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Mr Speaker

Hon Members, Correction of Votes and Proceedings of Tuesday, 24th March, 2020.
Page 1 -- 12

Thank you Mr Speaker. On page 8, my Hon Colleague, Robert Baba Kuganab- Lem was one of those who were given absence with permission. The Hon Yieleh Chireh corrected that yesterday but it still comes in the Order Paper as being absent. I would hope the Table Office would accordingly correct that.

Mr Speaker

Yes, Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa?

Mr Ablakwa

Thank you Mr Speaker. On page 41, after the final Motion for the asphaltic overlay, a number of Papers were laid before we adjourned but those have not been captured. Mr Speaker, if that could be noted accordingly?

Mr Speaker

Thank you.
Page 40 -- 42

Mr Speaker

Yes, Hon Member?

Mr Boamah

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. On page 42, I have seen that the Committee on Health met with the National Health Insurance Authority and subsequently, I am informed that they also had a meeting with the COVID 19 Response Team. I would be grateful if Mr Speaker could ask the Committee if we could go into the
Committee of the Whole section, to also brief Hon Members on the outcome of that meeting?

Mr Speaker

Page 42 -- 43.
Hon Members, the Votes and Proceedings of 24th March, 2020 as corrected, are hereby admitted as the true record of proceedings.

Mr Speaker

Yes, Hon Minority Leader?

Mr Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, thank you very much. Even though we have adopted the Votes and Proceedings, I would note that the Table Office has its own attitude but because it is a matter of national concern, the Majority Leader should have been recorded that before adjournment yesterday, he reminded Hon Members and the public at large, of the President's directive that today is the day of prayer and fasting.
At least, it should reflect in our records for that purpose that he did before we adjourned.
Thank you.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much.

Is the Hon Minister for Works and Housing in the House?

Item numbered 3 -- Questions

Mr Anim

Mr Speaker, I spoke with the Hon Minister for Works and Housing this morning and he pleaded that if we could take his Questions tomorrow. So, if we could vary the order of Business --?

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, for goodness sake, at least, some reason must be given to the House to know why the Hon Minister is unavoidably absent? It cannot be just when we are ready, there would be an announcement that the Hon Minister would like to come on Wednesday or Thursday. That cannot be done in this honourable House. At least, give us some reason.

Mr Anim

Mr Speaker, as I said, the Hon Minister is unavoidably absent. I spoke to him this morning and he pleaded that his Questions be taken tomorrow. So we could vary the order of Business and take item numbered 7.

one but I do not know whether the Hon Minority Leader, has anything to say before we proceed?

Mr Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, I have no objection to that. However, the Hon Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof Yankah has been in the House since yesterday, to move the Motion for the Second Reading of the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019. So it is within your bosom and power to vary the order of Business. If you want to permit him, then leadership could allow it. Leadership agreed yesterday that it would be one of the Motions that would be prioritised in this morning's Business.
However, with regard to the national day of prayer and fasting, I do not know what your guidance would be, being a Reverend Minister, whether you would want Hon Members on the floor of Parliament to pray or at least, engage with the public in what we do -- whether you would permit one Muslim and one Christian to just share a word --?

Mr Speaker

Hon Minority Leader, we would come to that at the appropriate time. I am observing the numbers -- Hon Members are still arriving.
Hon Members, at the Commencement of Public Business, item numbered 5 -- Presentation of Papers.
Item numbered 5(a)?

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, item numbered 5(a), is not ready. As I indicated yesterday, the Committee of the Whole has not yet met on the Formula, so we cannot take that item now.

Mr Speaker

Very well.
Shall we then take item numbered 5(b)?

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, the Hon Chairman of the Committee on Finance is not in the House to take item numbered 5(b), so we could take item numbered 6.

Mr Speaker

Item numbered 6 - Motion, by the Hon Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education.
Suspension of Standing Order (80)(1)

Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education (Prof Kwesi Yankah)

Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that notwithstanding the provisions of Standing Order 80(1) which requires that no Motion shall
be debated until at least forty-eight hours have elapsed between the date on which notice of the Motion is given and the date on which the Motion is moved, the Motion for the Second Reading of the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019 may be moved today.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion.
Question put and Motion agreed to.
Resolved accordingly.

