Debates of 15 Mar 2019

MR SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:23 a.m.
ANNOUNCEMENTS 10:23 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:23 a.m.
Hon Members, this is an announcement from the Chair, and particularly, we would want the media to carry this out clearly for us. I would not want, at this stage, for my Leaders to express to the House what they have expressed to me in chamber this morning. This is because this House would want to avoid anything that looks confrontational.
The Parliamentary Service Board and the Leaders have noticed and heard some of the comments which run regarding our vetting process, and it is not a joke as sometimes some commentators would want to convey.
We thought we should revise some of our systems so as to give business efficacy to the process of vetting. It is not just some formality, and Parliament is very mindful of its onerous constitutional duty in that regard and in regard to our own selves.
We have even taken it upon ourselves to discuss with Hon Members, questions on policy and issues so that the whole process would be thematic and serious of an examination.
We have also realised that, sometimes, the numbers that come into the room do not help the process. That is to say the

least. There have been giggling scenes all over the Television (TV) and other remarks, gestures and postures, which are not the best in all the serious circumstances of the process of carrying out our constitutional duties.

Therefore, we limited, and we announced in this Honourable House well in advance, that only ten members of a nominee's family, friends or others may come to the hall. The Leadership of this House took time to reflect over this and came to a decision. It was even made public through this very process. It is nothing personal on the part of those who are doing the vetting. They are just carrying out a duty on behalf of Parliament.

We noted that the public must be advised that a committee of Parliament in performing their duty at the vetting process has all the powers of a high court, and that we expect members of the public to treat the process in the same way as they would in a high court of competent jurisdiction in Ghana and we are going to insist upon that. We are also going to insist on only ten members.

In fact, when you see a vetting process -- an examination process in the US, on TV and elsewhere, you would know that we are very right. In fact, you cannot take more than two people or three -- a counsel and maybe, your spouse.

We need to be developing in our democracy and strengthening our systemic arrangements such that this Parliament would not be played with.

So we would want the media to carry this clearly to the public, that we are going to insist on doing things firmly and fairly but with due regard to the fact that you are appearing before a very serious committee of Parliament, which represents the whole of Parliament, and therefore, represents the whole of the people of Ghana.

You are coming before the whole people of Ghana so that you would be examined as to whether you are fit and proper to be a Minister. And we insist on this being taken seriously. We are the House mandated to do this on behalf of the entire people of Ghana.

As even today, the arrangements would be changed so that you would not find close members of family seated only a few inches behind a nominee as if to say “we are behind you” -- Yetaa w'akyi or things like that -- [Laughter] -- and sometimes, you see from their faces and their gestures. We would not take it anymore.

They would be given a reasonable distance to sit with all dignity in the hall. But we are going to have due process and due regard for our processes in Parliament.

I wish this would be captured for posterity because we have thought about it. In fact, that is what has kept us for the past 15 minutes and the Leadership insists that this should be done in the interest of our nation. If there are any protocol requests, they would be granted accordingly, but those protocol requests must be made in advance. Because people cannot just troop in and that is our announcement.

10. 33 a. m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:23 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:23 a.m.
Hon Members, item numbered 2 -- Correction of Votes and Proceedings and the Official Report.
Hon Members, we have Votes and Proceedings dated Thursday, 14th March, 2019, for correction.
Pages 1 … 9 --
rose
Mr Speaker 10:23 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Ras Mubarak 10:23 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am grateful.
Mr Speaker, on pages 7 and 8, I see that some of my Hon Colleagues, who were in the House yesterday have been marked absent. The Hon Deputy Minority Leader was in the Chamber, and he subsequently chaired the Public Accounts Committee hearing yesterday. It is also the same for the Hon Suhuyini Alhassan and the Hon Acheampong Richard, who have all been marked absent, even though they were present in the Chamber yesterday.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 10:23 a.m.
Thank you, Hon Member.
Hon Members, any more corrections in that regard?
Pages 9… 26 --
Hon Members, the Votes and Pro- ceedings of Thursday, 14th March, 2019, as corrected, is hereby admitted as the true record of proceedings.
Hon Members, we have the Official Report of Wednesday, 13th February, 2019, for correction.
Hon Members, any corrections?
Mr Speaker 10:23 a.m.
Hon Members, we would now move on to the Business Statement for the eighth week. I can see it being distributed.
Yes, Hon Majority Leader?
Chairman of the Business Committee/ Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah- Bonsu) 10:23 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Committee met yesterday, Thurday, 14th March, 2019, and arranged Business of the House for the Eighth Week ending Friday, 22nd March
2019.
Mr Speaker, the Committee accordingly submits its Report as follows 10:23 a.m.
Arrangement of Business
Question(s)
Mr Speaker, the Business Committee has scheduled the following Ministers to respond to Questions asked of them during the week:
No. of Question(s)
i. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice -- 2
ii. Minister for Aviation -- 1
iii. Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources -- 1
iv. Minister for Lands and Natural Resources -- 1
v. Minister for Health -- 1
vi. Minister for Roads and Highways -- 4
Total Number of Questions -- 10
Mr Speaker, six (6) Ministers are expected to attend upon the House to respond to ten (10) Questions during the week. The Questions are of the following types:
i. Urgent -- 3;
ii. Oral -- 7
Statements
Mr Speaker, pursuant to Order 70(2), Ministers of State may be permitted to make Statements of Government policy. Statements duly admitted by Mr Speaker may be made in the House by Hon Members, in accordance with Order 72.
Bills, Papers and Reports
Mr Speaker, Bills may be presented to the House for First Reading in accordance with Order 120. However, those of urgent nature may be taken through the various stages in one day in accordance with Order 119.
Pursuant to Order 75, Papers for presentation to the House may be placed on the Order Paper for laying. Committee reports may also be presented to the House for consideration.
Motions and Resolutions
Mr Speaker, Motions may be debated and their consequential Resolutions, if any, taken during the week.
Committee of the Whole Meeting
Mr Speaker, the Business Committee informs all Hon Members that the House would Sit in Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, 20 th March, 2019, after adjournment to consider outstanding issues pertinent to the House. Members are accordingly urged to avail themselves at the said meeting to contribute to making the deliberations fruitful.
Adjournment of the House sine die and Extended Sittings
Mr Speaker, having regard to the volume of business pending in the House, the Business Committee proposes that Parliament adjourns sine die on Friday, 12th April, 2019. To afford the House enough time to complete its scheduled Businesses, beginning next week Tuesday, the House shall, on each Sitting day be required to sit beyond the regular adjournment time of 2:00 p.m. pursuant to Order 40(3). Furthermore, the House shall have to Sit on Monday, 1st April, 2019 and Monday, 8th April, 2019 for this First Meeting.
Submission of Business by MDAS
Mr Speaker, the Business Committee takes this opportunity to notify all heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of Central Government to endeavour to, as soon as practicable, submit to Parliament any outstanding or urgent government business which requires parliamentary action before the House adjourns sine die.
Conclusion
Mr Speaker, in accordance with Standing Order 160(2), and subject to Standing Order 53, the Committee submits to this Honourable House the order in

which the Business of the House shall be taken during the week under considera- tion.

Urgent Question --
Mr Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwame Dafeamekpor (South Dayi) 10:23 a.m.
To ask the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice why the General Legal Council has not issued and/or renewed licenses of lawyers who were formerly Circuit Court Judges and Magistrates.
Questions --
Q. 483. Mr Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwame Dafeamekpor (South Dayi): To ask the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice the steps the Chief Justice has taken to appoint Judges to the High Courts in Hohoe and Ho.
Statements --
Presentation of Papers --
(a) Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.
(b) Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention).
(c) Report of the Committee on Mines and Energy on the Ghana Iron and Steel Development Corporation Bill, 2019.
Presentation and First Reading of Bills--
Narcotics Control Commission Bill,
2019.
Motion --
Second Reading of Bills--
Ghana Iron and Steel Development Corporation Bill, 2019.
Mr Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwame Dafeamekpor (South Dayi) 10:23 a.m.
Consideration Stage of Bills --
Payment Systems and Services Bill, 2018. (Continuation)
Chartered Institute of Bankers (Ghana) Bill, 2018. (Continuation)
Companies Bill, 2018.
Committee sittings.

Questions --

*545. Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (North Tongu): To ask the Minister for Aviation the steps the Ministry is taking to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction for passengers flying commercial international airlines on the Ghana -- Europe and Ghana -- America routes.

*563. Mr Kobena Mensah Woyome (South Tongu): To ask the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources what step is being taken to extend potable drinking water to Dor- kploame and the seventeen surrounding communities, being one of the food baskets of the area.

*564. Mr Ali Maiga Halidu (Dormaa West): To ask the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources what the Ministry is doing to curb the activities of illegal chainsaw operators in Diabaa and Adakrom forest reserves.

Statements

Presentation of Papers --

(a) Report of the Finance Committee on the Loan Facility Agreement amongst the Government of the

Republic of Ghana and ING Bank (a branch of ING-DIBA AG Deutsche Bank AG) Hong Kong Branch [as Original Lenders, Arrangers and Coordinators), ING Bank N.V. (as Agent), and ING Bank N.V., Beijing Branch (as ECA Agent) for an amount of one hundred and twenty- three million, seven hundred and fifty-six thousand, seven hundred and seventy-four euros and fifteen cents (€123,756,774.15) to finance the Overall Upgrading and Modernisation of the Vocational Education System in Ghana.

(b) Report of the Committee on Education on the following:

(i) Contract Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana (represented by the Ministry of Education) and P.C. Education Africa Ventures (a subsidiary of Planetcore Educa- tion Holding Limited of Malta), and SUMEC Complete Equip- ment & Engineering Company Limited for an amount of one hundred and seventeen million, eighty-eight thousand, three hundred and twenty-three euros (€117,088,323.00) for the Overall Upgrading and Modernisation of the Vocational Education System in Ghana.

(ii) Amendment to the Contract Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana (represented by the Ministry of Education) and P.C. Education Africa Ventures (a subsidiary of Planetcore Educa- tion Holding Limited of Malta), and SUMEC Complete Equip- ment & Engineering Company

Limited for the Overall Upgrading and Modernisation of the Vocational Education System in Ghana.

Consideration Stage of Bills --

Chartered Institute of Bankers (Ghana) Bill, 2018. (Continuation)

Companies Bill, 2018. (Continuation)

Committee sittings.

Urgent Question --
Mr Alhassan Umar (Zabzugu) 10:23 a.m.
To ask the Minister for Health whether the Ministry is aware that patients who attend the Zabzugu District Hospital for dog bite treatment are turned away for non- existence of anti-rabies vaccines, and if so, what measures are being put in place to save the situation.
Statements
Motion --
Adoption of the Report of the Committee on Roads and Transport on the following:
(i) Convention on the International Hydrographic Organisation as Amended by the Protocol of
2005.
(ii) Protocol of 2005 to the Con- vention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts of Violence Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation (SUA Convention).
(iii) Protocol for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Fixed Platforms Located on the Continental Shelf,
2005.
(iv) International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage, 2001.
(v) Protocol of 1998 relating to the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS),
1974.
(vi) Protocol of 1988 relating to the International Convention on Load Lines, 1966.
(vii) Nairobi International Conven- tion on the Removal of Wrecks,
2007.
(viii) Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recy- cling of Ships, 2009.
Consequential Resolutions
Consideration Stage of Bills --
Chartered Institute of Bankers (Ghana) Bill, 2018. (Continuation)
Companies Bill, 2018. (Continuation)
Ghana Iron and Steel Development Corporation Bill, 2019.
Committee sittings.

Urgent Question --
Mr Yusif Sulemana (Bole/Bamboi) 10:23 a.m.
To ask the Minister for Roads and Highways if the Ministry is aware that a portion of
Mr Yusif Sulemana (Bole/Bamboi) 10:23 a.m.


the Dakurpe -- Kabilma feeder road has been washed away by rains and in the process, caused accident leading to the killing of three (3) people, and if so, what urgent remedial measures are being put in place.

Questions --

*565. Mr Stephen M.E.K. Ackah (Suaman): To ask the Minister for Roads and Highways when km 0 - 30 of the Enchi to Dadieso road will be completed.

*566. Mr John Kwabena Bless Oti (Nkwanta North): To ask the Minister for Roads and Highways when the Kpassa to Kabonwuli feeder road, which was approved by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) in 2016, will be awarded for construction.

*567. Mr Kwadwo Nyanpon Aboagye (Biakoye): To ask the Minister for Roads and Highways the stage of implementation of plans to build a flyover at Obetsebi Lamptey Circle, which contract was signed in year

2016.

Statements

Motions --

(a) Third Reading of Bills --

Payment Systems and Services Bill,

2018.

(b) Adoption of the Report of the Finance Committee on the Loan Facility Agreement amongst the Government of the Republic of Ghana and ING Bank (a branch of ING-DIBA AG Deutsche Bank AG) Hong Kong Branch [as original

Lenders, Arrangers and Coor- dinators), ING Bank N.V. (as Agent), and ING Bank N.V., Beijing Branch (as ECA Agent) for an amount of one hundred and twenty-three million, seven hundred and fifty-six thousand, seven hundred and seventy-four euros and fifteen cents (€123,756,774.15) to finance the Overall Upgrading and Moder- nisation of the Vocational Education System in Ghana.

Consequential Resolutions

(b) Adoption of the Reports of the Committee on Education on the following:

(i) Contract Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Ghana (represented by the Ministry of Education) and P.C. Education Africa Ventures (a subsidiary of Planetcore Educa- tion Holding Limited of Malta), and SUMEC Complete Equip- ment & Engineering Company Limited for an amount of one hundred and seventeen million, eighty-eight thousand, three hundred and twenty-three euros (€117,088,323.00) for the Overall upgrading and Modernisation of the Vocational Education System in Ghana.

(ii) Amendment to the Contract Agreement between the Go- vernment of the Republic of Ghana (represented by the Ministry of Education) and P.C. Education Africa Ventures (a subsidiary of Planetcore Educa- tion Holding Limited of Malta), and SUMEC Complete Equip- ment & Engineering Company

Limited for the Overall Upgrading and Modernisation of the Vocational Education System in Ghana.

Consequential Resolutions

Consideration Stage of Bills --

Chartered Institute of Bankers (Ghana) Bill, 2018. (Continuation)

Companies Bill, 2018. (Continuation)

Ghana Iron and Steel Development Corporation Bill, 2019.

Committee sittings.
Mr Speaker 10:43 a.m.
Hon Majority Leader, thank you very much.
Mr Samuel O. Ablakwa 10:43 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am most grateful. I thank the Hon Majority Leader for the presentation of the Business Statement. There are two issues that I seek to raise. The first one has to do with an indication the Hon Majority Leader gave us last week about how this House will handle the report of the Security and Intelligence Agencies that the National Security Minister has submitted to the House.
The Hon Majority Leader indicated that he would consult with leadership and let us know what the decision is on how this House will manage the report. So I seek to ask the Hon Majority Leader if he can apprise us on the final decision by leadership.
Mr Speaker, the second matter has to do with the annual report of the Universities, and I am glad the Hon
Mr Isaac Adongo 10:43 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Bank of Ghana Act as amended, particularly, in respect to section 53, requires the Bank of Ghana to report to Parliament every six
Mr Isaac Adongo 10:43 a.m.


months. It specifically says that the first six months should be in July and the second at the end of February.

