands Commission and do your submission, and then the process starts for you. This is a Government that thinks of its people.
When you go to the Surveys Department, it would take you seven days to get your parcel plan for preparation of certificate. It would take you 14 days to do cadastral plan.
Mr Speaker, as I said, I have worked at Land Title Registry before. At first, it could take you three to four months to get a parcel plan. For cadastral plan, it would take you almost a year --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:34 p.m.
Hon Member, you have one minute left.
Mr Nartey 12:54 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I believe strongly that this is a Government that has the foresight, thinks outside the box and sees to it that Ghana moves forward. Therefore let us help Ghanaians.
I would want to urge my Colleagues from the other Side of the aisle to embrace and support this Government and the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana
Alhaji Inusah A. B. Fuseini (NDC -- Tamale Central) 12:54 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for this opportunity to contribute to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Republic of Ghana presented to this House on behalf of the President by the Hon Minister for Finance on Thursday, 15th November, 2018.
Mr Speaker, indeed, it is important for all of us to know that the very reason we are in this House, consistent with the evolution of Parliament is that citizens cannot pay taxes and would not determine how those taxes can be used to fund policies.
When we interrogate Government's Budget Statements and Economic Policies to see how the policies would be implemented by the moneys that Government gathers from us, we would be discharging our duties as responsible and useful persons of this country.
Mr Speaker, democracy is founded on two very important principles 12:54 p.m.
transparency and accountability. These are the hallmarks of good governance. So when a Budget Statement is presented to this House, it is important that we assess and evaluate it to see whether it is consistent with the twin principles of transparency and accountability as we want to determine how our tax resources are used.
Mr Speaker, there are many outstanding issues that clearly have not found their way into this Budget Statement. Our tax
resources were used to fund an investigation into a visa scandal that occurred at the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
Mr Speaker, that was in 2017, and as I speak to you, there is not yet any attempt to account to the people of this country for the moneys that were used to set up the investigation committee. What is the nature of the account? No report has been published evidencing whatever took place at the Ministry of Youth and Sports. That smacks in the face of good governance.
Mr Speaker, another failure of accountability and transparency of this Government is the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) scandal. We were all here when we heard the then Hon Minister constitute a committee to investigate BOST.
Indeed, the Hon Minister himself truncated his own committee when he decided to accept the report of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) over and above a committee that he had himself constituted.
Nevertheless, the Hon Minister assured us that the committee would finish its duties and that their report would be made available. Mr Speaker, the tax payer's money was used to pay the allowances of the persons who sat on the committee. Mr Speaker, consistent with the principles of accountability and transparency, the report of the BOST scandal has not been published.
Mr Speaker, we are told that on 27th December, 2019, a referendum would be held to determine whether the persons within the areas where it would be held will support the creation of new regions. Mr Speaker, the creation of new regions,
as we understand, derives from petitions that were submitted to the Office of the President.
The Office of the President is where we have all collectively set up to exercise our collective mandate of power as captured in article 58 of the 1992 Constitution, where we have vested Executive authority in the President.

I hear my Hon Colleagues shout that I should talk about lands, but it is important for them to know that former President Mahama stayed in Office as President for only four years and three months and not six years as mentioned by an Hon Colleague.

Mr Speaker, when we discovered oil in this country, we said that the oil resources must be used in such a way that future generations of this country would be able to point at what they were used for.

To be able to tie the hands of political office holders to the utilisation of the oil resources, we passed the Petroleum Revenue Management Act (PRMA) (Act 815) and we enjoined the use of the oil resources in an effective, prudent and sustainable manner.

Mr Speaker, these were the words that we imported into the Long Title of the Act. What do we see? This year, we are told in paragraph 326 of the Budget Statement that capital expenditure would be domestic

and foreign financed. To understand that, one has to go to paragraph 327 and there he would see that in order to close the deficit of GH¢14,535.9 million, Government would go borrowing.

It is the moneys to be borrowed that would be used to fund capital investment. This is in paragraph 326. The obvious question to ask is: what has become of section 21 (4) of the PRMA which enjoins us to use 70 per cent of the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) in capital investment?

Mr Speaker, when I listened to the Hon Minister for Finance, he said this of his own Budget Statement in paragraph 238 -- He said the mid-term vision and objectives of Government are funded on the following: the Mid-Term National Development Policy Framework --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:04 a.m.
Hon Member, you have one more minute.
Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 1:04 a.m.
The President's Coordinated Action Programme, Ghana Beyond Aid, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, African Union Agenda and the Public Financial Management Act -- Mr Speaker, conspicuously missing is the Petroleum Resources Management Act because that shows how the resources would be used.
Mr Speaker, lastly, when you go to page 203 of the Budget Statement, I have talked about transparency and accountability; under expenditure, we have capital expenditure, total expenditure; after subsidies, we have grants to other Government units, we have social benefits, and other expenditure.
Mr Speaker, this is the first time ever, in the history of this country, that a line item known and called “other expenditure”
—
Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 1:04 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am a Ranking Member.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:04 a.m.
Hon Member, the fifteen minutes was taken by Hon Akandoh; you are entitled to ten minutes.
Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 1:04 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thought I was speaking in the capacity—
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:04 a.m.
Please, your time is up.
Mr Andrew Amoako Asiamah (NPP -- Fomena) 1:04 a.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity to speak to the Motion on the Floor which is the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government for the year 2019.
Mr Speaker, the NPP Government, ably led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, has placed so much importance on forestry development, and as such it has not relented on its efforts to develop this all-important sector.
Mr Speaker, in the year 2018, 303,447 hectares of plantation cover were established. Again, 2,942 hectares were also established in collaboration with the private sector.
Mr Speaker, the NPP Government, ably led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, has done much to do away with the normal issue that is plaguing this nation, which is the issue of lack of maintenance.
Lack of maintenance is associated with almost all the sectors that we have in Ghana and the forestry sector is no exception. But Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has also decided that apart from
establishing new plantations, he would maintain the existing plantations that we have in the system.
Mr Speaker, as I speak, in 2018, 18,972 hectares of land plantation that were established previously have been maintained.
Mr Speaker, one area that has also plagued this nation is the issue of man's activities on the land; be it illegal farming, be it illegal logging, or illegal mining, popularly called galamsey. Mr Speaker, this has taken away most of our economic trees including the forest cover. If we go to the forest areas, some of our cocoa trees have been cut down.
Mr Speaker, the NPP Government has decided that apart from establishing new plantations and the existing plantation, it would also restore these degraded areas that have been caused by the activities of mankind. As I speak, in 2018, 1,841 hectares that were degraded has been restored to normalcy.
When we come to tree plantation, the Government, through the Forestry Commission, decided that they were not going to restrict themselves to only the forest areas. They decided to undertake a programme called “Amenity Planting Programme”, which specifically intends to have plantation in our urban areas and also tries to “green” our urban areas.
Mr Speaker, our schools, institutions along our routes and roads have been planted with trees. So far, 223,000 seedlings have been provided and a total area of 528.5 hectares have been covered.
Mr Speaker, the earlier speakers spoke about employment that has been created by the Forestry Commission. Mr Speaker, 60,000.00 youth have been engaged to
undertake these exercises that I am talking about. In 2019, the NPP Government, led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would continue with these good works that it has started.
Mr Speaker, in 2019, the Government, through the Forestry Commission, in collaboration with the private sector, would establish 25,000.00 hectares of forest plantation. Again, 40,288.00 hectares of established plantations would be maintained.
Mr Speaker, as I said about the activities of mankind, the Government would also focus on about 2,500.00 hectares of land to be restored to its normalcy. Together, we expect that about 13.3million seedlings would be provided and supplied for planting.
When it comes to land administration, the earlier speakers have already spoken much about it, but the focus has always been that the Government's focus of trying to turn around the processing of land within 30 days is still an issue.
As I speak, we have done much and we are almost touching that particular achievement. Through the Ghana Enterprise Land Information Systems, which has been rolled out in parts of Accra and which is focusing that we consolidated a central point of records, we hope that when this programme is completed, we would achieve this target of the NPP Government.
Mr Speaker, one area that has also plagued this nation is the issue of many laws that we have in the land sector. The players in the land industry, be it land administrators, land owners, lawyers, surveyors, estate developers and individual developers or prospective
developers always face the issue of which specific law to actually apply. As I speak, the Land Bill is with us, and the NPP Government is bent on passing this Bill into law in 2019.
When this Bill is passed into law, it would solve a lot of problems for us and consolidate all the laws we are talking about, so that the players in the land sector can focus on dealing with issues that come before them.
Mr Speaker, one area that falls under this sector is the stool Land Administration sector. This sector is responsible for collecting revenue meant for our stools and skins for their development and that of the District Assemblies.
Over the years, the Government has tried to improve revenue collection and since last year, the Government has set up many collection centres in the Districts.
Previously, their offices were centred in the regional administration and field district capitals. As I speak, the office is trying to establish offices in almost all the Districts, so that the collection points would be closer to the people.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:14 a.m.
Hon Member, you have one minute more.
Mr A. A. Asiamah 1:14 a.m.
To wind up, this Budget Statement with the theme, “A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity”, is something that is found within the land sector. Therefore if we are all able to put our acts together for the good of this country, we would be able to achieve the goals that all of us have set.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I would like to thank you for the opportunity.
Mr A. A. Asiamah 1:14 a.m.