Mr Speaker

Item listed 7, by the Hon Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education.

Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education (Prof Kwesi Yankah)

Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019, be now read a Second time.
Mr Speaker, the purpose of the Bill is to establish regulatory bodies to regulate the education sector in the country effectively and efficiently.
The Bill is in six parts. Part one of the Bill restructures and merges the existing National Council for Tertiary Education and the National Accreditation Board into one institution to be known as the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission
(GTEC).
Part two of the Bill, merges the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training and the National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations into a new body to be known as the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Parts three, four and five of the Bill, provides for the National Teaching Council, the National Schools Inspectorate Authority and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment respectively.
Part six, which is the final part of the Bill, provides for the Administrative and Financial Provisions in respect of five regulatory bodies established under the Bill.
Mr Speaker, part one of the Bill provides for the establishment of the Ghana Education Commission. Clause 1 establishes that the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, is a body corporate with the power to acquire and hold property, to dispose of property and enter into a contract or any other related transactions.

Mr Speaker

Who seconds the Motion?

(Mr William Agyapong Quaittoo): Mr Speaker, I rise to associate myself with the Motion.

Mr Speaker

You rise to second the Motion.

Mr Quaittoo

Mr Speaker, respectfully, this is the Second Reading of a Bill, so I associate myself with it or I support it. I do not have to “second'' it. I have to “support'' it because it is the Second Reading of a Bill.

Mr Speaker, in so doing, I present your Committee's Report.

1.0 Introduction

1.1 The Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019 was presented to the House and read the first time on Thursday, 2nd May, 2019.

Pursuant to article 106 (4) and (5) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana and Order 186 of the Standing Orders of the House, the Rt Hon Speaker referred the Bill to the Committee on Education for consideration and report.

1.2 Subsequently, the Committee on Education met and discussed the

Bill. The Hon Minister for Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, Prof Kwesi Yankah, the two Hon Deputy Ministers for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum and Mrs Gifty Twum- Ampofo, officials from the Ministry of Education, the Office of the Attorney- General, and representatives of the underlisted Agencies under the purview of the Ministry of Education were present to assist the Committee in its deliberations:

i. National Council for Tertiary Education;

ii. National Accreditation Board;

iii. Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training;

iv. National Board for Professional and Technician Examinations;

v. National Teaching Council;

vi. National Inspectorate Board; and

vii.National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

1.3 The Committee is grateful to the Hon Minister for Education, the Hon Minister of State in charge of Tertiary

the two Hon Deputy Ministers for Education, officials from the Office of the Attorney-General, and Agencies of the Ministry of Education for attending upon the Committee.

2.0 Reference Documents

The Committee made reference to the following documents during its deliberations:

i. The 1992 Constitution of Ghana;

ii. The Standing Orders of the Parliament of Ghana;

iii. The Professional Bodies Registration Act, 1973

(N.R.C.D. 143);

iv. The Education Act, 2008 (Act

778);

v. The National Council for Tertiary Education Act, 1993 (Act 454);

vi. The National Accreditation Board Act, 2007 (Act 744);

vii.The Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Act, 2006 (Act 718);

and

viii. The State Lands Act, 1962 (Act 125).

3.0 Background

The Bill seeks to establish regulatory bodies to regulate the education sector in the country effectively and efficiently. At the moment, the various institutions that carry out regulatory functions within the education sector, exist as individual agencies under the Ministry of Education. These Regulatory Agencies, namely the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), the National Accreditation Board (NAB), the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET), the National Teaching Council (NTC), the National Inspectorate Board (NIB), and the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) perform their respective functions under separate mandates which are not well harmonised - a development that creates a gap in the co-ordination of functions of the respective Agencies for the achievement of the overall objective of effectively regulating the education sector to engender better outcomes.