We are heading towards the third week in March and that report has not been presented to us. But most importantly, because of the challenges we have with the cedi, Hon Members would be interested in that report arriving in good time so we could assist the Central Bank to deal with some of the challenges.

Mr Speaker, I would want to know whether there are any plans for the Central Bank to present its report to Parliament in the ensuing week.
Mr Ras Mubarak 10:43 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I am grateful. I also rise to comment on the Business Statement, and in doing so, I would like to highlight a point made by the Hon Majority Leader, where he indicated that we may have to Sit additionally so that we can deal with the volume of Business pending.
Mr Speaker, I would like to suggest, looking at the enormity of work that needs to be covered, that probably, the Business Committee could also consider Monday, 18th March, 2019, as an additional day for Sitting. I say so because, in the last week of Sitting before we adjourn, normally, we have a lot of work that needs to be covered.
We have often time not had adequate time to look into businesses that need to be looked at. So I am wondering whether it could be spread evenly so that in the last days before we adjourn sine die, we do not get to Sit into midnights looking at work that needs to be done.
Dr Bernice A. Heloo 10:43 a.m.
Mr Speaker, it is good to extend the Sitting time, but the time allotted to comments on Statements,
I think is long. We spend a lot of time; the contributions are a bit long and we eat into many other issues, and many Questions are also pending. So I would like to know what can be done about that.
Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka 10:43 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Majority Leader was giving an indication that we may have to rise on the 12th April, 2019. As he might have said, this had been discussed with all the other programmes that Parliament is engaged in, and he is very much aware that if we do not rise on the 3rd April, 2019, then we are likely to have a lot of challenges, especially, with the Rt Hon Speaker and leadership who might not be in the country at the time of rising and that is not proper.
Mr Speaker, so it is my view that the Hon Majority Leader does well so that we plan our activities very well. We have been doing very well these days by entering into the Chamber at 10.00 a.m. and if we schedule our programmes very well, I am very optimistic that we should be able to finish before the 3rd April, 2019.
Except to say that the tendency that we allow the Executive — This is something that has lasted since I came — Even the last day of rising, running here with Businesses and giving that excuse of urgency. And sometimes, one wonders whether the Executive does not see the urgency until the day we are rising.
Mr Speaker, if we give a deadline, for instance, that two weeks before rising, we would not admit new Businesses, all those who would have to come with Businesses, like the Hon Majority Leader has rightly stated, should quickly bring them so that we can programme them properly and not to wait to stampede us. It is the stampeding that takes us deep into the night towards the last end, when in the initial stages, they do not bring the Business.
Mr Speaker, as I have said before, it is not a recent phenomenon. It has always been there and we have always complained about it and nothing gets done. Let us take the opportunity, to at least, send the signal early like the Hon Majority Leader is doing today, that after next week, we may not have to take any Business, then we would be able to plan very well and rise before 3rd April, 2019.
I keep repeating that each time we overload ourselves with work, we should consider our health, because it is what carries us to be able to do tomorrow's business. If we look at the rate at which a lot more of us, and I am sure Mr Speaker, you would be in a better position to tell -- many of us have fallen ill and it is better we programmed our activities to make healthy.
Mr Speaker, I agree with the Hon Majority Leader that as from the next coming Monday, we would have extended Sittings. If we plan all these, we should be able to rise before the 3 rd of April, otherwise our activities would distract other international parliamentary activities.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
Mr Speaker 10:53 a.m.
Hon Minority Leader?
Mr Haruna Iddrisu 10:53 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity and to make some few comments on the Business Statement ably presented by the Leader of Government Business.
Mr Speaker, in particular, to reiterate the point that the Hon Minority Chief Whip has just made, that you will be heading and leading Ghana's delegation to the International Parliamentary Union
(IPU) in Qatar which is an important international obligation in our parliamentary calendar and the pursuit of our relations with them.
Arguably, it means that you will be away with the Leadership for one week. Therefore the attempt to seek to extend Business to the 12 th of April, is problematic. Indeed, there is a letter from the African Parliamentary Union for a scheduled meeting on Friday 5th April between 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to be chaired by your Hon Colleague, Rt Hon Jacob Mudenda of Zimbabwe of the African group.
Mr Speaker, I cannot see how we will go and come back to adjourn. As required of me, in the wings of some delegation that the Hon Majority Leader led to Livingstone, I implored him that we should work to adjourn on the 3rd of April as it will work for all of us.
In my view, if you look at the Bills which are before us, -- I do not determine Government Business even though my Hon Colleague, Alhaji Muntaka -- I have been in the Executive for eight years and sometimes, flexibility to understand decisions of Government machinery, Committees to report to the plenary and decisions will affect those things.
However, he has a point in saying that in the last decade, we have seen Parliament spend lots of time in the last 48 hours to do things that, arguably, could have been done much earlier. I just take the specific example of the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, 2018. Such an important Bill that we rush it to the rising day of Parliament does not allow for the public to make inputs.
Mr Speaker, it is not for nothing that the Constitution requires that we request memoranda from the public to incorporate into Bills because sovereignty resides in
Mr Haruna Iddrisu 10:53 a.m.


the people. So on the 3rd April, the Hon Majority Leader should liaise with the Executive -- and I do not think that anybody would say that we are not working.

Mr Speaker, you have been religious with your time of 10 a.m.; implore all of us to do same. This back and forth of suspension and adjourning of Sitting, if there is Business, bring it; we will do it.

In respect of the Bills, I have seen a number of Bills but I believe that we should prioritise the Companies Bill and commit ourselves to working towards the 3rd of April; we should pass the Companies Bill. It is an important Legislation for Government and the country, and one of the major indices which is used to measure the ease and cost of doing business -- is the registration of companies.

So we can prioritise the Companies Bill and commit ourselves -- I know that he is already providing Leadership in terms of winnowing.

Mr Speaker, so on the 12th of April will be problematic even though new Bills will be introduced; it does not mean that when we come back, we will not be able to deal with those issues. We are almost at the tail end of the Payment Systems and Services Bill, 2018, so it means that will be passed. As I look through the Bills, in my view, what we can dedicate ourselves -- together with other Business.

The Hon (Dr) Heloo has also raised the issues about Statements. Our Standing Orders provide time limits for Questions and Statements, even though sometimes you have tolerated us even to walk outside the corridors of the strict rules of Statements. We know that you do so to enrich the debate, but I believe that when

the Hon Member for Bolgatanga Central asked the Question of the Hon Minister for Finance, in respect of the Ghana Commercial Bank and moneys spent on the banking, the tenor of questions, impacts on the exercise of oversight.

Mr Speaker, if a Question in the year 2018 is finally asked in the last quarter of the year 2019, the potency of it, sometimes, would be affected. So my problem has to do with the 12th April which is being suggested in the Business Statement. If the Hon Majority Leader can show more flexibility; let us spend more working time now as we have the opportunity and time, so that on the 3rd April, we can support you to lead Ghana's delegation to the IPU to honour those obligations.

Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker 10:53 a.m.
Thank you very much. Hon Majority Leader, you may want to re- consider one thing --
rose
Mr Speaker 10:53 a.m.
No, I have not called you yet; I want to make a point before. By the proposals of the Business Committee, it has been tendered early on that we rise on the 29th March. This was changed to 3rd April, considering other arrangements -- I am speaking to you the Leaders -- so that the Business Committee may go and do some reconsideration in this particular matter.
This obviously seems to have taken all of us by surprise, so that we do all we can to rise by the 3 rd of April as international obligations have been firmed up; these days, hotels and tickets are paid in advance and I am aware of this administratively. All these things have been done in the name of the Republic.
As I sit, they have brought me a document on Inter-African Group, unless we want to take ourselves outside our global obligations so that we rise on the 3rd -- Yes, this is something I have just been given by the Hon Majority Leader -- a gmail regarding some of these very obligations -- and then we are able to fulfil our obligations as a serious House and come back after two weeks to do our Business.
However, I believe that from the 29th March to 3rd April and then to what is now being said, we should seriously reconsider -- maybe, have a short break and come back to conclude whatever is before us and then go back on the recess but, definitely, this Honourable House and Ghana's Parliament cannot renege on its global obligations.
In fact, the Hon Majority Leader has some special duties which are conferred upon our Leadership and it takes time to have Leaders graduate to some of these higher levels in our relationships. Therefore I advise that so long as that is concerned, we go and have another look and then on Monday, we come and see what we can do and at the same time, whatever Business will be available should then come with dispatch and we deal with them.
Parliament may Sit on Mondays and Saturdays to do what is required of it; we will fulfil our obligations at home and globally and be seen to be serious performers in all that we do. That should be the way forward.
So if this could be seriously looked at again by the Business Committee --
It appears to have taken everybody by surprise, including myself and knowing very well all the administrative arrange-
ments that have been done and financial obligations that would be -- in fact, a financial loss to the nation, if these arrangements are jostled then we have to be very careful.
Hon Majority Leader, that is my problem in that regard.
rose
Mr Speaker 11:03 a.m.
Hon Member, do you want to make a contribution in that regard?
Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu 11:03 a.m.
Mr Speaker, not on this matter but on the Business Statement.
Mr Speaker 11:03 a.m.
Please go ahead.
Mr Agyeman-Manu 11:03 a.m.
Mr Speaker, yesterday I made an observation at the vetting of some of our Hon Colleagues who have been nominated to become Hon Ministers.
Mr Speaker 11:03 a.m.
Hon Minister, you have been advised.
Mr Agyeman-Manu 11:03 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you.
Mr Speaker 11:03 a.m.
Hon Majority Leader?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:03 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the first issue that was raised by Hon Ablakwa relates to the Report that the Hon Minister in charge of National Security is required to submit to this House. Indeed, last week, I pronounced on it and I said that we needed to find a way to manage the presentation of the Report and how to deal with it subsequently. Mr Speaker, I indicated that it would be appropriate because it is the
Mr Speaker 11:03 a.m.
It is part of the application of parliamentary strategies.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:03 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I would make the necessary consultations because as I said --
Mr Speaker 11:03 a.m.
But Hon Majority Leader, while you are there, 3rd April is Wednesday; 4th April is Thursday and 5th April is Friday. So we could even sit on 5th April and Hon Members would take part. These are matters that you may want to take into account and draw a tight business efficacious programme but which would allow us to fulfil everything. I have just checked this for an example.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:13 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you and I would migrate to that spectrum and respond to the issues relating to the time, but what I do not want us to do is to put ourselves into a watertight compartment and we would find it difficult to, maybe, manoeuvre our way out.
Mr Speaker, but I would respond to that matter. I needed to have seen you and the Hon Minority Leader before the House started Sitting this morning. I related to the Hon Minority Leader on this but unfortunately, I could not get a response from him.
Mr Speaker, I would go back to the issue raised by Hon Adongo -- I would make the necessary contacts because this is a requirement of the law and the House would be served a better purpose if there is compliance to what is required by the law.
Mr Speaker, Hon Ras Mubarak has urged us to even Sit on next week Monday, but unfortunately, I think that it is too late in the day and Hon Members might have made their own plans. It would be too late in the day to spring this on them as a surprise and that is why I spoke to the ensuing Monday and not the immediate Monday so that we would have time to adjust our own plans.
Mr Speaker, Dr Heloo reminded us of the time that we spend to comment on Statements. Mr Speaker, that is your prerogative and Standing Order 72 which deals with Statements indicates to us that we have one hour to deal with Statements, so if there are three or four Statements, then we must compress the delivery of Statements and comments on them into one hour.
The issue is that if there is one Statement, do we go whole hulk or maybe truncate debate? There are instances
when we are pressed with time and Mr Speaker may allow the Statement to be delivered and perhaps, not allow any comments. But there are instances when Statements have been made and Hon Members who comment on them want to behave like sympathisers who want to weep more than the bereaved. When you caution them, they think that they may be allowed time to go on their own frolic.
If a Statement is made and the Hon Member who made the Statement spent about five minutes to deliver the Statement, then the Hon Member who is commenting on it wants to have 10 minutes as Hon Ras Mubarak does often. Mr Speaker, so we must make some determination on this so that we would have brief Statements and brief comments.

If Statements are on the point, then we do not have to do a four page or five- page Statement. I usually advise my Hon Colleagues and compatriots not to go beyond one and a half pages. The maximum should be two pages. In a matter of five to six minutes, a person should be done with it. We should all therefore take a cue from it.

Mr Speaker, the Hon Minority Chief Whip raised the issue about rising on 3rd April. For those who were here yesterday, I made the point here in the House that we might have to rise on 3rd April, knowing what we have to do as a House, regarding the international obligations and statutory engagements we have in Qatar and Ottawa.