Mr Speaker, it seems some of my Hon Colleagues are still intoxicated by the criminalisation of the former President. They are still intoxicated with the propaganda that they waged, and ensured a successful and unfair criminalisation of the former President.

However, if you read the story, apart from the headline which is based on the editor 's discretion, you would find quotations of the former President, and I would want to refer to one or two.

It is from this that the editor who wrote the story chose the headline which my Hon Colleague dishonestly quoted and imputed to it as words of the former President.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:14 a.m.
Hon Member, there are certain words which are unparliamentary. The word “dishonestly” is not acceptable.
Mr Sayibu 1:14 a.m.
Mr Speaker, respectfully, I would not contest that, so I would substitute it.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:14 a.m.
Withdraw first and choose any word that is acceptable.
Mr Sayibu 1:14 a.m.
I would withdraw and substitute it by saying that I think that it is disgraceful. I would refer to the quotation which says:
“But if we put a blanket ban and send soldiers after the young people, that is not the way to go. As you stop illegal small-scale mining, at the same time you must put in place a livelihood package so that as you are displacing people from illegal mining, they have something to do …. But when there is nothing to do and you are just chasing them, shooting them, it is not the way to go…”
Mr Speaker, the former President also said that 1:14 a.m.
“We [NDC] decided that we will bring a new mining law that will regulate galamsey that persons who do it well will be able to sustain themselves…So immediately, the [Akufo-Addo] government must look at these regulations and come up with good policies so that those who want to do it, will do it within the law”.
This cannot be said to be a man who said he is coming back to promote galamsey. Mr Speaker, because you said “dishonesty” is unparliamentary, I do not have a better word to describe what happened.
Since I would not like to go on that tangent, I would like to commend the Hon Minister for Finance for, at least,
increasing the Government of Ghana's budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. My only hope is that releases would match the allocations.
This is because we know that in the past, that has not been the case. I also wish to commend stakeholders in the land sector for their work on the Land Bill, which I hope would be fine-tuned and later presented for this House to adopt before it is dissolved.
Mr Speaker, if you look at page 85 of the 2018 Budget Statement, you would realise that under paragraph 435, the
Minister for Finance said that 1:24 p.m.
“An evaluation of industrial mineral deposits continued over the period to establish commercial viability of clay, kaolin, and limestone and pave way for the local industry. The investigations indicate that an estimated 500,000 tonnes of clay can be mined from Birim North District of the Eastern Region, 800 tonnes of limestone from Afram Plains area....”
Mr Speaker, I expected the Hon Minister for Finance to give us an updated report on this investigative report. This is because this could lead to the transformation of lives in the areas mentioned in the 2018 Budget Statement and it could have also contributed to the fight against galamsey.
This is because if you would recall, at the beginning of my submission, I spoke about the need for us to have provided an alternative livelihood support to these people. Unfortunately, because this was just put in as fanfair, no report has been made on it as it has not been followed through.
Mr Speaker, again, my Hon Colleague spoke highly of the Youth in Afforestation Module and the beneficiaries.
If you look at the 2019 Budget Statement, paragraph 550 says that:
“…under the Forest sub-sector, 3,447 ha of plantations out of a target of 10,000 ha were established.”
Mr Speaker, this is not accurate. I say so referring to the 2018 Budget Statement where the target was 30,000 hectares and not 10,000 hectares. So, the target for 2019 was 20,000 hectares to be planted. However, the Minister for Finance said in the 2019 Budget that out of 30,000 hectares targeted, only 3,447 have been planted.
Instead of reporting the correct figure of 30,000 hectares that was targeted, the Hon Minister tried to obfuscate the facts and reduced the glaring non-performance by reducing the target to 10,000.

Mr Speaker, what is more worrying is that the only target that has been exceeded is the number of people who were supposed to be employed. In the 2017 Budget Statement, the Hon Minister for Finance projected that to plant 30,000 hectares, they would employ 15, 000 youth.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:24 p.m.
Hon Member, you have a minute more.
Mr Sayibu 1:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, because I would have to wrap up, I would comment on the land sector briefly.
Unfortunately for the land sector, the only thing we could boast of in this Budget Statement is the promise to promulgate the Land Bill.
Apart from that, if one looks at paragraphs 553 to 558 of the Budget Statement, which the Hon Chairman of the Committee spoke to, even though he did not acknowledge that the Ghana Enterprise Land Information System (GELIS) was bequeathed to them, which was correctly presented by the Hon Former Deputy Minister and the Hon Deputy Ranking Member.
Mr Speaker, paragraphs 553 to 558 of the Budget Statement only talked about digitising land documents in different words, but the sad aspect is that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) of the same Ministry for 2018 to 2021 actually reveals what has happened.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:24 p.m.
Hon Member, your time is up.
Mr Sayibu 1:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to point to a fact and wrap up. It says that under the auspices of the Land Administration, a contractor was engaged, however, because of funding constraints, the scope of the work was scaled down to 10 per cent of the original work coverage.
Mr Robert Kwasi Amoah (NPP -- Achiase) 1:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion, that this House approves the Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending, 31st December, 2019.
Mr Speaker, the theme for the Budget Statement is, ‘'A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity''. We could not have had a better theme.
This vision of the Government could only be achieved in a sustainable environment and that is exactly what the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation has been resourced to enhance through her Agencies; Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the rest.
Mr Speaker, for a country whose economic backbone is agriculture, it is the responsibility of the Government to provide an enabling environment for the working force in the sector, and that is what the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led Government is doing.
Mr Speaker, in support of the Sustainable Development Goal 2, target 4, to promote sustainable agriculture and strengthen the capacity for adoptation to climate change, the Ministry, under the Sustainable Land and Water Management Programme, provided 8,275 farmers with inputs to implement under the Sustainable Land Water Management Technologies on a 3,660 hectare land to improve their economic activities.
The seeds were sowed last year -- they are grown and they needed to be Nurtured and the Government is doing that.
Mr Speaker, in addition, six community resource management area covering 88 communities within the Western Wildlife
Biological Colidrum were developed and farmers are being supported to undertake bee keeping and shea nut processing. The Government needs to be commended in showing concern for the environment.
Mr Speaker, a major problem which the whole world and every country faces, whether rich or poor, is climate change. The effect of climate change is very devastating. What happened in California could happen to any country and it should be the concern of the Government.
The Government of Ghana, under the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, is providing solutions to that. The Ministry established 25 hectares each of green fire breaks around Akropong and Ambalara Forest Reserve to help improve the management of forest reserves.
The Ministry also generated climate change projections for the Oti River Basin, Black Volta and White Volta Basins under the Adaptation Fund. The forests are our assets and they need to be protected.
Mr Speaker, going forward, the Ministry would continue with the implementation of the sustainable Land and Water Management Project and the Adaptation Fund Project in the three Northern Regions to address climate change and adaptation issues such as changes in rainfall patterns, utilisation of improved seeds and mitigation measures.
Mr Speaker, the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's Government believes that when the eco-system is protected in this way, the fauna and flora would be protected.

Mr Speaker, Rwanda recently earned US$10million in just gorilla gaming. It

would interest Hon Members to know that US$2.25 billion was realised from tourism in 2017.

Mr Speaker, incidentally, tourism happens to be the fourth foreign exchange earner in Ghana, after gold, cocoa and oil; and this is an asset for Ghana. And so we are using science, technology and environment to improve tourism to help the country get more revenue.

Mr Speaker, the NPP Government believes in safe environment. — [Interruption.]-- Accordingly, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has trained 430 farmers and pesticide dealers on judicious and safe use of pesticides.

Again, going forward, the Ministry is going to update the pesticides register in 2019 to increase the training of beneficiaries. In fact, this is very important because, over the years, pesticide abuse has been a problem in the country.

One can see farmers spraying their crops and in the next few days, they would be harvested and sold to the market. Again, farmers of livestock — I have had the experience myself. I needed coccidiostats for my fowls. I approached not an ordinary person, but a veterinary assistant and this lady gave me a drug with a withdrawal period of 21 days.

Meanwhile, I needed to sell these animals within two days. I drew the attention of this lady and she said, which I beg to quote, “Ghana nso ye di so?” And so, if the EPA trains people on the safe use of agrochemicals, it is going to help the country to live in a safe environment.

Mr Speaker, I would want to say certain things about Bio Technology Develop- ment Programme and Biosafety.
Mr Speaker, I beg to quote paragraph 641 of the Budget Statement 1:34 p.m.
“Mr Speaker, the Ministry engaged an external service provider to collect an Advance Eco Fee on electronic and electrical equipment imported from 185 countries. The construction of the recycling plant at Old Fadama (Agbogbloshie) will begin in 2019 under the National e- Waste Project.”
Mr Speaker, this is welcome news. We all see the waste and the menace at Agbogbloshie. And so if it is the concern of the Government, then it needs to be commended.
Mr Speaker, on this note, I would want to ask my Hon Colleagues to —
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:34 p.m.
Hon Member, you have one minute more.
Mr R. K. Amoah 1:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would urge my Hon Colleagues to support the Motion on the Floor. — [Hear! Hear!]
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:34 p.m.
Hon Dr Bernice Adiku Heloo?
Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi — rose —
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:34 p.m.
Let me hear the leaders speak to the microphone so that it would be recorded. This is because what they gave me is different from —
Mr Avedzi 1:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Ranking Member for the Committee should be given the first slot.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:34 p.m.
Very well.
So should I swap them?
Hon Ebenezer Terlabi then.
Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi (NDC — Lower Manya Krobo) 1:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you, once again, for the opportunity to also contribute to the Motion on the Floor.
Mr Moses Anim — rose —
Mr Moses Anim 1:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, this is the second time that the other Side of the House has swapped females with males. Why are they treating our females like this? That is not right. The female is supposed to speak for 15 minutes. This is the second time they have done this, and they are not giving their females the opportunity to speak.
They are relegating the females to the background, and I believe it is not good for this House. They are behaving as if the females on the other side are incompetent, but we know they are competent.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:34 p.m.
Hon available Leader, just organise your Side and leave them to manage their own. [Laughter.]
Hon Member, you may continue.
Mr Terlabi 1:44 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you, once again. As I said, in supporting the Motion, last weekend I went to a funeral in Asesewa and during the sermon of the burial service, the preacher gave me a message to be given to the Minister for Finance and the President.
Mr Speaker, the preacher said the people of Odumase Krobo and its environs are still waiting for the contractor who is on Odumase-Oterkpolu road to come back and continue his job.
Mr Speaker, the people of Oborpa still expect the contractor to come back and complete the e-Block there. The people of Odumase-Krobo and its environs expect the contractor who was engaged in asphalting the roads in Odumase to come back and continue his work.
Mr Speaker, the equipment still sit on the road and it is becoming a death trap, especially these days that we are experiencing dumsor. The people are saying that the electrification project that was begun by H.E. former President John Dramani Mahama has also come to a halt, therefore, the President should be informed.
Mr Speaker, the preacher said all these, because as he said, he listened to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government very well but never heard the Minister for Finance make mention of these projects.
Mr Speaker, on Sunday, I came to Odumase for church service. The church service coincided with an induction service for new nursing trainees and some teachers. After the programme, I had a short interaction with these students. The indication from these people was that they preferred to go to the nursing training college with students' loan instead of allowances and be guaranteed jobs when they come out.
The teachers also said, they prefer to go to the training colleges with students' loan than to be given allowances and be asked to join NABCo when they graduate.
Mr Terlabi 1:54 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the people of Odumase-
Krobo and its environs are saying that -- [Interruption] -- I represent them. They are saying that they must be given the opportunity to decide on their needs. Therefore, the Assembly must be properly resourced to decide on the development projects in their area.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much and I hope that this message would get to the President.
Mr Speaker, on the substantive issue, the people of Ghana expected to hear something different this time around during the presentation of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of Government in this House. Unfortunately, when we zero in on the areas I would speak about.
Mr Speaker, when my Hon Colleague spoke, I realised he struggled. It is not his fault. The Ministry that he supervises is Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.
When we take the Budget Statement and Economic Policy that was presented by the Hon Minister for Finance, we would realise that this Government places no premium so far as Science, Technology and Innovation are concerned. I say this because there were concerns that I raised last year and these concerns persist in this current Budget Statement and Economic Policy document.
What it means is that, whatever discussion and debate that went on in this Parliament was never considered and therefore they have no place as far as the new thinking of the Government is concerned.
Mr Speaker, it is not for nothing that the President presented a programme to