Mr Speaker, I have just delivered an e- mail to you from the Speaker of Kenya on what is to be done by Ghana on behalf of the Africa Region of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). It looks like the mantle will fall on me to represent Africa at the Ottawa CPA meeting. So we have serious challenges.
  • [MR KYEI-MENSAH-BONSU
    • Mr Speaker 11:13 a.m.
    Further to our decision on the day of rising, which continues undetermined, the Business Statement as presented is admitted accordingly. It is important to take into consideration, for example, Wednesday 3rd April, Thursday, 4th April, Friday 5th April, as serious working days; we could have a short break, fulfil other obligations and come back to all these important Businesses.
    It would be very useful that there should be a symbiotic relationship between the Executive and the Legislature in this matter. They should bring all these Businesses that are so important. They should bring them timeously so that the House could go on.
    For Statements, we are all aware of the time, but sometimes they even save the day because Business that should be Government's Business which should come before us have not come. Leadership knows that we sometimes use Statements to save time and wait upon other things that are about to come. So it is a matter of actually navigating the waters in all the circumstances.
    The short of it, therefore, is that they should bring the Business; let us do them efficaciously and then we go by a timetable predetermined as much as possible.
    Thank you very much. I pronounce on it accordingly.
    I would move on to Statements. I see the Hon Minister for Energy in the House. I am advised he would make a Statement, so I would make the relevant adjustment and accommodate the Hon Minister for Energy.
    Hon Minister, you may speak from the rostrum.
    STATEMENTS 11:23 a.m.
    Minister for Energy (Mr John P. Amewu) 11:23 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am here before your august House this morning to make a Statement regarding system distur- bances that were experienced a few days ago in the power system of Ghana and the steps we have taken to address the issues.
    I will also take this opportunity to give an update on critical things happening in the power sub-sector of Ghana.
    Mr Speaker, the Ghana power system experienced a number of system disturbances between March 12 and 13, 2019, that resulted in the interruption of power supply to customers. The disturbances were due to challenges at the newly-commissioned Accra Central substation.
    These challenges have occurred when there is already an ongoing five-day outage that has been taken on the 330 kV transmission line between Tema and Aboadze for relocation of two towers on the line at the request of the Ghana Highway Authority to enable the construction of a new interchange at Pokuase.
    Causes of Recent Power Outages
    The fundamental cause of the blackout is the ongoing construction of the road interchange at Pokuase, which has necessitated the diversion of GRIDCo's 330kV transmission line towers that runs from Tema to Aboadze in that vicinity. This
    requires taking an outage of the entire line to undertake the diversion.
    The following are the effects of the ongoing construction at Pokuase and the associated diversion works:
    a. Tripping of existing transmission lines: As a result of the outage on the 330kV line, no power was transmitted on the Aboadze to Accra, that is from west to east. Instead, power has had to be transmitted from Akosombo through Mallam, Winneba and Cape Coast to the Western part of the country through the 161kV transmission line. These 161kV lines become overloaded, thereby causing it to trip as a protective measure to avoid any major damage to equipment. It is important to note, however, that the transmission lines across the country are interconnected to the extent that disruption in one transmission line has a rippling effect on others.
    b. Tripping of generating units: Power plants are designed to automatically shutdown in response to hiccups in the course of power transmission as seen in case (a) above. This is a protective measure to prevent power from flowing back to the generators.
    It has therefore become necessary to temporarily shift and limit power flow through the coastal corridor to facilitate stability of the entire transmission network whiles work is completed on the diversion of the line at Pokuase. This issue is thus a pure operational and technical challenge at the transmission stage; it has nothing to do with technical faults at the generation or distribution stage of the power value chain.
    Mr Speaker, at 19 11:23 a.m.
    01 hours, a disturbance similar to that of the previous day occurred. A number of transmission lines in the Southern and Central parts of the power system tripped together with all generating units in service at Bui, Ameri, Sunon Asogli, AKSA, Karpower, Kpone Thermal and three (3) units at Kpong Hydro plants.
    Following the disturbance, restoration proceeded swiftly and the National Interconnected Transmission System was restored by 20.11 hours. However, some limited loads remained out of supply due to the length of time it took to restart some generating units.
    Mitigation Efforts
    Mr Speaker, the following are the mitigating efforts being made by the Ministry.
    We are in constant touch with GRIDCo and the Contractors to expedite work and complete the relocation of the towers according to schedule to enable the restoration of the 330 kV line. The relocation works have been scheduled for completion by Tuesday March 19,
    2019.
    Our engineers are engaging their Japanese counterparts to resolve the technical challenges at the new Accra Central substation.
    Efforts are being made to expedite the work to relocate the towers on the line as well as put in mitigation measures to minimise further disturbances in the short term till the work is completed by the weekend.
    Visit to sites
    Mr Speaker, to acquaint myself with the situation as the sector Minister, I paid a visit with my technical team to the various sites including some of the power plants that tripped in Tema on Thursday, March 14, 2019. The plants that tripped were in operation at the time of our visit.
    Critical happenings in the power sub- sector of Ghana
    State of the power supply system
    Mr Speaker, the Power system of Ghana has an installed generation capacity of 4.775MW. Available generating capacity is 2,641 MW, currently, with the maximum peak demand recorded so far in 2019 around 2.600MW.
    It is expected that when these unavailable plants are brought back into operation, the quantum of available capacity would increase to improve upon power supply reliability.
    Mr Speaker, the Government of Ghana pays average monthly excess capacity of US$ 25 million.
    Dynamics of the Power Supply System
    Mr Speaker, for the power system to function effectively, all the components in the value chain, namely, generation, transmission and distribution must be in good shape. Therefore you may have enough available capacity, but if the transmission system experiences a challenge, just as we witnessed in the past few days, we occasionally experience temporary outages. This is also true if the transmission system is intact but with inadequate generation.
    So the duty of the Ministry is to ensure that the components in the power supply value chain are always functioning effectively, not forgetting fuel supply, which is very critical.
    Private Sector Participation in ECG
    Mr Speaker, for your information, the private sector participation in Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) that is meant to bring about improvement in the distribution subsector became effective on 1st March, 2019, with the Conces- sionaire, Power Distribution Service (Gh) Limited, taking over the assets and operations of ECG for a period of 20 years.
    Relocation of the Karpowership from Tema to Sekondi
    Mr Speaker, to reduce dependence on liquid fuels and their attendant costs, the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP)
    Sankofa project was developed to utilise gas for power generations as a cheaper and cleaner substitute for liquid fuels. The OCTP Sankofa gas is ready but the facilities to offtake the gas are not. We are currently making effeorts to relocate the 450MW Karpowership, currently at Tema, and running on Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) to Sekondi to enable an offtake of 90MMbtu per day, representing about 50 per cent of OCTP gas production. This will minimise onerous potential take or pay obligations to GNJPC and the Government under the OCTP Agreement.
    Mr Speaker, the movement of the 450MW Karpowership from Tema to Sekondi will lead to the avoidance of gas transportation cost from Takoradi to Tema of USD1,68/MMbtu, amounting to US$55 million per annum.
    Repowering the 132mw Takoradi T3 Power Plant
    Mr Speaker, you may recall that the Government of Ghana, acting through the Minister for Energy on December 17, 2008, entered into a contract with the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), an agent of the Government of Canada, for the development and implementation of a 132MW Thermal Power Station in Takoradi on an Engineering, Procurement and Construction “EPC” basis and also to assist in identifying possible sources for the requisite financing. The Contract became effective on November 5, 2009 and the project commenced on December
    7, 2009.
    The plant achieved commercial operation on March 28, 2013, on Light Crude Oil (LCO) and with a guaranteed output of 132MW. The Taking-Over Certificate for T3 was signed on April 2, 2013 and was handed over to the GoG/ VRA by the contractor for operation and maintenance (O&M).
    Mr Speaker, at 19 11:23 a.m.


    As you may be aware, the Plant has been shut down after official takeover due to Hot Gas Path component damage on Gas Turbine (GT) #1 and #4 in June 2013, and Damaged fuel nozzles on GT #2 and #3 in February 2015.

    The Ministry of Energy is currently working with the Volta River Authority to come up with the best way of repowering the T3 Plant. We shall therefore, Mr Speaker, revert to you on this issue at the appropriate time.

    Cost of Excess Capacity

    Mr Speaker, due to the numerous Power Purchase Agreements that we have in the system, we have on our hands overcapacity payments averaging about US$25 million monthly. To minimise this, we are engaging in renegotiating of the PPAs to bring these cost down to the barest minimum in the interim.

    Conclusion

    Mr Speaker, in conclusion, let me state that the events that led to challenges that the power system of Ghana experienced are by no means the return of dumsor. We are working assiduously to address the situation.

    This Government is committed to ensuring that the power system of Ghana functions effectively to make Ghanaians happy.

    Thank you.
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Thank you very much, Hon Minister. By virtue of Standing Order 70(2), I would ask a brief comment from one Hon Member on each Side.
    Hon Leaders, please give me an indication.
    One from the Minority Side and one from Majority Side and please be brief.
    Mr Ras Mubarak (NDC -- Kumbungu) 11:33 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I was excited to have heard the Hon Minister say that we would not go back to the days of dumsor. That is largely so because the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Adminis- tration had put in place the building blocks and sowed the seeds. [Interruption.]
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Hon Members, order!
    Mr Ras Mubarak 11:33 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, the NDC Administration had sown the seed to ensure that the building blocks were in place just so that we do not go back to those days.
    Listening to the Hon Minister's Statement, albeit surprising, he indicated that there are disturbances which have resulted in challenges in the sector. Mr Speaker, he went on to attribute this to road construction at the Pokuase interchange as one of the causes.
    Mr Speaker, if there was going to be road construction and power in any part of the country would be knocked off, what we expected was for the Ministry to give Ghanaians an indication of the enormity of problems that we would face as a result of those shutdowns, but we never experienced that. Even in this Chamber of Parliament, we had blackouts.
    Yesterday at the Public Accounts Committee sitting, we had blackouts -- [Interruption.] Yes. What we expected the Ministry to do was to come out with a schedule so that Ghanaians would know when their power would be off. Unfortunately, we have not seen that.
    Mr Speaker, per the Hon Minister's explanation, he sought to create the impression that we have had issues only in the Greater Accra Region. It was not only in Greater Accra Region; many parts of the country, such as Kumbungu, Tamale, Wa, Kumasi and the Volta Region suffered long periods of blackouts. In the Hon Minister's own hometown, there was --
    rose
    - 11:33 a.m.
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Hon Member, hold on.
    Mr Agyeman-Manu 11:33 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of clarification.
    My Hon Colleague started talking about seeds that had been sown which have given the Hon Minister leverage to do certain things, but he comes back recounting challenges. I just want to clarify that the seeds that they sowed never germinated; we are ploughing and planting again.
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Hon Member, your Hon Colleague said your seeds fell on a stony ground. [Laughter.] Please, redeem yourself. If they did not fall on rocks, then say something. [Laughter.]
    Mr Ras Mubarak 11:33 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, the foundation was built on solid grounds - - [Laughter] -- and the work that was put in place is what has given us a lot of hope as far as having excess energy capacity in the country is concerned. I expected the Hon Minister to give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Things were done in the past and they are benefiting from the successes of seeds that we sowed in the past.
    Mr Speaker, they are gesticulating from
    —
    Dr Anthony A. Osei -- rose -- 11. 43 a. m.
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Hon Members, order! Hon Dr Akoto Osei?
    Dr A. A. Osei 11:33 a.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker. I come on Order 70(2) and with your permission, I would like to read:
    “A Minister of State may make an announcement or a statement of Government policy. Any such announcement or statement should be limited to facts which it is deemed necessary to make known to the House and should not be designed to provoke debate at this stage. Any Member may comment briefly, subject to the same limitation.”
    Mr Speaker, he is going on a path that is going to provoke debate.
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Hon Member, he has not broken the limitation.
    That is why I started by saying that we are to discuss this under the parameters of Order 70(2). So I am following his submission.
    Please, continue.
    Mr Ras Mubarak 11:33 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am very grateful that you have ruled him completely out of order.
    Mr Speaker, in concluding, I would urge the Hon Minister, based on the Statement that he has read -- He has given Ghanaians assurance that from next week Tuesday,19th March, 2019, we would not experience the blackout that we have experienced in many parts of the country. That is assuring and I would like to make the point that we would hold him by that assurance.
    Mr Speaker, but in expressing candour, if we have challenges, Ghanaians would be happy to support us to deal with those
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Hon Member, are we back to dumsor notwithstanding the founda- tions that you claim were so strongly laid?
    Very well, Hon Majority Leadership, who speaks for the Majority? [Inter- ruption] -
    I said one each from either Side of the House.
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:33 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Gyamfi.
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Very well. Hon Chairman of the Committee on Mines and Energy?
    Mr Emmanuel A. Gyamfi (NPP- Odotobri) 11:33 a.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Let me first commend the Hon Minister for Energy for coming to this august House to brief Ghanaians about the recent happenings in the energy sector.
    Mr Speaker, I am worried that a few Ghanaians are on the path of pushing us to believe that we are in the era of dumsor. Mr Speaker, never again should anybody wish that Ghana should go back to the dumsor days.
    Mr Speaker, with your permission, Google defined dumsor when we were in that situation for five years. This is how it has been defined and I beg quote:
    “In Ghana, dumsor is a persistent, irregular and unpredictable electric power outage. The frequent Ghanaian blackouts are caused by power supply shortage. Ghanaian generating capacity is currently 400 to 600 megawatts less than Ghana needs. Ghanaian electricity distri- butors regularly shed load with rolling blackouts.”
    Mr Speaker, what is happening? I do not understand why anybody who understands the energy sector manage- dment and operation would come out to tell Ghanaians that we are in the era of dumsor. As the Hon Minister just said, there is a good reason why these unfortunate power outages happened and that is attributable to the work that is being done at Pokuase.
    Mr Speaker, we all understand the importance of this particular project, which the Government of Ghana, through H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, is doing to solve the traffic situation that we all go through and we are so quick to tell Ghanaians that we are in the era of dumsor.
    Mr Speaker, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP Government inherited the energy sector debt of US$2.4 billion.
    Mr Speaker, I have also heard that the energy sector is so much financially challenged and that is why we have this problem.
    The energy sector was already challenged with a debt of US$2.4 billion before His Excellency the President took over. As we speak now, through the prudent management of the power sector; and the issuance of bonds, the Energy Sector Levy Act (ESLA) PLC, more than US$5 million of the debt was paid. Just about last year October, Government of Ghana paid about US$1.6 billion to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) so that it could also pay the generators and transmitters.
    This is what the Government is doing and that is why we should all commend it. We would never go back to dumsor. [Hear! Hear!] If they wish to go back to dumsor, then, they should wait till when they come to power and they can take Ghanaians back to dumsor.
    When people lost their jobs, when people died, and there was chaos everywhere -- Now, we are very fortunate that we have stable, reliable and cheap supply of electricity that is attracting more investors to Ghana, and they want to say that you want to go to dumsor. We would not agree to go back to dumsor -- [Interruption] --
    rose
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Order!
    Mr Gyamfi 11:33 a.m.
    We would work hard to fix the problem.
    I thank you so much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
    Mr Speaker 11:33 a.m.
    Hon Member, maybe, you are on a point of correction; if it is on a point of correction, even though the Hon Member has taken his seat, the record is still available. You may speak.
    Mr Edward A. Bawa 11:33 a.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. When the Hon Chairman of the Committee on Mines and Energy was talking, he tried to define dumsor and said, this was when the word came between the last four to five years of the power challenges that we got under the Mahama Administration.
    It is important to remind him that in the years 2006-2007 and early part of 2008, we experienced serious dumsor in this country, to the extent that the Minister for Information at the time came to the Floor of Parliament and said dumsor would end in September 31, 2008. We all remember that when he knew we do not even have September, 31. So for him to state that dumsor was just within the period of the Mahama Administration can never be a representation of the fact.
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    Thank you.
    Hon Minister, you may want to make concluding remarks.
    -- [Pause] --
    Yes, Hon Bedzrah?
    Mr Bedzrah 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, the front bench agreed that two Hon Members would contribute from each Side before the leadership would take their turn.
    Mr Speaker, I would yield to Hon Jinapor to speak.
    Mr John A. Jinapor (NDC Yapei/ Kusawgu) 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, there has been a raging debate as to whether the current Administration took over the energy sector with dumsor still persisting or not. I wish to set some records straight. It is not for nothing that there is history and there are records. I would want to refer to
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    Hon Member, where is the publication from?
    Mr Jinapor 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, it was a Ghanaweb publication on Friday, 15th March, 2016, which states “Flash back - - Mahama deserves no credit for fixing dumsor” -- Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the then New Patriotic Party Vice Presidential Candidate''. I read “Running mate of the NPP Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said that President John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress --
    rose
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    Hon Members, order!
    Ms Safo 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The Hon Member has in his hand a mobile phone and he is reading a supposed text and attributing same to H.E. the Vice President. Anybody could get up in this House and pull a phone and purport to read an article from it. This is unknown to the practice of this House.
    If Hon John Jinapor, who was the former Hon Deputy Minister for Power, has any evidence or source to the statement he is making and attributing same to the Vice President, our practice is that he should properly lay it before the House. He just cannot pick a mobile phone and purport to read any text.
    Mr Speaker, I would want your direction on this and it should be that it is the practice of this House to tender that document -- whatever document he has on his phone to tender and table same to the House.
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    Hon Member, you have been challenged and you have to oblige.
    Mr Jinapor 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I accept the challenge from the Hon Deputy Majority Leader and I am ready to tender it in, but I would want to put it on record that --
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    No, Hon Member, in the same way that you hold a mobile phone in your hand, you would bring the document in your hand. Otherwise, abandon that and approach another angle. That is the rule of the House which was not made by me, but by us.
    Mr Jinapor 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am ready to tender it in.
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    It would be very chaotic if you go to court and you are quoting from some source and then you bring your mobile phone and show it to the judge. Your own mobile phone -- self- serving document -- your personal mobile phone and you tell the judge that, that is your proof. What are you talking about? It is not done anywhere in any serious jurisdiction.
    Please, let us go on serious Business. You do not prove anything seriously in any competent forum by producing your mobile phone.
    Hon Member, you may continue without --
    Mr Jinapor 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, the point is whether when we were handing over, there either was load shedding or not. I would want to establish that fact, that from 1st January, 2017, till the time we handed over, we never declared load shedding. There was enough, reliable and sustainable power supply. So the submission that the NPP Administration took over the energy sector with dumsor persisting could only be a fallacy of hasty generalisation and would never suffice in this Parliament.
    Mr Speaker, we took over an energy sector and did not blame our predecessors. We sought to fix it and to work towards ensuring that we dealt with the challenge. The first issue we dealt with --
    rose
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    Yes, Hon Deputy Minister?
    Mr Aidoo 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, I stand on Order 70 again, and if you would permit -- I know it has been quoted by --
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    On Standing Order 70(2), I read it myself from the beginning. The Hon Member is not outside the parameters of Standing Order 70(2), otherwise, there would be no debate.
    Mr Jinapor 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, there is always a challenge in the energy sector so when I say we focused on the challenge, that is what I expect the current Hon Minister to be doing, because there would be a challenge to deal with. The first thing has to do with generational challenge.
    It is often said, and the Hon Minister repeated same, that adding generation capacity is the cheapest.
    Mr Speaker, if there is an installed capacity of 2,000 and half of it is hydro and the demand is even 1,900, one cannot conclude that there is enough generation because the hydro is dependent on the elevation of water. So there could be an installed capacity of 1,200 and yet there would be a dependable and available capacity of only 300 megawatts because the water levels had gone down.
    So if we just take the installed capacity and say that Ghana's installed capacity is 2,500 and our peak demand is 2,000 and therefore, do not need generation capacity then they do not understand the sector at all. [Hear! Hear!]. The water levels could go down at any time and when that happens, no matter the amount of financial resources, one cannot elevate the water. That is why we sought thermal complementation in order to have redundancy.
    rose
    Mr Speaker 11:53 a.m.
    Yes, Hon Member?
    Mr Agyeman-Manu 11:53 a.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Colleague is trying to throw dust into our eyes, that no amount of resources can bring water in to the -- has he forgotten that Ex-President Kufuor went there and said just a prayer and the lake was full -- [Laughter] -- What is he talking about?
    Mr Jinapor 12:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon senior Colleague said that Ex-President Kufuor went there and by praying there was water. Mr Speaker, you have been a former Hon Minister for Energy. If this is the mentality, that is why we are in dumsor today, because prayer alone would not resolve the challenge.