Mr Speaker, I wanted to refer to the title of Nana Akufo-Addo's Coordinated Programme for Economic and Social Development Policy that he presented to us in this House. That is supposed to be a guide so far as policy planning and implementation is concerned.

In that document, the President promised to establish a Presidential Advisory Council on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to ensure high level attention on same. As we speak today, that Council is not in place.

Mr Speaker, the President promised to establish an Inter-Ministerial Coor- dinating Council on Science, Technology and Innovation to coordinate STI interventions across all ministries. In the absence of these, when my Hon Colleagues spoke, it was about tree planting and other projects.

What was lacking was the fact that there is no coordination so far as these programmes were concerned. Therefore, we are unable to mainstream STI into our economic planning. That is the reason today when we take the Aburi road, for example --

If we talk about mainstreaming biodiversity conservation and restoration to protect the environment, what it means is that, if we want to construct railway from Tema to Akosombo, the rail should not necessarily take the line of best fit but also take into consideration the environment, and therefore what the impact of whatever we are doing would be on the environment. This is absent.

Mr Speaker, when we take the Accra- Aburi road for instance, we realise that we have a nice road constructed but that road poses a danger. This is because, in constructing the road, we did not take into consideration the effect of the construction on the environment.

Today, in the event of any serious rain, we shall have landslides on that road and we all know how dangerous that could be. This is the reason why I have been advocating that if we really want to make headway so far as the development of this country is concerned, then we must harness and ensure that we have everybody on board.

Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague spoke about pesticides and the fact that they would want to continue to regulate. But the fact is that Ministries are not interacting with each other. The Ministry of Agriculture should be interacting with the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation when it comes to the issue of Agriculture and therefore pesticides or fertilisers.

Mr Speaker, we have a situation where the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation would not even be informed about fertilisers that are imported into this country. Pesticides imported into this country do not pass through the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation because we do not have this establishment in place.

Mr Speaker, the other thing is about improvement in research funding. The President in that document promised that they would increase and make sure that

at least, research funding forms about one per cent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When we go through the numbers, we would realise that whatever is provided for Ministries involved in research and development is nowhere near one per cent. When would we get there?

Mr Speaker, finally, the President also promised to bring the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Bill to this House, so that when policies and programmes are pursued by succeeding governments, nobody would change it.

As we speak, there is nothing with us in this House. That is my concern and that is the reason I continue to say that we are not interested as a Government in promoting science, technology and innovation.

Mr Speaker, yesterday, the Ministry of Communications, in their debate, talked about Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the deployment of technology. We cannot deploy these things in a vacuum. We need to train the people and generate the interest. The only way to do that is to make sure that we go ahead.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:54 p.m.
Hon Member, hold on.
Hon Members, having regard to the state of Business of the House, I direct that the House sits outside the regular Sitting hours.
You may continue.
Mr Terlabi 1:54 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it is on this note that I would like to advocate that this Government brings to this House a policy document that would emphasise the mainstreaming of science and technology in our development policies as well as the restoration, preservation and conservation of our biodiversity into our economic policies.
Mr Joseph Albert Quarm (NPP-- Manso Nkwanta) 2:04 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate.
Mr Speaker, about one and a half years ago, the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, sent the Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal Mining on a journey to address an important matter that had the potential of destroying our biodiversity.
Mr Speaker, the issue at hand is nothing but illegal mining, which has stressed our water bodies, farm lands, forests and the soil. The negative effect of this human activity has seriously affected climate change as felt today in Ghana.

Mr Speaker, I would want to put it on record that no government, other than the President Akufo-Addo led Administration, had taken a bold decision in the fight against illegal mining. The wealth of every nation depends on its environment. Hence, we must protect the environment for the unborn generation.

Mr Speaker, this year, the President Akufo-Addo led Government, through the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining has provided oversight in the following:

i. Public education for traditional and religious leaders;

ii. Public education for core small- scale miners who worked before the ban on small-scale mining;

iii. Suspension of small-scale mining to allow our water bodies to settle and find ways to regulate their activities;

iv. Train about 3,000 small-scale miners on sustainable mining and mineral processing practices at the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa to understand the meaning of mining activities and to avoid the use of chemicals that destroy our water bodies;

v. Train 144 drone pilots for district committees on illegal mining to monitor the activities of miners;

vi. Train 144 Galamstop operators who would operate the Galamstop iPad to expedite the registration and application process of new small-scale miners. Galamstop is an iPad with a software incorporated in it, and it is supposed to integrate

all the stakeholders within the mining sector, for instance, the Minerals Commission, Environ- mental Protection Agency, Water Resources Commission, Fores- try Commission as well as the District Assemblies.

vii. Establishment of Operation Vanguard to maintain security in the mining areas and to enforce compliance of the ban;

viii. Establish 14 mining courts to deal with cases involved in illegal mining or mining-related cases; and

ix. Procure relevant logistics such as vehicles, drones, motorbikes, global positioning system machines and other materials that would be more important for the Minerals Commission and Operation Vanguard to enhance their work.

Mr Speaker, at the moment, the Minerals Commission has increased their offices from 12 to 33, with 600 mining guard recruits to monitor and expedite the activities when the ban on small-scale mining is lifted. As we speak, suspended small-scale mining licences are being vetted to allow small-scale miners to go back to work.

Mr Speaker, I know that my Hon Colleagues on the other Side of the House would argue that the suspension of small- scale mining activities has rendered some Ghanaians unemployed but I can assure them that streamlining and regulating and putting things in place for sustainability of mining in this country is the best option for this nation.
Dr Bernice A. Heloo (Mrs) 2:04 p.m.
Mr
Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to debate on the financial policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2019.

My Hon Colleague, the Ranking Member, has already alluded to deficiencies in major policy issues that need to have been captured in the Budget Statement to give an indication that seriousness is attached to the issues of environment, science, technology and innovation.

Some of the deficiencies, as mentioned early on, have to do with the lack of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Fund which was an initiative started long ago and should have been in use by now but it is still not in force.

Mr Speaker, let me go on to some more practical issues. One of them is the promotion of science through giving out scholarships to young people to stimulate interest in the study of science and technology.

Here, I am referring to the Mathematics, Science and Technology Scholarship Scheme which is known as the MASTESS Scholarship. As I said, this was aimed at building the critical mass of our youth to take up science.

However, since this Government took over, not a single scholarship has been given, especially in the last 12 months. We are here talking about “Ghana Beyond Aid” without these critical mass of young

people interested in science; how are we going to streamline science into our development agenda?

Another simple intervention that will lift the country and drive us into a “Ghana Beyond Aid” is the distribution of laptops. Laptops are meant for institutions and young people who would really use them for research and development.

Mr Speaker, since the year 2010, 80,000 laptops have been distributed to people through projects that will help the youth do research and also improve upon their learning of science and technology.

The whole of last year, not a single laptop was given to any student or young person to carry out research. The laptops that were distributed, --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:04 p.m.
Hon Member, I am not part of the -- This fact is incorrect because Hon Members here can attest to it that laptops have been installed in schools in their consti- tuencies; at least, I can attest to that. Two schools in my Constituency have had laptops installed for them.
So please, verify your facts as the records reflect the true facts.
Dr Heloo 2:14 p.m.
Mr Speaker, what I am trying to say is that the massive manner in which the laptops were distributed has ceased.
It is only the Ghana Association of Science Teachers (GAST) and a few students here and there who had the privilege of receiving them, but if we are looking at the coordinated and project based approach which enabled the previous Government to distribute over 80,000 laptops, then I would say that what is happening now is rather something very meagre and in the negative.
Mr Speaker, we want the laptops to be given out to the youth. Currently, about 2,000 of them are lying in the stores of the Ministry and after some time, these laptops will get spoilt and may be discarded.
So, why do we not give them out and also follow-up with the 12,000 outstanding ones that need to be added so that the youth will have access to tools that will help them carry out research and then let them get onto the development agenda?
With that, I would want to now talk about the issues of the environment and that is why I am saying that the Government is paying lip service to environment. We have another Ministry; Sanitation and Water Resources which has been carved out of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation to take part of the work of the Ministry.
Mr Speaker, in the past, the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation started the segregation of waste; dustbins were placed in certain communities and also in the Ministries, so that the waste segregation project will be expanded across board.

Mr Speaker, I would like to ask what is happening to our waste segregation projects? How many dustbins have been supplied? It is very negligible. This project is also in abeyance and so why are we talking about environment and saying that we are doing something to sustain it?

It is not just a matter of listing a whole lot of activities, but we need coordinated and policy-directed interventions.
Mr Speaker, I beg to quote what he said 2:14 p.m.
“Mr Speaker, in conclusion, Ghana must know that Nana does not intend to stop or eliminate galamsey.”
This is in column 3657 of the Hansard of 22nd November, 2017.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:14 p.m.
Hon Member, one minute remaining.
Mr Amoah 2:14 p.m.
Mr Speaker --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:14 p.m.
Hon Member, I have not recognised you.
Dr Heloo 2:14 p.m.
Mr Speaker, for an Hon Member to make such a statement which is very conflicting and yet he said it so emphatically, I would implore that a critical look should be taken at this statement. It is very unfortunate.
Mr Speaker, this is just an indication that we have no clear indication of where we are going regarding galamsey. Also, we do not have a clear sense of mind as to when galamsey would end, but we are here saying that we are doing a lot of interventions.
My question to everybody is, when is the end date of galamsey? Otherwise, we would be paying lip service to a very important issue that is affecting the environment, our lives and all that we do.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would want to say that we seem to be paying lip service to the issue of environment, science and technology. An important issue --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:14 p.m.
Hon Kennedy Kankam?
Mr Kennedy Kwasi Kankam (NPP -- Nhyiaeso) 2:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
Mr Speaker, if you go to page 206, Appendix 4 (b) of the 2016 Budget Statement presented by the NDC Government, you would see that the capital expenditure there is zero. Meanwhile my Hon Colleagues on the other Side of the House are talking about investing in the environment, science and technology.
Mr Speaker, if you look at the definition for capital investments, it means that we need to invest in building and upgrading the skills and knowledge of other people within the Ministry. But they allocated zero amount of money for capital expenditure for the Ministry.
Also, when the Hon Ranking Member was speaking, he made reference to the importation of agro-chemicals into this country without the knowledge of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.
Mr Speaker, before a person could import agro-chemical into the country, the person needs to go for a certificate from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). So I am surprised that the Hon Ranking Member of the Committee has said that we import agro-chemicals into this country without the knowledge of the Ministry, because EPA falls under the Ministry.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member who just contributed talked about laptops imported by the previous Government, but the laptops are lying idle in the Ministry's warehouse. Yes, the laptops are there because what they imported into the country are tabula rasa laptops.
They do not have programmes on them and these programmes that the Ministry needs to procure before the laptops could function are even more than the whole laptops that were imported into this country. The memories that were supposed to be put in the laptops were not installed and that is why the laptops are still there.
Mr Speaker, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the Budget Statement and Economic Policy for the 2019 Financial Year. The country's perennial energy security challenges are known to all of us.
These challenges could be attributed to the countless factors including the lack of long-term energy planning and limited energy generation mix diversification.
These two issues are addressed with the National Development Planning Commission's draft Energy Sector Report of the Ghana Infrastructural Plan that forms part of the country's long-term development plan.
The report proposes a generation mix, embracing variable renewable and base load sources such as gas, coal, and nuclear energy.
Mr Speaker, in paragraphs 494 and 495 of the 2016 Budget Statements, we were told that feasibility studies had been conducted towards the siting of nuclear plants in this country.
These statements in the 2016 Budget Statements were just rhetorics; nothing like that had happened in this country. It is just this year, 2018, that the Volta River Authority, Ghana Grid Company, and the Bui Power Authority sponsored the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission to embark on the siting of these energy plants in this country.
Mr Speaker, five different sites were identified in the Eastern, Western, Volta and Northern Regions of this country. The Ghana Atomic Energy Commission is yet to select one site for the future nuclear plant in this country.
But we were told in the 2016 Budget Statement that the site had already been selected. It was not true and it was a palpable lie.

Mr Speaker, again, in paragraph 651 of page 135 of the “A Stronger Economy for Jobs and Prosperity” Budget Statement,

it was stated that there would be a stakeholder and public sensitisation meeting to organise the adoption of nuclear power in 2019 under the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led Govern- ment.