    Mr Speaker, that is why under the Ex- President Mahama's Administration, we brought in AMERI, Aksa, Karpower, T3, Asogli phase II.

    These are the achievements that we had in order to deal with the thermal sector.
    Mr Jinapor 12:03 p.m.


    Mr Speaker, after dealing with the fuel situation, we then resorted to dealing with the financial challenges of the energy sector. That is why we --
    rose
    Mr Speaker 12:03 p.m.
    Hon Member, do you stand on a point of order?
    Dr Boye 12:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, my Hon Colleague attempted to mislead the House. He said that after having brought in Ameri and others, they dealt with the generation problem and that they had to now deal with the fuel problem. He listed the FPSOs --
    Mr Speaker 12:03 p.m.
    Hon Members, this is the aspect I do not like. Let the Hon Member speak.
    Hon Member, wait until the shouting goes down. I do not know why some would like to have their turn in peace but when others take the Floor, then it must be in pieces. That is not right.
    Hon Member, you may speak.
    Dr Boye 12:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I just wanted to make it clear that the presence of FPSOs in Ghana does not mean that we have fuel available to fire the plants. There were serious financial challenges -- [Interruption.] -- My Hon Colleague on the other Side said that after having dealt
    with the generation problem, which was to bring in the plants, he now talks about the fuel that is going to be available for the plants and in mentioning so, he listed FPSOs to create the impression that the availability or presence of an FPSO in Ghana is equivalent to producing fuel. [Interruption.] --
    Mr Speaker 12:03 p.m.
    Hon Members, if you want to continue like that, the debate would be curtailed. Why can he not make his point? Hon Jinapor was allowed to make his point in peace and the other Hon Member is standing on a point of order. Let him conclude. I do not appreciate those who truncate debates.
    Hon Member, you may continue.
    Dr Boye 12:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we all know it is a fact that gas was flared in this country for several months before we built the Atuabo gas plant. What that means is that even if we had gas from an FPSO, it does not mean that it is available to fire plants. That is the point I wanted to make.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity,
    Mr Speaker 12:03 p.m.
    Hon Member, you may conclude.
    Mr Jinapor 12:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I was talking about the financials and we came up with the energy sector levy to deal with the financials but because of time I am concluding.
    Mr Speaker, in 2016, ECG made a profit of GH¢700,000. In 2017, they made a loss of GH¢550 million. In 2018, and today as we speak, the Hon Chairman is here, when they appeared, in only one quarter, they made a loss of GH¢1 billion. GRIDCo made a loss of GH¢148 million. This year, GRIDCo expects to make a loss of GH¢345 million. GNPC wants to borrow US$250 million to go and buy fuel.
    Mr Speaker, I daresay that, today, the challenge confronting the energy sector is that of mismanagement and lack of understanding of the sector which has rendered the sector financially bankrupt. That is why today I am stating on authority before you, that Ghana is witnessing load shedding.
    The sector managers do not want to tell us the truth. The people are experiencing it and I encourage the Hon Minister to come out with nothing but a load shedding timetable so that the people of Ghana can plan themselves.
    Mr Speaker, they can run the energy sector with propaganda but dumsor would expose them. [Hear! Hear!]. They can run the energy sector with commentary but dumsor would expose them. [Hear! Hear!] They can run the energy sector with concocted and convoluted figures but dumsor would at the end of the day expose them.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (Mr Osei Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu) 12:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thank you very much. For those of them who do not know -- [Interruption] --
    Mr Speaker 12:03 p.m.
    Hon Members, there would be order and that would be the minimum requirement.
    Yes, Hon Majority Leader?
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we have listened to the Hon Minister for Energy who has come to tell us about what really is causing the power tripping in the country.
    Mr Speaker, it is unfortunate that at this stage and age people confuse termi- nologies. People do not even know the difference between power tripping and power outages and blackouts. [Interruption.] That is most unfor- tunate. If one cannot tell the difference between a power tripping and a blackout, then God have mercy on him.
    Mr Speaker, we are told that it is the NDC that built the building blocks to generate power in this country. That is the absurdity of the highest order. I have insisted in this House that President Rawlings, before he exited, apart from Akosombo, also added some generation capacity.
    Mr Speaker, Rawlings' effort yielded 580 megawatts. I have spoken to this in the House. I cannot understand why people decide to run away from the truth. President Kufuor added, again, a capacity of 1,452 megawatts. That is a matter of record. I am not going to repeat myself. I have stated this as a fact in this House.
    Mr Speaker, between Kufuor and Rawlings, additional generational capacity of 2,278 megawatts were added. That is apart from the 1,000 megawatts of Akosombo.
    Mr Jinapor 12:03 p.m.
    On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Majority Leader is grossly misleading this House. He claims that President Kufuor added more than a 1000 megawatts by the time he left. Mr Speaker, I am putting it on record that between 2001 to January 7, 2009, when President Kufuor exited office, the only installed capacity which he added was the mines reserve plant that was purchased by the mining companies.
    By the time President Kufuor left office, not up to even 200 megawatts had been added to it. I am therefore challenging
    Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, people may want to listen to themselves but they must listen when others speak. I spoke about the generation capacity that was commenced by President Kufuor -- [Interruption.] Yes, or added to -- Mr Speaker, the Hon Member who just sat down indicated to us without shame that TICO was started by the NDC -- [Interruption] -- He said so here. That is palpable falsehood.
    Mr Speaker, T3 was not started by the NDC; it was started by the Kufuor Administration. Why can they not align themselves with truthfulness? The T3 was started by the Kufuor Administration. During the Kufuor administration, CAPS, was established.
    Mr Speaker, when they came, what they did was that, because it was not ready, they forced its commissioning and destroyed it. They then needed US$275 million to refurbish it. Their administration destroyed T3, and they have decided not to live with the truth.
    Mr Speaker, Sonor-Asogli Power Ltd was started during Kufuor's time. Under him, Akosombo was retrofitted to produce from 900 megawatts to 1000 megawatts. They do not even know this, and they do not care to know. They engage in propaganda; they cannot do so in this House.
    Mr Speaker, we have insisted that under the NDC, the problem of the shortages was attributable to both
    financial and managerial incompetencies. We have alluded to these matters here, and we do not need to repeat ourselves.
    Mr Speaker, in 2011 to 2012, Govern- ment was indebted to the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (ECG) to the tune of GH¢700 million, and it was also indebted to the Volta River Authority (VRA). Government owed the Bulk Distribution Companies (BDC) hugely, and huge interests were piling up.
    Mr Speaker, the combined effects of these three was what led us to the dumsor. These were the three: financial, managerial and incompetence. When we assumed office during the Administration of President Kufuor, the power generation capacity in this country was in excess of 3,000 megawatts. The generating unit that had been commenced -- what Kufuor and Rawlings did, the two together -- was in excess of 3,000 megawatts.
    Mr Speaker, therefore, we have said that what they did was the Karpower bringing 450 megawatts, APR Energy added 250 megawatts, GE, 300 megawatts, Ameri and so on. Nobody is saying that the NDC did not do anything at all, but that is what the Hon Minister spoke about. What we need, even today, is in the region of 2,500 to 2,600 megawatts. If they met 3,200 plus megawatts, then what was therefore the urgent need?
    If they had managed it well, this nation would not have been plunged into darkness, and that is the simple truth. Lack of planning, as I said, and managerial incompetence on their part -- Yes, they added to it, but today, what we have is in the excess of 4,000 megawatts, and that is true. In fact, it is in the region of almost 4,800 megawatts.
    Mr Speaker, again, we know the contractual agreement that we entered into, and that is what the Hon Minister
    spoke about. Take it or leave it, why did they have to do it? Take or pay, why did they have to do that, to the extent that, today, every month, this nation has to pay what the Hon Minister alluded to of over US$25 million?
    We should interrogate it and know how come they did these arrangements. The people of this country would get to know very soon, why they entered into those bogus agreements. We should be candid with truthfulness, and not propaganda.

    Mr Speaker, when we talk about the northern parts of this country, we are not talking about the Northern, the Upper East and the Upper West Regions. In reality, the northern parts include the Brong Ahafo Region.

    In fact, sometimes we even include the Ashanti Region. People do not even know these simple truths, so they rise up and tell us that the Hon Minister was only talking about Accra. Please, when someone talks, we should listen. This is not Radio Gold, but the Parliament of Ghana.

    Mr Speaker, therefore, they should listen well when they make attributions, especially when the Hon Minister is here talking to us. They are rather misquoting him right here in this Chamber.

    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister has indicated to us, and has given us timelines that by next week, this problem would be resolved. He has spoken to the causes of

    power outages that we have seen, and the effort that has gone into remedying the situation.

    Mr Speaker, we have faith, and I have said that God is on the side of the optimist. God certainly is not on the side of the pessimist, who by their mouths, would want to plunge this nation into eternal darkness. Light would shine in this country, and the people of this country would know where the truth lies. As the Good Book says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” The pessimists would be disappointed, but the optimist would live to see the light of day.

    Mr Speaker, I thank you very much.
    rose
    Mr Speaker 12:13 p.m.
    Yes, Hon Collins Dauda? Hon Member, you should be mindful
    of the time.
    Alhgaji Collins Dauda (NDC -- Asutifi South): Thank you, Mr Speaker -
    - 12:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker 12:13 p.m.
    Is the Hon Minister inclined to make a concluding remark?
    Alhaji Collins Dauda 12:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thought you gave me the --
    [Interruption] --
    Mr Amewu 12:13 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Speaker, let me use this opportunity to thank the House for granting me the opportunity to explain the power situation to this august House.
    Mr Speaker, I would want to assure the House and the people of Ghana that the era of reckless signing of power purchase
    Mr Amewu 12:23 p.m.


    agreements, the era of mismanagement of the power sector, the era where the political pocket of individuals are taken into consideration regarding the importance of the consumers, the era where Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) are signed without due diligence; and the era where this country was opened up to every Tom, Dick and Harry to come in and sign PPAs are gone. That era is gone for ever.

    Mr Speaker, today, had His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo not assumed the power of this country, there would have been an addition of over 2000 megawatts of power to the existing capacity. Our available restored capacity would today be in an excess of over 7,000 megawatts, while our peak demand is just about 2,600 megawatts.

    The poor Ghanaians and our cherished customers and consumers would have to socialise that cost of excess capacity, which somebody must pay for. That era would never ever be witnessed in the history of this country. The era where Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) were signed without taking into consideration the rate of the tariff, the issue of take or pay, without considering what Ghanaians would pay is gone.

    Mr Speaker, I am happy to announce to this House that under H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we have begun to consider a regime of take and pay. We cannot continue to pay for goods and services that we are not consuming. That era is gone. We believe that the issues of take and pay must begin to trigger down to every Ghanaian. We would continue to make sure that higher excessive regimes of tariffs being consulted would no longer be witnessed by any Ghanaian at all.

    Mr Speaker, gas Power Purchase Agreements have been signed without considering what the price would be.

    Mr Speaker, this Government has taken the trouble to negotiate the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) gas price. We have brought it down by a margin of almost about US$2 and that translates to almost about US$50 million per annum for the consuming public of this country.
    Mr Speaker 12:23 p.m.
    Hon Minister, thank you very much for attending to the House and briefing this Honourable House. You are respectfully discharged.
    Hon Members, item numbered 4.
    Hon Minister for Health, if you may please take the appropriate seat.