Mr Speaker, in paragraph 495 of page 98 of the 2016 Budget Statement under the NDC Administration, we were told that Ghana Atomic Energy Agency would procure a ground-receiving station --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:24 p.m.
Hon Member, you would hold on. Put off your microphone.
Yes, Hon Leader?
Mr Avedzi 2:24 p.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. I have been hearing my Hon Colleague referring to paragraph 495 of the 2016 Budget Statement. I am wondering whether we are debating on the 2016 Budget Statement or we are debating the 2019 Budget Statement. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker, we are debating the Economic Policy of Government for 2019. The policies in the Budget should be analysed by the Hon Member to give us the advantages and benefits that the people will receive from those policies. If he would want to tell us what happened in 2016, that period has passed.
He can use it as reference point all right, but in my view, it looks as if we are debating the 2016 Budget Statement. If he could limit the focus on the 2019 Budget Statement before making reference to the 2016 Budget, it would help a lot.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:24 p.m.
Hon Majority Leader?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:24 p.m.
Hon Members, order!
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, that exactly is what my colleague, the Hon Member on his feet is doing. One must benchmark it against a certain year, and the year of exit of our Hon Colleagues on the other Side is 2016. That is the baseline year.
Mr Speaker, so, I do not really understand what the Hon Deputy Minority Leader seeks to do.
What my Hon Colleague is doing is absolutely correct, and I urge him to continue.
rose
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, may you sound him that I am still on my feet? [Laugher.]
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:24 p.m.
Yes, Hon Deputy Minority Leader?
Mr Avedzi 2:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I agree perfectly with the Hon Majority Leader that there must be a reference point, but I am just wondering. We have just passed 2017, and we are in 2018. It would be more current if one compares the policies of this Government in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
That would be more current than to go into history in 2016. We are not looking at the Budget Statement of NPP and NDC. We are looking at the Budget Statement of the President; what he would want to do for this country.
So, he should tell us what he did in 2017, what he did in 2018, and what he would want to do in 2019 to benefit the people. Forget about what happened in 2016. That should not be the reference point. That is my point.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:24 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I think the point must be made at this time that we are not even considering the Budget Statement yet. What we are considering now is the economic policy. We are not considering the Budget. [Laughter.] That is the first point.
Mr Speaker, in 2020, whoever is elected to lead the NDC, if he is comparing, he would compare 2016 against 2020. Certainly, that would be the comparison. So I would plead with my Hon Colleague that he should leave it, because he knows if he does some serious introspection as to what the Hon Member on his feet is doing it is correct.
I know that he is finding what he is saying to be very biting like a leach, and he is very uncomfortable in the suit that he is wearing. Could he allow him to continue?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:24 p.m.
Very well.
Hon Members, when an Hon Member raises a point of order, he must point out to me that the Member on his feet is either misleading the House or using un- acceptable or unparliamentary language or imputing improper motive and so on.
The objection raised does not show that the Hon Member is making reference to any matter which is not a fact or using improper language or imputing improper motive to any Hon Member.
However, a Member on his feet must recognise that the Speech of a Member, under Order 93(4), must have reference to the subject matter under discussion. When he refers to past Budget Statements, he must link that to a present debate, otherwise, he would be out of order.
So Hon Member, the objection is overruled but be reminded that your reference to the 2016 Budget Statement must be linked to the 2019 Budget Statement.
Hon Member, now you may proceed.
Mr Kankam 2:24 p.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, I am even surprised the Hon Chairman of my Committee is trying to give me the base year that I need to use for debate.
Mr Speaker, if one does not know where he is coming from, he would not know where he is and he would not know where he is going.
Mr Speaker, as I was saying, in paragraph 495 of page 98 of the 2016 Budget Statement under the NDC Administration, we were again told that in that particular year, the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission would procure ground receiving station for the space science and technology institute to support the fight against small-scale mining; the galamsey. However, in that year nothing happened.
Mr Speaker, but if you come to page 651 of the 2019 Budget Statement, all the equipment that have been procured by this current Government to fight galamsey in this country can be captured. To be
specific, it is contained in paragraph 658(iv), (v) and (vi) of the 2019 Budget Statement. It shows the breakdown of the drones purchased by the NPP Administration to fight illegal mining. They said that they would buy a ground receiving machine to fight it, yet that did not happen in 2016.
Mr Speaker, everybody here knows that it is not a secret that the current Government has trumpeted the country's industrialisation as one of its key agenda.
A key question remains as to how the proposed One District, One Factory concept and the Strategic Anchor Industry Programme would be powered. How the electric and the train that would be in existence shortly would be powered.
All these projects require reliable, clean, and cost-effect base load power. As an example, what energy source are we considering for powering the full-cycle aluminium industry project? This is an area where nuclear energy is expected to play a key role.
Mr Speaker, I therefore commend the NPP Government for its commitment towards building a nuclear power plant in the country to complement other energy mix in the near future.
Mr Speaker, I said earlier that the NDC Government in Appendix 4B of the 2016 Budget at page 206 of the 2016 Budget Statement that my Hon Colleagues asked me to provide -- It is here it was read in 2016.
Mr Speaker, in that Appendix, the NDC Administration allocated nothing to capital expenditure, but if you come to the 2018 Budget Statement, NPP Administration allocated GH¢4 million for capital expenditure and in 2019, NPP Administration has allocated GH¢3.8 million for capital expenditure.
Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings (NDC-- Klottey/Korley) 2:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I 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, one of the pillars of the sustainable development goals is environmental protection, and this means that we, as a nation, must be innovative in our approach towards the generation of income and energy.
The impact of climate change is something that we are so much aware of. Globally, the number of disasters that we are seeing, including wild fires, tsunamis and flooding in places that did not have them previously should be a strong indication to Ghana to embark on a path that would protect us from going down these kinds of disastrous routes.
The amount of greenhouse gases produced in Ghana has continued to rise. In 2015, it was 44.9 metric tons, and it went up to 50.5 metric tons in 2016. It is projected to be 56.1 metric tons in 2018.
Mr Speaker, with regard to the production of greenhouse gases, one of the quickest things that one can observe is the fumes that are produced by vehicles that run on the roads of our nation today. Since Ghana has decided to take on the SDGs, it is important that in whatever aspect of development that we embark on, we have these in mind.
In spite of the Hazardous and Electronic Waste Control Management Act of 2016, many residents of Adabraka and other communities around Agbogbloshie are still suffering from the fumes that are polluting the atmosphere in these areas. We must move away from just talking about policies to actual implementation.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague mentioned the progression of Ghana to the use of nuclear energy. As we sit here today, we have still not had feedback following the various Joint Committee meetings with regard to the various disasters that happened in the various petrol stations across the country.
If we do have the intention to embark on the road of nuclear energy, have we looked at our basic maintenance culture and how we deal with disasters when they do occur?
Mr Speaker, Germany would be shutting down 17 of their nuclear plants by 2020. This is an obvious reversal in policy. If a country such as Germany with their level of development, technology, and maintenance can go down such a path, perhaps, Ghana ought to re-examine its decision to go down the path of
nuclear energy, and in line with the SDGs, look at the use of renewable energy.
We have the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and various agencies who can be commissioned to look into options with regard to renewable energy in the country. These are the things that we should be investing our moneys into.
The Atiwa Forest is supposedly protected. In 2013, the World Bank had a summit which recommended that, perhaps the country should consider suspending the exploration and extraction of the mineral resources for the protection of the green and the ecosystem in that forest.
Mr Speaker, as a nation, we should not underestimate the severity with which the environment is being degraded and the extent to which it is happening, and the fact that it is actually a national security issue.
There is a recent report that has been released by the United States govern- ment, a 1,000- page document talking about the situation with regard to environmental degradation and climate change as it exists. We must not be seen as a nation that had the opportunity to do things right but decided to go down the path that was wrong.
Mr Speaker, the temperature globally, has increased by 0.94 degrees celsius since 1901, due to human activity. The planet has 0.61 degrees celsius of warming locked in as a result of the greenhouse effect.
Crop yields are due to decrease, and in a country that still has issues with food security, we must also consider the value of what we get from our crops if our top
soil is being eroded to the extent that the value of the food we eat does not provide the nutrition that we require.
We then need to look at that again, because it is not just about having lots of crops, but also the value of nutrition in the crop that we are harvesting and feeding on.
Mr Afenyo-Markin 2:34 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague in her submission makes reference to a 1,000- paged United States report, without specific details as to which report it is.
I would beg her to make that available -- [Interruption] -- because merely -- Mr Speaker, may the intimidation stop so that I make my point?
Mr Speaker, our rule is clear that when we make reference to a document, we do not just make reference for referencing sake. We must cite the source document.