    Hon Members, Question *549, which stands in the name of the Hon Member for Pusiga.
    ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS 12:23 p.m.
    MINISTRY OF HEALTH 12:23 p.m.
    Minister for Health (Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu) 12:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Health is aware that the population of Pusiga is growing and as part of our policy, it will require a much wider service package than the current health facility is providing.
    Therefore, the Government has earmarked Pusiga for the construction of a new district hospital under a package to be announced by the Government.
    Preparatory works on the Pusiga Hospital will commence when the package is firmed up by Government and all statutory approvals have been received. This is likely to commence in the 3rd quarter of 2019.
    Ms Ayamba 12:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, based on the response of the Hon Minister, where he states, and I beg to read;
    “Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Health is aware that the population of Pusiga is growing and as part of our policy it will require a much wider service package than the current health facility is providing.”
    Mr Speaker, I wish to find out from the Hon Minister if any feasibility studies have been done, and if so, in which part of Pusiga will the facility be constructed?
    Mr Agyeman-Manu 12:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we have not as yet located the land on which we will put the hospital. I was in the Upper East Region about two weeks ago and we went round Bawku, Sandema, Nabdam, Bongo, and we did the tour with the Regional Director of Health Services. All the feasibility works and the design for the hospital have been completed.
    As I said, this is part of a package that would soon be announced by Government. I do not want to go into
    details at the moment. But when it happens, she will see what we are going to put up in Pusiga — a full-fledged district hospital that will serve the purpose that my Hon Colleague is asking for.
    Mr Speaker 12:23 p.m.
    Hon Member, your last supplementary question.
    Ms Ayamba 12:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister is drawing my attention to the fact that it is yet to be announced and unless it is announced, he will not be able to tell me what facilities will come in the hospital.
    With this, I would be grateful if the Hon Minister would inform me whenever the matter comes up, and what facilities are there. Even if I do not put a Question up -- I do not know if the Hon Minister would be able to do that for me?
    Mr Speaker 12:23 p.m.
    Hon Member, will you help with the provision of the land?
    Ms Ayamba 12:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes please. Land is readily available in Pusiga. Pusiga has two sub-districts and we have more than enough lands at the main district where the capital is. I will be ready to help acquire the required land.
    Mr Speaker 12:23 p.m.
    I am sure you will inform the Hon Minister accordingly and deliver land on his plate.
    Ms Ayamba 12:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I will do that.
    Mr Speaker 12:23 p.m.
    Hon Minister, any further comment on what has been said?
    Mr Agyeman-Manu 12:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I just want to assure my Hon Colleague that the announcement would be made adequately enough and I will also get closer to her to intimate to her what exactly the design is, and how much is going to be in it, et
    Mr Agyeman-Manu 12:23 p.m.


    cetera. Government is packaging about 23 new district hospitals to be done and that is why I said Pusiga has been earmarked and we will fix it there. It is not only Pusiga, there is another area in the Upper East that will also benefit. We are looking at land situation.

    Mr Speaker, but I am glad that you asked about land. On my tour, what came up was that land acquisition in Upper East for hospitals is a challenge. When one goes to Bongo, it is a problem. Even the midwifery school at Bolgatanga and another nursing training school, they are just about in town.

    The site of the hospital in Bongo now, if we want to up any facility, we would have to negotiate again with the particular landlord to procure before we can put anything there. They cannot even put a fence wall around the hospital. And so the land issue is not just something that is very easy.

    That is why I said earlier that we have asked the Regional Director for Health Services to be looking around very quickly for us to identify lands. And so if my Hon Colleague says that she will facilitate our land acquisition, I will also get closer to her to make our work a bit easier.
    Mr Speaker 12:23 p.m.
    Thank you very much and upon that, we have completed with you.
    Mr Speaker 12:23 p.m.
    Hon Deputy Majority Leader, you may move to item numbered
    6.
    Ms Safo 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you very much. At this point, we can take item numbered 6 on the Order Paper --
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    I am asking that you move it, please.
    Ms Safo 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for giving me the permission to lay - we need to lay the Report --
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    We are laying it at this stage.
    PAPERS 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Are you ready for items numbered 7 and 8?
    Ms Safo 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am ready for item numbered 8 and with your permission, I wish to move the Motion on behalf of the Hon Chairman of the Committee who is currently chairing the Appointments Committee.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Is that the Motion numbered 8?
    Ms Safo 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, rightly so.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Please, you may do so.
    MOTIONS 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Thank you. Please, who seconds the Motion?
    Dr Anthony A. Osei 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion.
    Question put and Motion agreed to.
    Resolved accordingly.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Item numbered 9 -- Hon Chairman of the Committee?
    Report on the Proposed Formula for GETFund, 2019
    Deputy Majority Leader (Ms Sarah A. Safo) (on behalf of the Chairman of the Committee): Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that this Honourable House adopts the Report of the Committee of the Whole on the Proposed Formula for the Distribution of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for the Year 2019.
    In doing so, I present your Committee's Report.
    Introduction
    In fulfilment of the provisions of section 8 (2) of the Ghana Education Trust Fund Act of 2000, (Act 581), the Distribution Formula for moneys expected to accrue to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for year 2019 was laid in Parliament on Tuesday, 12th March, 2019 and referred to the Committee of the Whole for consideration and report.
    The Committee subsequently met on Wednesday, 13th March, 2019 and considered the referral.
    The Committee is grateful to the Hon Minister for Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, and the Administrator of the Fund, Mr Richard Boadu, for providing clarifications on the proposed Formula.
    Reference Documents
    The Committee, in preparing its Report, availed itself of the following documents:
    i.The Standing Orders of the House.
    ii. The Ghana Education Trust Fund Act of 2000 (Act 581).
    iii. The Formula for the Distribution of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for year 2018.
    iv. Report of the Committee of the Whole on The Formula for the Distribution of the Ghana Educa- tion Trust Fund (GETFund) for year 2018.
    Background Information
    Subsections (1) and (2) of section 8 of Act 581 mandates the Board of Trustees of the Fund to submit annually to Parliament for approval, a Formula for the distribution of funds in respect of the following:
    a. tertiary education;
    b. Second cycle education;
    c. basic education;
    d. investment; and
    e. other related aspects of educa- tion, such as distance educa- tion,school and public libraries and special education.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Section 8 (3) of Act 581 also stipulates
    that in arriving at the Formula for the distribution of proceeds of the GETFund, some crucial factors that relate to education delivery and development in the country should be taken into account. In fulfilment of section 8(3) of Act 581 therefore, the Board of Trustees of the Fund took the following factors into consideration in arriving at the 2019 Formula for the distribution of the Fund:
    i.Promotion of the study of Mathematics, Science, and Technology.
    ii. Advancement of female educa- tion.
    iii. Reduction in the high level of illiteracy in historically dis- advantaged areas.
    v. Promotion of computer, voca- tional and technical education and training.
    vi. Equitable allocation of funds to the Districts at the Pre-Tertiary level of education.
    Observations and Recommendations.
    Review of Year 2018 Performance of the GETFund
    a. GETFund Allocation for year 2018
    The Committee observed that an amount of nine hundred and twenty- four million, eight hundred and four thousand, five hundred and forty-three cedis (GH¢924,804,543.00) was approved by the House for the Fund for year 2018.
    The Committee further observed that out of the approved figure, an amount of four hundred and seventy-seven million, five hundred and eleven thousand, six
    hundred cedis (GH¢477,511,600.00) was realigned towards government priority programmes. Thus, the Fund was left with an amount of four hundred and forty- seven million, two hundred and ninety- two thousand, nine hundred and forty- five cedis (GH¢447,292,945.00) for the funding of its regular projects and programmes.
    b. Disbursement of Accruals for the Year
    2018
    The Committee noted that notwith- standing the fact that an amount of GH¢924,804,543.00 was approved by the House for year 2018, actual accrual to the Fund was nine hundred and fifteen million, eight hundred and forty-two thousand, seven hundred and forty-eight cedis, forty- five pesewas (GH¢915,842,748.45).
    Out of this amount, only four hundred and four million, seven hundred and nineteen thousand, five hundred and seventy-two cedis, ninety-four pesewas (GH¢404,719,572.94) representing 44.19 per cent was released to the Fund leaving an outstanding amount of five hundred and eleven million, one hundred and twenty-three thousand, one hundred and seventy-five cedis, fifty-one pesewas (GH¢511,123,175.51) as at 31st December, 2018.
    It is worth noting that an amount of one hundred and seventy-two thousand, five hundred and forty-five thousand and seventy-eight cedis (GH¢172,545,078.00) out of the GH¢404,719,572.00 released to the Fund was used to cater for realigned government priority programmes leaving the Fund with an amount of two hundred and thirty-two million, one hundred and seventy-four thousand, four hundred and ninety-four cedis (GH¢232,174,494.00) for its regular projects and programmes.
    In spite of the above, the Fund was able to undertake some major projects which are at various stages of completion. These include:
    Construction and rehabilitation of dormitories, classrooms, dining halls and other facilities at various Senior High Schools.
    Construction and rehabilitation of basic school classroom blocks.
    Construction of kindergarten facilities.
    Provision of whiteboard and markers in some Senior Highs.
    Supply of classroom furniture, beds and mattresses to various Schools.
    The Committee expressed grave concern about the delays in the payment of accruals to GETFund and as such those delays adversely affected the implemen- tation of planned projects and programmes.
    The Committee therefore urges the Ministry of Finance to release the outstanding amount of GH¢511,123,175.51 in respect of year 2018 as a matter of urgency to enable GETFund meet its 2018 commitments and liabilities.
    Securitisation of Getfund Receipts
    The Committee noted that in year 2018, the House gave approval to the Ministries of Education and Finance to securitise a portion of GETFund receipts to raise a US$1.5 billion loan facility for the provision of educational infrastructure.
    The Committee was informed that the GETFund, through the Ministry of Education, would access the loan facility in three tranches of US$500 million over a period. Thus, the cedi equivalent of the first tranche of US$500 million would be utilised by GETFund in year 2019.
    Projected Accruals For The 2019 Fiscal Year
    As indicated in the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2019 Financial Year, an amount of one billion, two hundred and six million, seven hundred and sixty-four thousand cedis (GH¢1,206,764,000.00) is expected to accrue into the GETFund for year 2019. The distribution of the amount of GH¢1,206,764,000.00 per the various sub-sectors of education and other related areas is shown in the Table below:

    SPACE FOR TABLE PAGE 7 -- 12.33 PM
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.


    Focus Areas of GETFund for year 2019

    The Committee noted that the major area of focus of the Fund for year 2019 will be the servicing of the first tranche (US$500 million) of the long term facility approved by the House in year 2018.

    Other areas that the Fund would focus on are as follows:

    i. Completion of ongoing projects and payment of arrears.

    ii. Construction of new facilities across all sectors of education.

    iii. Construction of kindergarten facilities.

    iv. Regulatory and Policy reforms.

    Components of the above projects and programmes include the following:

    a. provision of academic facilities and infrastructure;

    b. allocation of funds to the Students Loan Trust Fund;

    c. scholarships; and

    d. procurement of teaching and learning materials.

    It is important to note that in addition to the above areas of focus of the Fund for year 2019, attention would be given to priority needs at all levels of education.

    Allocation to Tertiary Education

    The Committee noted that for year 2019, tertiary education has been allocated an amount of GH¢318,626,000.00 represen- ting 26.40 per cent of funds expected to

    accrue to the Fund to support a range of activities and interventions.

    The Committee was informed that the high allocation to tertiary education is based on the fact that government is mindful of the impending impact of increased enrolment in tertiary institutions due to the Free Senior High School Policy. Against this backdrop, an additional amount of GH¢140,778,446.00 out of the first tranche of the (US$500 million) of the long term loan facility, has been allocated to tertiary education for the development of essential projects.

    Allocation to Second Cycle Education

    An amount of GH¢160,500,000.00 representing 13.30 percent of the expected accruals to the Fund for year 2019 has been provided for second cycle education. The Committee noted that the allocation would be utilised for the payment of specific projects and programmes. Second Cycle Education would also benefit from an amount of GH¢1,278,306,720.00 from the first tranche of the US$500 million of the long term loan facility for critical Senior High School projects.

    Allocation to Basic Education

    The Committee observed that an amount of GH¢160,803,000.00 represen- ting 13.33 per cent of the total accruals for year 2019 has been earmarked for projects and programmes at the basic level. Basic Education would also benefit from an amount of GH¢207,749,981.00 from the first tranche of the US$500 million of the long term loan facility for basic schools infrastructure and for the procurement of teaching and learning materials.

    Allocation for Investment

    The Committee observed that for the first time in many years, the Board of Trustees of the GETFund has heeded to

    Parliament's call to adhere strictly to the provisions of section 8 (2) of Act 581 by allocating funds for investment activities in the Education Sector.

    The Committee noted that for year 2019 an amount of GH¢3,016,910.00 represen- ting 0.25 per cent of the total amount expected to accrue to the Fund has been earmarked for investment activities. This figure is incorporated in the amount of GH¢115,511,000.00 allocated to the Ministry of Education, institutions and agencies within the education sector.

    The Committee considers this, a step in the right direction and urges the managers of the Fund to ensure sustained allocation for investment activities.

    Conclusion

    Undeniably, the GETFund plays an important role in the development of education in the country. The Committee, having considered the Distribution Formula of expected inflows into the Fund for year 2019, is of the view that the amount to be accrued would go a long way to Support critical projects and programmes for the development of education in the country.

    In this regard, the Committee urges the Ministry of Finance to ensure timely releases of accruals in order not to disrupt GETFund's schedule for the implemen- tation of planned projects and pro- grammes.

    The Committee hereby recommends to the House to approve the 2019 GETFund Distribution Formula for an amount of one billion, two hundred and six million, seven hundred and sixty-four thousand cedis (GH¢1,206,764,000.00) to enable the GETFund Secretariat to distribute same to the specified areas of the Education Sector.

    Respectfully submitted.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Thank you very much, Hon Deputy Majority Leader. Any seconder?
    Mr Haruna Iddrisu 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion.
    Question proposed.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    One contribution from each Side.
    Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe (NDC -- Akatsi North) 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I under the GETFund Act --
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    This is a unanimous decision of the Committee; let us have some brief comments without taking us back to the Act. So please, make your comments.
    Mr Nortsu-Kotoe 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity. As part of the GETFund Act, the Formula for distribution and allocation is approved by this House --
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    That is why we are here. Please, proceed.
    Mr Nortsu-Kotoe 12:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in this year's distribution Formula, an amount of GH¢1.2 billion has been allocated. Last year, we had GH¢924 million allocated but reports have it that not all that was due to the GETFund was released and that has adversely affected the performance of the Fund.
    Mr Speaker, what is worrying is that even as at December 2018, the Ministry of Finance is yet to release an amount of GH¢76,606,349 to the GETFund for its activities. This late release of funds is affecting the GETFund looking at the huge task that the institution faces.
    Mr Nortsu-Kotoe 12:33 p.m.


    So I wish to urge the House to ensure that the Hon Minister for Finance regularly releases money to the GETFund for it to carry out its activities.

    If we look at the performance of the GETFund, it largely depends on money from the Ministry of Finance because it does not have any investment from which it makes money to carry out its activities. Therefore we hope that the Hon Minister for Finance will make sure that funds are released regularly for GETFund.

    Mr Speaker, we also know that, maybe, two years to come, the first batch of Free Senior High School students would graduate to enter the tertiary institution and we need enough facilities. So there is the need for enough money to be released to the GETFund to meet the coming challenges -- and not necessarily, the GETFund, but the Ministry of Education could be allocated a special fund for that purpose so that we do not face the challenges we are facing now when it comes to tertiary education next year.

    It is our hope that at the appropriate time, the GETFund Act will be amended because as it is now, there are a number of challenges that we need to address. So I urge the Hon Minister for Education to look at the Act holistically and come out with proposed amendments that can strengthen the activities of the GETFund.

    Mr Speaker, on that note, I support the Motion.
    Mr Speaker 12:33 p.m.
    Thank you very much. Save that Hon Members may now seriously consider relaying these matters to the newly established legal department below my office block so that it will not be a matter of Parliament always waiting for some other institutions to initiate legislation.
    So, Hon Member, I will advise that after the Sitting, you see me in connection with this. I could see your Hon Leader nodding favourably and I am sure he would like to assist in this regard.
    Thank you very much.
    Mr Alex K. Agyekum (NPP -- Mpohor) 12:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Report.
    Mr Speaker, I am particularly excited about the Report, especially on the observations at paragraph 5.4. Mr Speaker, we have gradually arrived at the era where we plan ahead and we do not want a situation where events would overtake us. So the Report indicates that allocation to tertiary education -- Mr Speaker, with your permission, I beg to read paragraph
    5.4:
    “The Committee was informed that the high allocation to tertiary education is based on the fact that government is mindful of the impending impact of increased enrolment in tertiary institutions due to the Free Senior High School Policy.”
    Mr Speaker, this is an integrated approach to development -- there is no policy disjoint. One policy is done and it is ensured that the ripple effect that would result from the policy is handled effectively.
    So this particular allocation is to ensure that some linear projection is done into the future, and that linear projection is that we look at the current enrolment and what would happen two or three years ahead and provision is made for that so that it
    does not take us unawares. Mr Speaker, we are grateful for this particular insight.
    Mr Speaker, paragraph 5.7 is similar to such projections into the future. investments that are supposed to be done today are not done, then the amount that is required to do the same investment would quadruple -- so the policy to ensure that specific investment earmarked for a particular project is done.
    Mr Speaker, it is not just mere saying but there is an amount that has been allocated for that and the Committee's recommendation to the management of the Fund specifies that whatever has been allocated must be utilised for the said purpose. Mr Speaker, this is welcomed by some of us.
    Mr Speaker, with these few comments I hope that this House would adopt the Report, and as an Hon Member of the Committee, we would ensure that these issues that have been specified would be followed to the letter so that planning for our education sector would systema- tically follow the government's policy on education.
    Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity.
    Mr Speaker 12:43 p.m.
    Thank you very much.
    In fact, I did say that one contribution from each Side, including the Hon Leaders but -- very well.
    Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu) 12:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to support the Motion for the approval of the sum of money as indicated in the last paragraph of the conclusion in the Report to enable the GETFund Secretariat to distribute same to specific --
    Mr Speaker 12:43 p.m.
    The Hon Second Deputy Speaker would please take the Chair at this stage.
    Mr Iddrisu 12:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in doing so, I would refer you to page 5 of the Committee's Report and you would see that the request for GH¢1.2 billion has been broken down to Debt Service Reserve which is GH¢255 million, Debt Service Account is GH¢170 million, Tertiary Education is GH¢318 million and Second Cycle Education is GH¢160 million.
    Mr Speaker, this is my specific interest. If you look at the Petroleum Funds report for 2017, an additional GH¢672 million was spent on second cycle education. Mr Speaker, for 2017 and 2018 we have GH¢212 million and GH¢672 million, respectively.
    Mr Speaker, my wish would be that tomorrow, the Hon Minister for Education would give us a breakdown of how he intends to spend the GH¢318 million on tertiary education. Mr Speaker, the reason is that the universities are not equally endowed; some are more endowed than others and some have developed more rigorous infrastructure than others.
    Therefore for us to be able to monitor the progress of this money, it would be important for us to know that of the GH¢318 million, how much would the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) get and for what? How much would the University of Ghana, University for Development Studies and University for Health and Allied Sciences all get and for what?
    Mr Speaker, I think that we should approve this akin to the Appropriation Formula. When we take the wholesale of GH¢318 million, then it makes our
    Mr Iddrisu 12:53 p.m.


    oversight difficult. We have to know where it is going and for what purpose.

    Mr Speaker, maybe, for KNUST it would be for a lecture theatre infrastructure and for another it maybe for accommodation or other things. This is my first observation.

    My second observation regards second cycle education and whether in this Formula we have taken on board the President's announcement pursuant to the State of the Nation Address of making everything free when he extended the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education to include secondary education.

    Mr Speaker, this must reflect in their spending so that they give meaning to these policy decisions of government. Mr Speaker, this is also important for me.

    Mr Speaker, my final comment is on paragraph 5 and I beg to quote the “Securitisation of GETFund Receipts.

    “The Committee noted that in the year 2018, the House gave approval to the Ministries of Education and Finance to securitise a portion of GETFund receipts to raise a US$1.5 billion loan facility ...”

    Mr Speaker, during the debate, we drew the attention of Government and the Ministry of Education to the fact that they did not need all the US$1.5 billion and we were told that it would come in three tranches of US$500 million per take.

    Mr Speaker, but if you go to what we approved, the bank said that a certain percentage per annum. Would the interest per annum be based on the US$500 million that we would get or it would be based on the US$1.5 billion?

    I said that if we say US$1.5 billion then would the interest per annum calculation -- the banks are here to make profit and they would put it on the US$1.5 billion but when we actually know that our immediate need would be the US$500 million and an additional US$500 million later.

    So we would need to be guided as we do this. Mr Speaker, I note that in respect of this financing -- except when we raised it on the Floor, that the Hon Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation mentioned the bank. It is important that when matters are referred to this House it would be well documented.

    My concern is that how could we borrow US$1.5 billion without a named financial institution only for it to be provided as an auxiliary to a comment by an Hon Minister. I do not think that is appropriate.

    Mr Speaker, yes, we could borrow and scrutinise GETFund but it means that the Hon Minister for Education should know that he would get less resources in 2019 for many of his projects because much of the money would be used for purpose of debt service.

    In one breath, he has helped government in order not to accommodate arrears and to also clear arrears but the opportunity cost is that he cannot undertake new projects.

    Mr Speaker, yet he would still need to expand infrastructure under the free senior high school programme and the universities need to expand their infrastructure.

    Mr Speaker, on tertiary education, my strongest recommendation to the Hon

    Minister is that we need to have a national conversation on the future of higher education. All the universities are departing from their core mandates and missions and we are continuing to produce graduates who are not employable and not fit for our purposes.

    That cannot be. We should project into the future, as a country, what our manpower needs are. The world is driven towards science and innovation, and we are still interested in producing more persons in marketing and social sciences.

    Mr Speaker, I support this and to also state without fear of contradiction that I do not think the quest by the Hon Minister as was announced to centralised admission to the universities is right; neither do I share the thinking that Free Basic Compulsory Universal Education, by the remit of the Constitution can be extended to senior high education.

    What we should know as a country is that, my understanding of the constitutional article of progressively free education was for us to have achieved free compulsory universal basic education. We have not achieved that, as a country, notwithstanding all the development plans and interventions we have done.

    So the Hon Minister should let us pay particular attention to FCUBE, and achieve it before we progress. I am afraid of the quality of graduates who would come out from our senior high schools, and we must all be concerned. That is when we should measure policy success, the quality outcomes of it.

    With these comments, Mr Speaker, I support the Motion.

    With these comments, Mr Speaker, I support the Motion.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Yes, Hon Deputy Majority Leader?
    Ms Safo 12:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, respectfully, I moved the Motion for the adoption of the Report on behalf of the Hon First Deputy Speaker. So for Leadership, we would want to defer to the Hon Member for Oforikrom.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Not the Hon Minister for Education or you would want another slot for the Hon Minister?
    Ms Safo 12:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Minister for Education has indicated that he wants to make his concluding remarks.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Minister?
    Minister for Education (Dr Matthew O. Prempeh (MP) 12:55 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to this Motion. I must say that I have taken copious notes of what Hon Members have suggested, and we would take them into consideration when we are administering the Fund this year.
    On that note, I thank Hon Members for participating in the debate and for funding the GETFund this year.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    The Hon Minister has concluded the debate. I would put the Question.
    Question put and Motion agreed to.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Deputy Majority Leader, do we move on to item numbered 10?
    Ms Safo 12:55 p.m.
    Rightly so, Mr Speaker. The Hon Chairman of the Committee is here.
    Ms Safo 12:55 p.m.


    Mr Speaker, I have a Statement which I am told was admitted by Mr Speaker. But the Hon Minister for Energy came in and made a Statement to apprise the House of issues concerning power outages in the country. That was the only Statement that was taken, but this Statement has also been admitted for today.

    It is by Hon Ato Pamford on the need to draw urgent attention of the House to the serious challenges of importers' substandard electrical cables and gadgets which pose critical challenges to Ghanaian customers and the efforts of the Ghana Standards Authority.

    Mr Speaker, since we are in the ‘energy mood', I thought you would respectfully admit that Statement before we move to the continuation of the Consideration Stage of the Payment Systems and Services Bill, 2018.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Deputy Majority Leader, unfortunately, I do not have any Statement here with me, and the Rt Hon Speaker has not given me any such instructions. So it would be difficult for me to grant the permission to the Hon Member to make the Statement.
    The Rt Hon Speaker directed me to continue with the Consideration Stage of the Bill. That is what I have. If I get any further instruction from the Rt Hon Speaker, I would do so, but I do not have that as of now. I have not seen the Statement; I have not read it; and I do not know the content.
    As you know by our procedure, even though the Rt Hon Speaker could have admitted it, at least, I being the one presiding at this time, I should have sight and knowledge of the content before I grant the opportunity.
    Unfortunately, I would not be able to grant that request. Let us continue to item numbered 10 and go on with the Consideration Stage of the Bill.
    Ms Safo 12:55 p.m.
    I am most grateful, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Members, item numbered 10 -- Payment Systems and Services Bill, 2018 at the Consideration Stage.
    BILLS -- CONSIDERATION STAGE 12:55 p.m.
  • [Continuation of debate from 14/ 03.19]
    • Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Members, we left off at clause 81, so we are to continue today on clause 82. We have three proposed amendments all in the name of the Hon Chairman of the Committee. Hon Chairman, you may move the amendments now.
    Clause 82 -- Verification of payment instrument
    Chairman of the Committee (Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah) 12:55 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 82, head note, at end, delete “payment instrument” and insert cheque”.
    The headnote would read: “Verification of cheques”.
    Mr Speaker, the entire clause is solely dedicated to cheques and no other payment instrument. So for specificity, the headnote should read “verification of cheques”.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 12:55 p.m.
    Hon Chairman, it means you are going to make further amendments to the body of the clause. Does it talk about payment instruments?
    Clause 82(1) says:
    “The collecting and presenting bank shall be responsible for the clearing or verifying payment instruments based on images and biometric ink character recognition code line data.”
    Now you want us to amend the “payment instrument” to “cheques”.
    Would you be amending it further?
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I would like to abandon the amendment and withdraw same.
    A cheque is a payment instrument, so we wanted to specify that we are dealing with cheques here, but it appears if we left it at “payment instruments” no harm would be caused.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.
    I know that payment instruments go beyond cheques. Cheque is one, so if the intention is to make it specific that you are dealing with only cheques, then we need to amend further the body of that clause, but if it would go beyond cheques, then you have to withdraw your proposed amendment.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, more so, other payment instruments might evolve in the future, so if we kept it at payment instruments, I think it would be better.
    Dr A. A.Osei 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, just to support the Hon Chairman, “payment instruments” is defined, and it goes beyond cheques.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.
    So the proposed amendment is accordingly withdrawn.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.
    So we move to the second proposed amendment, (ii).
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 82, subclause (3), paragraph (a), delete “high value” and insert “high-value”.
    Clause 82, subclause (3), paragraph (b), delete “limit based” and insert “limit- based”.
    Mr Speaker, in the two amendments, we are just inserting the hyphen.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.
    This is actually editing. It is not an amendment, so I would direct that the draftsperson should capture those words properly. It is “high value” spelt with the hyphen, and “limit based” also spelt with a hyphen.
    Clause 82 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Clause 83 -- Accreditation of printer of payment instrument or vendor of payment equipment.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.
    Following precedents, the proposed amendment standing in the name of the Hon Minister for Communication lapses, and I would put the Question on that clause, unless the Hon Chairman has any proposed amendment.
    Clause 83 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Clauses 84 - 87 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.


    agent
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the first amendment is a typographical error. You have clause 88(1), but clause 88 has only one subclause, so the subclause (1) should be deleted.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.
    It is editorial, thank you for drawing our attention. I would direct that it be done. So move the second one.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 88, paragraph (d), delete “bank mail to bank” and insert “mail to”.
    So that clause 88, paragraph (d) would now read, “delivering of mail to customers”.
    Dr Pelpuo 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I suppose that the Hon Chairman should explain why he is taking out the bank, because the transaction is actually between the banks, even though it is in favour of the customer. We do not know why he is deleting it.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, originally in the Bill we had “delivering of bank mail to bank customers”, and we are saying this be amended to read “delivering of mail to customers”.
    The reason being that the mail delivery is not only to bank customers. It is also to electronic money account holders and other forms of e-cash transactions, so the delivery is not only to bank customers.
    Mr Speaker, advert your mind to the opening phrase of the clause.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:03 p.m.
    If you read it from the opening clause, clause 88 says electronic money user and payment service provider may use an agent to perform any of the following functions, and so one of the functions is delivering of mail to customers, and there is “or any other activity authorised by the Bank of Ghana”.
    Question put and amendment agreed to.
    I direct that the draftspersons edit clause 88 by the removal of the subclause numbered (1). There is no other subclause apart from that, so there is no need for the one there.
    Clause 88 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    Hon Members, there are no proposed amendments from clauses 89 to 97 and so I will put the Question on all of them.
    Clauses 89 to 97 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
    Clause 98 -- Regulations
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    We have a proposed amendment which stands in the name of the Hon Chairman. Hon Chairman, you may move the amendment.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 98, subclause (1), delete “in consultation with” and insert “acting on the advice of”.
    Mr Speaker, it is the responsibility of the Minister to make Regulations. He may do that on the advice of the Bank of Ghana.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    Hon Chairman, if my memory serves me right, there are judicial decisions on those phrases. When we say “acting on the advice of”, you have no discretion so it cannot be “may” unless I am wrong. Since we have lawyers here -- When you say “may”, then it deals with the consultation; but when you say “acting on the advice of”, it cannot be “may”. It should be “shall”.
    Hon Members, if my memory serves me right, there are some judicial decisions on this matter.
    Dr Dominic A. Ayine 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, as you rightly pointed out, it is true that there are judicial decisions on the matter. The Supreme Court in Ghana Bar Association vrs Attorney-General held that the phrase “acting on the advice of” or “in consultation with” is not binding. This means that in a situation where you even make it mandatory that they shall consult, the consultation would not be binding on the person who has the final authority to make the decision.
    So in this situation as we find ourselves with respect to this clause, I think that the Hon Chairman is trying to avoid the decision where the consultation will take place or that it is not necessary. So I believe that the Hon Chairman's position should be upheld.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    So what is the position? That it should be “may”? I find it difficult to understand that.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the idea is that the Minister may make Regulations, but when he does so, then he would do so on the advice of BoG. So it is not really that the Minister shall make Regulations. It is that he may make Regulations but when he is making those Regulations, then it would be on the advice of BoG.
    rose
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    Yes, Hon Member for Wa Central? Hon Minister, I will come back to you.
    Dr Pelpuo 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if it is the desire of the Hon Chairman to bind the Minister
    that before policy comes into being, there should be some interaction and some advice from the Bank of Ghana, I believe we can go along with this because BoG, exclusively, is the regulatory body that deals with issues about money. But if it is about mere consultation, he needs not change it at all. In my opinion, it should be allowed to stand as it is.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, Hon Ayine has given us his understanding of the judicial decision. First of all, I do not think we should use “shall” as he said; it should be “may”.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    As the Hon Member for Suhum said.
    Dr A.A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if I understood him correctly, whether we use “in consultation with” or “on the advice of”, it does not matter but “may” should be there because it is not automatic that Regulations should be made. When it is necessary, he may and if it is not binding, then I do not think that whether we use “in consultation with” or “on the advice of” makes a difference. That is my opinion.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we should understand it clearly so that we can all couch it properly. The banking regulation would have to emanate from BoG; it cannot be from the Minister. The Governor of BoG does not also have locus here, so it is the Minister that would have to bring the regulations to Parliament.
    The idea therefore is that before the Hon Minister brings Regulations, he must necessarily do so on the advice of the Bank of Ghana. The Minister on his own should not get up and start making banking regulations. It will not help the sector because we want BoG to have that independence that we always talk about. The Minister for Finance cannot start
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    But the advice is not binding.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:13 p.m.
    That is why we are trying to say that the Minister on his own cannot bring Regulations so any time he brings them, then it has to be on the advice of the Bank of Ghana. How would we couch that without letting it appear that Regulations need to be made by all means by using “shall”? We have to find a way to phrase it properly.
    1. 23 p. m.
    Dr Ayine 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I believe there are two dimensions to this. I thought in explaining the requirement to use either “may” or “shall”, I just explained what the courts have held. However, the question is whether in the context of this Bill, we should empower the Minister to make Regulations to prescribe for matters required by this Bill.
    Mr Speaker, as Hon Opare-Ansah has said, we do not want a situation where the Hon Minister could bring the Regulations without the input of the Bank of Ghana because the Bank of Ghana is the institution that is supposed to operationalise this Act. So to empower the Minister to bring regulations without consulting the Bank of Ghana may create some sort of institutional disconnect between the Minister and the Bank of Ghana.
    But I think that Parliament should definitely make it a requirement that regulations should be made to opera- tionalise the Act. Otherwise, it is going to be difficult for us to operationalise it.