Their leaders are quiet because they know that I am within the rules. They should stop intimidating me; I am doing the right thing.

Mr Speaker, I rest my case.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:34 p.m.
Hon Member, which specific document were you referring to?
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings 2:34 p.m.
Mr Speaker, it is the Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume 2, the Impact, Risks and Adaptation in the United States Report, the US Global Change Research Programme.
Mr Speaker, the link is available. I shall make it available to the Table Office.
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings 2:44 p.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, with regard to the 2019 Budget Statement, we have been told that with regard to SDG 2, a lot of work has been done about agriculture. We have been informed about tree planting activities.
Mr Speaker, Klottey-Korley is in the capital, Accra, and we are yet to see the planting of trees along most streets. We are yet to see, perhaps, more trees in the Efua Sutherland Park and we are yet to see what is happening in the Achimota Forest.
Mr Speaker, it is not by chance that cities such as London have the Hyde Park or New York City has the Central Park. The value of our trees, our flora and fauna, cannot be underestimated and should not be replaced with what we perceive as a finite source of energy.
Mr Speaker, at this point, we have diverse sources of research which we can tap into to find ways in which we can have renewable sources of energy as a nation without destroying our ecosystem and leaving nothing for future generations.
This is because all the research has shown that it takes a lot longer to restore an ecosystem than it does to destroy it as a result of intervention due to the need for various things including mineral sources.
Given what we have witnessed across the world in places like the Niger Delta, it would perhaps be prudent for us to look seriously at the environmental impact, going forward of what our proposal is with regard to the Volta Basin exploration.
Oil, no matter where it is, is a finite resource, but we have an ecosystem that is thriving, that can provide us with an on-going generation of energy, food and other resources that would not result in the destruction of an environment beyond the ability to be repaired.

Mr Speaker, Accra supposedly is to be the cleanest city by the year 2020. Two years into that promise, Accra is still very dirty and it is very painful for some of us in constituencies which have residents who have been so interested in making sure that the environment is kept clean that we have not had enough support from the various Agencies at the local level, especially with regard to the use, the re- use and the recycling of plastic and other wastes.

Mr Speaker, we would have expected at this point that the segregation of waste would not just be in a few schools as mentioned in the Budget Statement, but it should be across because all it takes is for us to implement it in every school and it would be done.

Mr Speaker, we must move away from simply talking about things that we want to do. We are running out of time with regard to the protection of our environment and we must see it as a matter of urgency as a nation.