    There are two dimensions: one is, whether we want the making of regulations to be mandatory; the other is, whether we want the Hon Minister to be bound by the advice of the Bank of Ghana. Those are the two that we need to resolve.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I would like to offer a suggestion and the lawyers— ‘the Minister may, on the advice of the Bank of Ghana, bring regulations' is that binding?
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:13 p.m.
    Are you asking him a question?
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    Yes, Mr Speaker, because he interpreted it in judicial— no, I am seeking his advice. We want it binding.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:13 p.m.
    Are you consul- ting him or seeking his advice? [Laughter.]
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    No, I am proposing an amendment. “The Minister may, on the advice of the Bank of Ghana, make regulations…”
    Dr Ayine 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, it depends on the punctuation. So, if we say, “the Minister may in consultation with the Bank of Ghana” or “the Minister may, on the advice of the Bank of Ghana” — we are vesting discretionary power in the Minister. We are now saying that his consultation with the Bank of Ghana is discretionary.
    But the judicial decisions are to the effect that if we say, “in consultation with” or “on the advice of”, the final decision maker is not bound by the process of the consultation or the advice that is given. So we need to make a distinction between the two; do we want to vest the Minister with discretionary power with respect to the making of regulations or we want to bind the Minister to make the regulations but in so doing, then, consult the Bank of Ghana? They are two different issues.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    Well, do we have to belabour this point?
    Yes, Hon Member for Suhum?
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I believe that we need to split the provision. We could have a clause 98(1) that says;
    A Minister may, by a legislative instrument, make regulations prescribing the matters required by this Act to be prescribed and to be carried out for giving effect to this Act.
    There is a clause 98(2) already so, maybe, a provision before that which says that the regulations in subclause (1) shall be on the advice of the Bank of Ghana so that it is clear that the Minister may bring regulations but clause 98(2) says that those regulations shall be upon the advice of the Bank of Ghana. That way, I think we would be able to go round the problem.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    We have done this many times so why do we have a challenge with this one?
    Yes, Hon Member for Kade?
    Mr Kwabena Ohemeng-Tinayase 1:13 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker. I believe the general idea that we are trying to put up here is to make sure that we have a law that would regulate the system for the betterment of the operations of whatever we want to do. In the light of that, we have two bodies: the Bank of Ghana and the Minister. So it is good that we could draft something that both of them would take a joint decision or agree on a joint position that would favour the monitoring system that we are regulating.
    If we are not able to do that, then it is going to create a disjoint, where the Minister may put up a decision or a policy or law or action, which the governor may not find operational and may not be in the
    interest of the nation and the regulatory system that we want to make. So we need to draft something that would make the two agree on a point that would be in the interest of the payment system.
    So the suggestion is that it should be ‘shall' so that the two would agree on a common point.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    The first question we have to answer is has the Minister a discretion in this matter? Can the Minister decide not to make regulations in this matter? That is the first. Is it discretionary?
    Dr Pelpuo 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I even want to change the emphasis if that is fine. “The Minister in consultation with the Bank of Ghana”, is constant. So rather “using ‘may' than or ‘shall', let us take it out and say, “the Minister, in consultation with the Bank of Ghana, shall…” so that the emphasis would be on ‘shall make regulations'.
    I am saying that making Regulations would be a mandatory thing to do. But whether there is consultation or not, the emphasis on ‘may' or ‘shall' is not necessary at all.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    The answer you are providing is that the Minister has no discretion in the making of the Regulations.
    Dr Pelpuo 1:13 p.m.
    Yes, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    Now, the second question is can the Minister, in making the Regulations, decide not to consult the Bank of Ghana or that the Minister must?
    Dr Pelpuo 1:13 p.m.
    No, Mr Speaker. In the second part of it, ‘the Minister, in consultation with the Bank of Ghana shall
    Dr Pelpuo 1:13 p.m.


    make regulations' so that we do not have any problem about whether it is a ‘may' or a ‘must'. The consultation should just be there but the making of the regulations should be—
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    There are three issues and that is why I am breaking it down so that we could take decisions: the first one is that the Minister has no discretion; he must make regulations.
    Dr Pelpuo 1:13 p.m.
    Yes, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    This law that we are making, are we saying that we can operationalise it without Regula- tions?
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    We have not determined that yet, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    Hon Minister, what else are we to determine in this matter? We have already taken decisions on a lot of the clauses. We are almost at the miscellaneous provisions. Are you saying that these clauses could be put into practice without Regulations?
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Bank has other ways to operationalise this law, not all through Regulations — [Interruption] — rules and guidelines are ways of operating some aspects of this law. My worry is that if there are no regulations and we say, ‘shall', what is the Minister going to do?
    I am supposed to make Regulations but there are no Regulations coming from the advice of the Bank of Ghana.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:13 p.m.
    What are Regulations? Are they not rules? Regu- lations are also rules.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Bank of Ghana cannot give the banks power to make rules in other ways. That
    is what the Hon Minister is saying. But some of those rules and guidelines issued by the banks do not necessarily come to the House as you—
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:33 p.m.
    No, the regulations would by all means incorporate things like forms that one would need to transact or operationalise some of the provisions.
    One cannot do that by either guidelines or administrative directives. [Interrup- tion]. No, that could have been in some other era and not this multi-party democratic era.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in this Bill, we are trying to fuse the Ghana Clearing House rules, the Payment Systems Act and the guidelines governing the issuance of e-money. The BoG, in the Bank of Ghana Act, has the power to issue guidelines, rules and the like and they have been doing it. So, when it comes to the forms and the rest, they issue guidelines which are in their Act.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:33 p.m.
    I am not saying they cannot issue guidelines, but you said that those guidelines would also incorporate things like forms to be used.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if we take the suggestion of the Hon Member for Suhum and slip it, we would achieve what we want. That the first part which is “may'', then in the second part it would be, “in doing so, they shall consult with the Bank of Ghana''. Then the binding one would be done. [Pause]
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:33 p.m.
    The position now is that the Hon Minister is not obliged to make Regulations, and so, we can use the word ‘'may'' and not the word “shall'', but if the Hon Minister is
    minded to make Regulations, he is compelled to consult and not act on their advice. Is that the position? The Hon Minister is not bound to go by the advice or the outcome of the consultation from the BoG. We have to get the understanding of the House so that we know what words to use.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, when the Hon Minister consults, he has to be bound by the results of that process. This is because, per the law that we are making, everything is by the Bank -- operationalising it to give effect to the provisions which are actually to be done by the Bank. The only reason the Hon Minister has to bring it to this House is because the Bank of Ghana has no locus in the House. So when he has consulted the Bank of Ghana and the Bank of Ghana has provided that advice, he should be bound by it.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I disagree with the Hon Member. The Bank of Ghana may advise, but the Hon Minister should be able to disagree. They have to negotiate. If the Bank of Ghana brings some advice that is completely out of the way, Hon Minister should not be compelled to bring it to us. He would not be doing his job as an Hon Minister. [Interruption.] I said that if he disagrees, he should have a position to reject it and not bring it to this House. It should not be that once it comes from the BoG, he should bring it.
    Dr Ayine 1:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, who is the repository of the power? Is it the Hon Minister? We are seeking to invest the power in the Hon Minister. At the end of the day, if the BoG is consulted and the position of the Bank runs contrary to Government policy, can the Hon Minister come to this House and defend that position on behalf of the BoG? The BoG, usually, would act through the Hon Minister when it comes to matters that relate to finance.
    Mr Speaker, I agree with the Hon Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, that in the situation where the consultative process produces a result that is contrary to Government policy or is in disagree- ment with the position of the Hon Minister, he is not bound to take that and bring it to this House to formulate regulations.
    However, I concede that we are making this law basically to aid the BoG to deal with the financial sector so, definitely, its input is very important. But if we are saying that the Hon Minister is the one who wields the power, then ultimately, we cannot also say that the Hon Minister is bound by the consultative process or whatever advice that he is given by the BoG.
    Dr Pelpuo 1:33 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, Hon Ministers do policy and the policies are mostly informed by political decisions. The BoG is in charge of monetary policy and they often are technical and with their regulatory power, they advise on behalf of everybody for the betterment of the financial system in the country.
    If an Hon Minister brings an issue that runs contrary to the regulatory function of the BoG, they have the right to advise to tow the line and it must be binding on him. We cannot allow an Hon Minister to introduce policies that are short term for political reasons that cannot last and cannot generally agree with our overall monitary policy. So I believe that when the advice is taken along with their political decisions, it must be binding on him to agree with it. I believe that position should be what we should take.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:33 p.m.
    That is where we have the problem. Where lies the ultimate responsibility for making Regulations? Is it on the Hon Minister or on the BoG?
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:33 p.m.
    Look at the contents of the Regulations. If you look at subcluase 2, it includes payment of fees, charges and it talks about disciplinary procedures for participants in the operation of the system and the general provision for the effective implementation of the Act.
    Hon Member for Suhum, if the BoG should make inputs into the regulations, is the Hon Minister bound to accept inputs from the BoG or the Hon Minister could revise or change those inputs?
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if I understand the Hon Member for Suhum, even though the Hon Minister consults, we are saying “he may”, so where he disagrees, he does not have to bring the regulations.
    I have consulted and I disagree with them. I do not have to bring them here. We should not compel the Hon Minister to do that. If that is what it means, then I
    support him. This is because he may and where he disagrees, it is his prerogative. If he disagrees, he does not have to bring it here, but when he is bringing it here, there should be consultations.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:43 p.m.
    That is why I asked the first question whether it is discretional. Is the Hon Minister bound to bring Regulations with regard to this Act because of the nature of the Regulations?
    That is the first issue. Once we are able to go over that, then our way would be clearer for us.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if you would recollect, in the last Meeting of the last Session, this House passed the Fees and Charges Act and gave power to the Hon Minister for Finance to so determine what fees and charges the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) could impose, and through Regulations, could come to this House to revise such Regulations. You would realise that in that Act, provision is made for various institutions that charge these fees to be consulted and to make inputs.
    Indeed, during the discussions with the Ministry it emerged that although the Ministry, would have the final say ultimately in bringing what Regulations they have to bring to Parliament, there would be extensive consultations.
    The bodies would have to go and justify new fees and charges that they would want to charge or levy. What this proposal is saying is that, coming to this House is the Minister's prerogative; he comes when he feels he is ready.
    We are saying that if he has any misgiving with even the initial inputs that come from, say, the Bank of Ghana, he could go back and forth with the Bank of
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:43 p.m.
    So the position is that we will still maintain the, “may” and then, from the last explanation which seems to support the position of the Hon Chairman, we will do away with “in consultation with”. So it would read,
    “the Minister may, acting on the advice of the Bank of Ghana…”
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the Hon Member for Suhum proposed that we have two subclauses, so that in the first subclause, the Minister may make Regulations and then, in the second, the Minister shall do so on the advice of the Bank of Ghana.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:43 p.m.
    Hon Chairman, do you prefer that?
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes. Because this is a very technical area where we want to insist —
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:43 p.m.
    Well, we have two options; there is the option proposed by the Hon Member for Wa Central, where you can say, “The Minister, in consultation with the Bank of Ghana, may make Regulations” — That can be done in one subclause instead of two.
    Mr Asamoa 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I thought it would be neater if we bring it in front of “the Minister”, to read, “Acting on the advice of the Bank of Ghana, the Minister may make Regulations…” so that it is distinct but we do not have to break it up into two sentences. Otherwise, I will improve it further to read, “the Minister, acting on the advice of the Bank of Ghana may issue Regulations.”
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:43 p.m.
    Exactly what I just said.
    The difference is that we would not use “shall” but “may” to read, “the Minister, acting on the advice of the Bank of Ghana, may make Regulations”.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, unless I am wrong, the interpretation by Hon Dr Ayine suggests that if we just say “acting on the advice”, then there is no compulsion. That is the understanding that I got from him and that is why we want to split it to compel him —
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:43 p.m.
    But we have already agreed that there should be no compulsion —
    Dr Ayine 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I am surprised we are splitting so much hairs on this matter. We can decide to make the consultative process compulsory. In other words, the Minister must consult the Bank of Ghana because of the fact that the Bank of Ghana is key to the operationalisation of this legislation.
    However, the outcome of the consul- tative process is not binding on the Minister. That is because the Minister is the ultimate holder of the power, and we do not want a situation where someone who is not the repository of the power would be the one dictating the ultimate outcome, because his advice or the consultation process must be taken into account in the final decision.
    Mr Speaker, so we can say that the consultation is compulsory but the ultimate legal effect of that consultation is that it is not binding on the ultimate holder of the power. That is the effect of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) vs Attorney-General. But of course, parliamentary debates and whatever the history of the legislation is often taken
    Dr Ayine 1:43 p.m.