Developed countries have already taken very serious account of growing green zones and of having different types of ecosystem restorative activities but we seem bent on going down the path of destruction.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:44 p.m.
Hon Member, you have one minute more.
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings 2:44 p.m.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would like to urge that the economic, social, and environmental
activities are all linked and that the Ministry for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation has a coordinative and collaborative workforce with regard to how it approaches development with the other Agencies and Ministries such as the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources and the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture.
The marine drive is another example. Would the marine drive be an eco-city or it is just another city that is supposed to provide employment without considering the impact on the environment? Would we see more green zones or more reservoirs along Aburi to prevent flooding downstream in places like Odawna and Adabraka?
Mr Speaker, when would the recycling plants that we have heard about become operational? When would we hear of broader engagement with the plastic companies?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:44 p.m.
Your time is up.
Dr Agyeman-Rawlings 2:44 p.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Anim 2:44 p.m.
Mr Speaker, with your leave, because this is a House of record and because we have to also make sure that whatever documents are laid are authentic and present the fact and the truth from the Agencies that work for Government, I would want to lay this document rather than the one that was presented earlier in respect of the information on crime rate for 2017. Crime rate increased in this country in relation to 2016.
Mr Speaker, that is not the truth and because this is a House of record, I would
want to also present the authentic document to prove -- I would want to tender this document as well to prove --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:44 p.m.
Hon Leader, what is in the statement you object to -- That it said that the crime rate increased? What is in this Report to contradict that?
Mr Anim 2:44 p.m.
Mr Speaker, this is the annual crimes statistics document according to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Ghana Police for 2017. Mr Speaker, with your permission, I beg to read:
“ANNUAL CRIME STATISTICS
2017”.
Comparative analysis of Crime Statistics for the year 2016 and 2017 showed remarkable results:
Police received a total of 201,936 complaints throughout the country in the year 2017 as against 202,276 in the previous year. This represents a decrease of three hundred and forty (340) cases, which translates into -0.2 per cent. Out of this total, 191,770 representing …”
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:44 p.m.
So your point is that in that year, there was no increase in crime?
Mr Anim 2:44 p.m.
Mr Speaker, my point is that the document that was presented and the fact --
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:44 p.m.
Would you answer my question? Your point is that the statement made by the Hon Ranking Member for the Defence and Interior Committee during the debate is not correct. Is that the point you have tried to raise?
Mr Anim 2:44 p.m.
Yes, Mr Speaker, that is my contention. I am ready to also table this document --
Mr Avedzi 2:44 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I do not believe that the Hon Deputy Majority Whip has followed the procedure for laying documents. In which capacity does he want to lay this document? Would he lay it as the Hon Minister for the Interior or what? Where does the document come from?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:44 p.m.
Mr Speaker, this indeed is a House of record and so in the course of the debate an Hon Member is at liberty to punctuate his delivery with vital documents. The attention of the House has been drawn to the fact that an Hon Member who spoke earlier submitted a document or made a categorical statement which is not premised on fact.
In that case, that person could be deemed to have misled this House. I was not here but if he tabled that record, then he could be cited. Mr Speaker, in respect of our rules, the person would have breached Standing Order 30 for presenting to Parliament false, frivolous, scandalous and groundless document.
The Hon Deputy Majority Whip has not even called for the Hon Ranking Member to be cited for contempt but he says that, it is incorrect for this to be done. So, he would want to submit the appropriate document for us all to read from what he considers as the authentic document.
As I said, I was not here so I do not know in what form this statement was made, but the Hon Deputy Majority Whip has come with this challenge that for the record of this House, the institution that is charged to produce this report is the Police Service and they have submitted this.
If we would have to compare, we would do so and see which one is authentic for us because tomorrow, somebody would quote from the Hansard that this, indeed, is a statement that was submitted to this House.
As I said, I was not here so I do not know how it comes to fertilise the course of debate in this House. But if indeed, the Report was submitted and tabled, then we could have a problem because we then would have to investigate the source of that document.
But this is just to furnish this House with the appropriate record that if indeed it came from somebody else, that Report would be incorrect. I believe that is the purpose of what my Hon Colleague has done.
Mr Avedzi 2:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, if an Hon Member, during the course of the debate, made an assertion or alleged that certain things happened and he supported it with a document, and the Hon Deputy Chief Whip thinks that is the appropriate document, and he is submitting a new document, how do we authenticate the new one that he is also bringing in? The appropriate authority is the one to come and say that the document tendered in earlier is incorrect.
That is why I asked, in which capacity was the Hon Deputy Majority Chief Whip tendering in that document? Is he the Minister in charge of that Ministry, that whatever is coming from him would be accepted as the authentic document? This is because anybody could bring any document. I could also go and bring another document; and another person could bring another one.
Mr Speaker, I believe that the best thing we have to do is to call the Hon Minister in charge of that Ministry to come and tender in or make a Statement to correct whatever the Hon Member has said, but not to accept what the Hon Deputy Majority Chief Whip has tendered in as the final document because that might also not be the authentic document.
So the Hon Minister for the Interior should come and bring the appropriate document, which we shall accept as the correct document for the House.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
I believe I have heard enough.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I was just going to suggest that in the circumstance, as my Hon Colleague is saying, we could submit the two documents to the appropriate Minister --[Interruption]-- What if it is frivolous and groundless? That is why I am saying that the two documents should be submitted to the Hon Minister for authentication, and whoever is seen to have misled this House. This is because the burden is on the person to ensure that whatever document he or she brings to this House is authentic.
Mr Speaker, thereafter, we would know what steps to take. So I guess you could make the ruling.
I thank you.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
Hon Members, the document submitted by the Hon Deputy Majority Chief Whip is a Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Ghana Police, 2017 report. Source: Statistics and Information Technology Unit, CID Headquarters, Accra.
This is an official document coming from the agency responsible for collating all the data on information. There cannot be any more authentic source than this. All that the Hon Deputy Majority Chief Whip seeks to do is to correct the information that has gone into our record which this document contradicts.
I would admit the document and let the records office correct the information that was given by the Hon Ranking Member on the Committee on Youth and Sports.
Mr Agbodza 2:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker —
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
Hon Member, I have not recognised you.
Table Office, please take the document.

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Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.


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Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
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A crime review table for 2016 and 2017 and their related percentage changes are given below:

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Crimes Commonly Committed

All the Commonly Committed Offences registered decreases with the exception of stealing and causing harm which showed increases of 122 and 354 cases

representing 0.2 per cent and 11.3 per cent respectively. As usual, Assault emerged as the most highly committed Criminal Offence in the country.

Below is the tabular representation of the Commonly Committed Offences for the years 2016 and 2017:

Major Offences Figures for some offences which were considered Most Serious and attracted public

concern are given as follows:

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Graphical Representation of the Major Offences committed is as given below:

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Percentage Variances in Selected Major Offences on Regional Basis for 2016 and 2017. Tabular & graphical representations of Statistics on Major Offences on Regional basis

are as given below:

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Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.


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SPACE FOR REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION 2:54 a.m.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
Leadership, are we doing the Governance? I have a list from the Majority and none from the Minority.
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member, do you have anything to discuss?
Ms Ntoso 2:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, regarding the two documents —
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
I have given my ruling. First, there are no two documents: The Hon Member did not lay any document. Did he lay a document? [Pause] Yes, we would compare the two documents and see who has the authentic source. That is why I have given it to the Table Office.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, indeed, yesterday, Hon Colleagues were sounded that we were going to deal with Governance institutions. Unfortunately, I am told that the players on the other Side are not ready.
Mr Speaker, I have told them that in any football match, if the two teams or clubs are informed of the pendency of a match, but one team is ready and the other is not, not only are we going to award the points to the team that appeared, but the team that appeared should demonstrate that they appeared.
And in this case, maybe, they would be given the opportunity to show that they are here and they are ready to debate and thereafter, maybe, the points could be awarded.
Mr Avedzi 2:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I think I would agree with the Hon Majority Leader that because we are shifting today's debate to tomorrow, the number of sectors to be covered would increase. So we could reduce the number from three to two.
Mr Speaker, but just to say that in a football match it is 11 players each on the pitch, but over here, they are 169 and we are 106 so this cannot be compared to a football match. Just to remind him that they are over-crowded on the pitch on their Side than we are on our Side.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
This is a rather interesting pitch. [Laughter]
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 2:54 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I know my Hon Colleague has great proficiency in Borborbor affairs, but certainly not football.
Mr Speaker, just to remind Hon Colleagues, as we indicated yesterday, tomorrow, we would join the family of our departed Hon Colleague, Hon Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko, at the Grace Presbyterian Church at Westland.
The service would start at 9 o'clock and just so that we are able to start at
exactly 9 o'clock, perhaps, it would be a bit earlier; say, 8.45 a.m. so that the church service could end at 10 o'clock as they say it is going to end, in order for us to be able to come to the House to continue with the debate.
We would start at 11 o'clock, as we said yesterday, and looking at what is happening, that is having to take about five sectors, we are required to start at exactly 11 o'clock so that we would be able to cover as much ground as possible.
Mr Speaker, that is the announcement I have to make. Adjournment rests with you.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 2:54 a.m.
Very well, Hon Members, the House is adjourned till tomorrow, Wednesday, 28th November, 2018 at 11 o'clock in the forenoon.
ADJOURNMENT 2:54 a.m.
  • The House was adjourned at 3.03 p. m. till Wednesday, 28th November, 2018, at 11.00 a. m.