    into account by courts. So if in the process we make it abundantly clear that we want a different legislative outcome in this, we can try to say it and see whether the courts will agree with us.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:43 p.m.
    We are also guided by what the courts have been saying. That is why we want to improve on the clarity of the law, so that we do not have to take it back to the court again. Again, we are also dealing with an institution such as the Bank of Ghana. They have ultimate responsibility for monetary policy and that is what is raising the issue.
    We need to debate it seriously because this was even going to guide the courts in their interpretation, and you know that. They would want to go into the intention of the Legislature, and that is why I am giving room for this discussion so that we get it clearly.
    Mr Asamoa 1:43 p.m.
    Mr Speaker it would be useful for my Hon Colleague Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East to clarify whether he is interchanging “acting on advice” with “in consultation with”. Is my Hon Friend saying they both mean exactly the same thing? Otherwise, the proposed amendment, I think, ought to be compelling enough -- “acting on the advice of”.
    He is supposed to act on the advice that he has received. If we interchange it with “in consultation with”, then obviously, however compelling he makes the consultation, it still means that there is opportunity to discard the outcomes. But where he is asked to act on the advice that he has received, this House, I think, would be within its powers and jurisdiction to determine what is being compelling.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:53 p.m.
    I believe that we know what we want and if it is what this House wants, we should put “shall consult”, as he said, and split it into to -- [Interruption] --
    The first part reads, “The Minister may, by legislative instrument, make Regu- lations”. That is the first one.
    Secondly, in making these Regu- lations''; “the Minister shall consult with the Bank of Ghana”. That is what we want to achieve so that the Hon Minister himself cannot just come here with Regulations. I believe that is the objective.
    Alhaji (Dr) Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if an Hon Minister is told to bring something to the House in consultation with the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, it is not an option. The advice of the Hon Attorney- General and Minister for Justice is a must and if one does not do that and runs into trouble, then it means one has flouted the rule because whenever one is asked to do something in consultation with the Hon Attorney-General and Minister for Justice it is because it is a legal issue.
    So when one is asked to do so in consultation with the Bank of Ghana, it is a monetary issue and you cannot take an option; it is not a discretion.
    Mr Speaker, I believe that if we go by the Hon Leader's suggestion, we will arrive at the same conclusion.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    Except that when you get the advice from the Hon Attorney-General and Minister for Justice you could decide not to take the action, but if you decide to take the action, then you are bound by the advice of the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice.
    Alhaji (Dr) Pelpuo 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes, so let us leave it as it is --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    Yes, it is the same thing with the Bank of Ghana. We want to apply the same principle [Interruption.] Yes, the Hon Minister has the option. If I get the advice from the Bank, and I think that it is not in accordance with the general government policy, I can decide not to act, on it. However, if you decide to act then you are bound by that advice from the Bank of Ghana.
    So it is then better to break it into two; we are adding too many things in one clause. So let us break it into two sub- clauses. Let me get the rendition of the second subclause --
    [Interruption] --
    The first subclause (1) -- Sorry; yes, Hon Member for Klottey-Korle?
    Dr Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    Hon Member, why are you showing too much interest in my daughter's -- [Laughter]
    -- 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, as a very senior Hon Member of this House, I have a responsibility to guide the up-and- coming Parliamentarians.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    Guide?
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, to make it easier for the Speaker to recognise -- because I saw the Speaker having a little difficulty in recognising her constituency.
    I urged her to mention the name of her constituency to enable the Speaker recognise her easily.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    This is a serious matter you just raised. A Speaker seated here as the Rt Hon Speaker could have any difficulty in recognising the constituency of his own daughter. [Hear! Hear!]
    Yes, Hon Member, you may continue.
    Dr Agyeman-Rawlings 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, thank you. As per the proposed amendment by the Hon Member of Parliament for Suhum, -- the point is that after the Minister is compelled to make the consultation, the result of the consultation must be binding.
    However, based on what Hon Ayine has said, which is that neither the phrase; “acting on the advise of” nor “in consultation with” is binding, my question is, is there a better phrase that makes sure that whatever the outcome of that consultation is, it is binding?
    Supposing what the Bank of Ghana proposes is in contradiction to what the Hon Minister is looking for, at the end of the consultation, is the Hon Minister obliged to take it? Even if we put a ‘must' before ‘on the advice of', based on the outcome in the courts, ‘on the advice of' is not binding. So, it defeats the purpose of putting the “must” in front of the “on the advice of”.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    Yes, that is why I will read the first proposed clause and then we can go to the second one. Clause 98(1) should read as follows;
    “The Minister may make regulations prescribing the matters required by this Act to be prescribed and for carrying out or giving effect to this Act”.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    We cannot be repeating the word “prescribe” --
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, you have been here much longer than us but what we have seen since we came here is that we always say, “by a Legislative Instrument (L.I)” but you left that part out. That is, “by legislative instrument, make Regulations …” Is there a reason for that?
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    We would definitely not need to repeat that because it is a law -- An Act of Parliament is giving that authority so it will be originating from the law and that is a Legislative Instrument. When it is from a Constitution, it is a Constitutional Instrument. You always ask that.
    Dr A. A. Osei 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I have always said that that is the only way to make the Regulations from here, but the draftspersons keep repeating it and I wonder why. This is because there is no other way.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    Well, if you want clarity, at least, for the ordinary person, we can put there, “by legislative instrument”. However, I have also realised that there is a repetition of the word, “prescribed” so you have to fine-tune that.
    “The Minister may, by legislative instrument, make Regulations prescribing the matters required by this Act and for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.”
    We do not have to repeat, “to be prescribed”. That is the first subclause. Let us get the second one;
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, that would read;
    “The Minister shall make the Regulations referred to subsection (1) on the advice of the bank”.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    You will fall into the same trap.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker;
    “The Regulations referred to in subsection (1) shall be made on the advice of the Bank of Ghana”.
    Alhaji (Dr) Pelpuo 1:53 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, why do we not just say; “and shall be on the advice of the Bank of Ghana” instead of breaking it into two by saying “and the Regulations thereof shall be on the advice of”?
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 1:53 p.m.
    Well, now, you are in a conversation.
    Dr Ayine 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I do not know whether this will be helpful in any way, but in the GBA case, there were actually two cases that were consolidated.
    There was the GBA challenge to the appointment of three Justices of the Supreme Court by His Excellency, former President John D. Mahama. Then there was the appointment of Mrs Charlotte Osei as the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) and this was also challenged by one Danso Acheampong.
    So the Supreme Court decided to consolidate the two because they were dealing with essentially the same issues; whether the advice of or consultation with the Council of State was binding on the President in the case of the appointment of the Chairperson of the EC or the advice of the Judicial Council was binding on the President in the case of the appointment of the Justices of the Supreme Court.
    Mr Speaker, in the Danso Acheampong case, it was in respect of article 70 of the Constitution which says that the President shall act in consultation with the Council of State, appoint - and then it lists the Chairperson and deputy Chairpersons of the EC. In the case of the appointment of the Justices of the Supreme Court, I think it was article 144(2) of the Constitution which states that, and I beg to read (2):
    “The other Supreme Court Justices shall be appointed by the President acting on the advice of the Judicial Council, in consultation with the Council of State and with the approval of Parliament.”
    Mr Speaker, these were the two clauses of the Constitution that were at play. Mr Speaker, one clause says “shall acting in consultation” and the other says “acting on the advice of”. The ultimate outcome of that case was that the Supreme Court held that the President was neither bound by the outcome of the consultative process, in the case of the appointment of the Chairperson of the EC nor the advice of the Judicial Council in the case of the appointment of the Justice because in the view of the Court, it was the President who was vested with the constitutional power of appointment.
    So the Council of State can neither bring any advice to the table that contradicts the President's position nor could the Judicial Council advise him in a way that contradicts his position.
    Mr Speaker, he could take their advice into account but he is not bound to take it into account in the ultimate decision. He is not bound ultimately by the advice that they might give. That shows that if we have to get out of this bind that we have put ourselves in, then the proposal that
    Hon Opare-Ansah made would probably not have any effect.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    I seemed to have a different view on this matter. You have quoted article 144 of the Constitution; is that right?
    Dr Ayine 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, it was article 144
    (2).
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    When you read article order 144(2), you would see “in consultation with the Council of State and with the approval of Parliament”. Now, if the position is that the President is not bound on the outcome of the consultation, does that also include the approval by Parliament?
    Dr Ayine 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, it does not include the approval by Parliament. In fact, if Parliament decides --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    It is conjunctive. In consultation with the Council of State and with the approval of Parliament.
    Dr Ayine 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, that is so but in the Supreme Court, the approval role by Parliament was not at play. It was not one of the issues that the Supreme Court had to determine. Of course, one cannot appoint the Justices of the Supreme Court unless they are vetted and approved by Parliament.
    Parliament's approval is a political process and so if Parliament decides to reject them, the President would have to either resubmit their names or change them because if Parliament has the majority, it could continue to reject them ad infinitum.
    So Parliament's role was not at play in the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of GBA vs the Attorney-General.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    I realised that, but the way the two go together and one has been taken off and given an interpretation --
    Mr Opare-Ansah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, in the case of Parliament, you would realise that it has been qualified by “prior”. So the President cannot do anything without the approval of Parliament. His appointment --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    Please there is no “prior” there. I have it before me and there is no “prior” in article 144 (2). It is with the appointment of Hon Ministers that we have the word “prior” but under 144 (2), there is no “prior”.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, but I have modified mine --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    Yes, my attention has been drawn by the Clerks- at-the-Table.
    Hon Members, let us get the terms of the subclause so that I --
    Mr Opare-Ansah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I said that “the regulations referred to in subsection (1) shall be on the advice of the Bank of Ghana and that advice shall be binding”.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    Well, he wants to make sure that the advice is binding.
    Dr Ayine 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I think that I would support the new rendition because if Parliament makes it explicit that in making the Regulations, the Hon Minister is bound by any advice by the Bank of Ghana, then it would be put beyond any doubt. In fact, there would be no issue of interpretation when it comes to court. So, I think that rendition makes it better for us.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    Hon Member for Suhum, please let us get the rendition again.
    Mr Opare-Ansah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, “the Regulations referred to in subsection (1) shall be on the advice of the Bank of Ghana and that advice shall be binding.”
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    Let me read what I wrote down.
    “The Regulations referred to in subsection (1) shall be on the advice of the Bank of Ghana and that advice shall be binding on the Minister.”
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, at this point, we do not have any Regulations in subsection (1).
    Mr Opare-Ansah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I said the “Regulations referred to”. Subsection (1) says, “The Minister may by Legis- lative Instrument make Regulations …”
    So the “Regulations referred to in subsection (1)” --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    Yes, the Regulations to be made.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes, to be made; but he said that the Regulations referred to in subsection (1).
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:03 p.m.
    No, you do not have to repeat “to be made”. “The Regulations referred to” because subsection (1) refers to Regulations and so, “the Regulations referred to in subsection (1) shall be on the advice of the Bank of Ghana and that advice shall be binding on the Minister.”
    Dr A. A. Osei 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, so assuming the Bank of Ghana goes to the Hon Minister with a fee of US$100,000 or
    US$100 million, clearly, this is not something that should be binding on the Hon Minister.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, then, the Hon Minister would not bring it.
    Dr A. A. Osei 2:03 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, he would not bring it, that is all right.
    Once that understanding is there --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Table Office, did you get the new rendition for clause 98? [Pause.]
    So I would put the Question.
    Question put and amendment agreed to.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Hon Members, in view of the Business before the House, I direct that proceedings be held outside the prescribed time, even though it is outside already.

    No, I would put the Question on the whole of clause 98.

    Clause 98 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.

    Clause 99 -- Rules and guidelines
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    We have three proposed amendments. Two would definitely lapse. We would only admit that from the Hon Chairman of the Committee.
    Hon Chairman, you may move that proposed amendment.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 99, subclause (2), add the following new paragraphs:
    “(h) participation in the clearing system;
    (i) electronic financial services; and
    (j) generally for the effective implementation of this Act”.
    Mr Speaker, there has to be further tidying up of this. The word ‘and' at the end of paragraph (f) would be deleted. That is the new one that appears at the end of paragraph (i).
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Yes, I got it, Hon Chairman.
    Ms Safo 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, the amendment that is being proposed by the Hon Chairman says, “The Bank of Ghana may issue guidelines for”.
    I am further proposing that we stop at “guidelines” and delete “for the”. So that it would read: “The Bank of Ghana may issue guidelines:”
    Mr Speaker, then in paragraph (j), the word “generally” --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Please, Hon Deputy Majority Leader, if you say “The Bank of Ghana may issue guidelines” and we delete “for the” --
    Ms Safo 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, this is what I am further proposing.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Read it and see.
    Ms Safo 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I take a cue from your good Chair.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Yes, Hon Chairman?
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we even have to tidy the whole subclause because, “The Bank of Ghana may issue guidelines” should be the opening phrase. Then in paragraph (a), as pertains in subclause (1), we should have: “(a) for the procedure” and “(b) for the operations”. When we get to paragraph (f), it should be “for consumer protection” and not “for the consumer protection”.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    It is not elegant to have “for” introducing the paragraphs. It is done in subclause (1). They are just two.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, with some of them, we do not even need “for” or “the”.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    You have to go through it again.
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, if you could direct the draftspersons.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    I do not know the decision. So how would I direct them?
    Dr Assibey-Yeboah 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, we need all of these paragraphs, but we have to --
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Yes, Hon Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation?
    Dr A. A. Osei 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, I have pointed out some things under that clause that need to be further amended. So if the Hon Chairman could stand it down so that we could do all that is needed. Some of the items need to be deleted. It looks like standing it down now may be better. If we can stand clause 99 down, we might consult. [Interruption.]
    I am talking of this amendment that we are proposing to clause 99.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:13 p.m.
    Hon Members, I do not know the pleasure of Leadership. We could go on a break and come to continue and finish this Act today. Within that period, maybe, the Committee, led by the Hon Chairman, could look at clause 99 and isolate the issues there for us to clarify and propose new amendments. Is that acceptable to the House?

    Hon Deputy Majority Leader?
    Ms Safo 2:13 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, earlier, I had indicated that you ignore all those comments from the Hon Chairman of the Finance Committee.
    Mr Speaker, today being Friday and the Appointments Committee also vetting nominees of H. E. the President, it looks like the interest and the sense of the House is that at this juncture we draw the curtains down on the consideration of the Payment Systems and Services Bill, 2018.
    Mr Speaker, since it is passed 2 2:13 p.m.
    00 p.m., I leave the rest in your care. I see the Hon Chairman of the Finance Committee raising his hand and putting it on his head, meaning he is extremely tired.
    So Mr Speaker, I believe we can continue with consideration of the Bill, God willing, on Tuesday. At this juncture, we are in your hands.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:23 p.m.
    Yes, Hon Member for Wa Central?
    Alhaji (Dr) Abdul-Rashid H. Pelpuo 2:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, when the Leader of Government Business speaks in this manner, we have no option but to agree with her. Essentially, we see that the
    House virtually does not appear to be in the mood to continue, given the half-full nature of the House.
    So we think that adjourning at your discretion, as it is, is something that is going to serve the general interest of the House.
    Thank you, Mr Speaker.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:23 p.m.
    Hon Members, thank you very much. I have observed that myself; that is why I raised the issue.
    So I would proceed to adjourn the House. Are we Sitting on Monday?
    Ms Safo 2:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, no. It is the next Monday.
    Mr Second Deputy Speaker 2:23 p.m.
    It is not this coming Monday, but the next?
    Ms Safo 2:23 p.m.
    Mr Speaker, yes. We could not give Hon Members enough notice of Sitting on this coming Monday, so it is the ensuing Monday.
    ADJOURNMENT 2:23 p.m.
  • The House was adjourned at 2.25 p.m. till Tuesday, 19th March, 2019, at 10.00 a.m.