The Bill therefore has the objective of addressing this challenge by re- aligning the functions of these entities and re-structuring them into five bodies

Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe (NDC- Akatsi North)

Mr Speaker, the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019, was presented to the House in 2019 and referred to your Committee on Education for consideration and Report.
Mr Speaker, one objective of the Bill is to merge a number of regulatory bodies existing under the Ministry of Education. The Committee in looking at the Bill made a number of observations. If we look at the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) and the National Accreditation Board (NAB), we would realise that these two agencies were duplicating the role of each other
in the management of tertiary education especially with accreditation and approval of programmes and courses at the universities. We realised that there was the need to do something about it so that one body could equally manage these roles played by the two organisations.
Mr Speaker, we also looked at the National Board for Professional and Technical Examinations (NABPTEX) and Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET). Some of us were of the view that merging the two bodies into one would be a challenge. One was purely for examination purposes. If
we go to the polytechnics and technical universities, we would see NABPTEX in charge of the examinations and award of certificates. We had a challenge that if we had one body known as the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, who would be in charge of awarding certificates and moderating their examinations? That question is yet to be resolved. I think when we are looking at the amendments, we should come to a conclusion because the two are now being merged.
Mr Speaker, one other issue we have is that once we are merging these two bodies, some persons would have to lose their positions and there is the need, when the Bill is passed, for the Ministry of Education to make sure that those who would be affected are not made redundant on their jobs. That is very important, but who would give way to who? That is another challenge we would face especially in the case of NCTE and NAB as well as COTVET and
NABPTEX.
Mr Speaker, it is very important that the request that the organisations made to ensure that provision was made in the Act so that they do not lose their jobs is done. I am sure the Committee did some work in that respect.
Mr Speaker, also, one observation is that there is the need to appoint professional and technical people to head these agencies. During the consideration of the Bill at the Committee, we discovered that some people who are currently heading some of these agencies have the qualification that is required but the professional competence and technical know-how are lacking. So I would like to appeal to the Minister responsible for this Bill that when they are appointing heads of these agencies, they should look at the professional competence and experience of such persons so that they can deliver on the mandate that they would be given. We should not just look at the very high qualification where the experience is not there to support it.

Mr Speaker, it is our expectation that when this Bill is passed, we will have the opportunity to make sure that the agencies are properly managed so that they can deliver on the mandate of the Ministry of Education.

On that note, I beg to support the Motion.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much.

Dr Sagre Bambangi (NPP -- Walewale)

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to support the Motion.
The Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019 seeks to harmonise the functions and ensure effective and more efficient coordination for us to be able to achieve the overall objectives of our educational sector.
Mr Speaker, the current status is that we have seven agencies in charge of regulating educational activities of the formal educational sector in this country. So this Bill seeks to restructure these agencies into five and bodies also re-align their functions so that this will minimise the duplications and conflicts.
As a Committee on Education and in our interaction with a lot of stakeholders of education, we realised that some of our stakeholders were not satisfied with the duplication of functions because it gives rise to some costs that they thought would be avoidable and then some conflicts that do not augur well for the regulation of education in this country.
Mr Speaker, we believe that this Bill has come at an opportune time when a lot of reforms are also taking place in our educational system and
this is a major initiative in our educational system.
On this leg, I beg to support the Motion.

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu)

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to support the Motion and in doing so, I wish to commend the Committee on Education for the diligence and thorough nature with which they have dispatched their duties. I commend the Ministry of Education for bringing forth these proposals.
Indeed, I am aware that these long standing discussions and efforts that have been going on for a while, is to harmonise educational regulation in our country, improve standards and ensure that the education sector is not riddled with too many institutions sometimes, purporting to be performing the same functions leading to role duplication, conflicts and all kinds of turf battles which are avoidable.
Mr Speaker, having said that, it is we as a country that decided since the establishment of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) in the year 1993 sometime in the year 2007, that we should hive
off the two roles of quality assurance and accreditation to a separate entity known as the National Accreditation Board (NAB) which came into force in the year 2007 and leave the role of policy planning and research distinct to the NCTE.
Having operated the two separate regimes for the better part of two decades, we now want to, if you like, revert to the old system where the NCTE performs all functions except that I noticed that with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), there will be two sub-divisions where one division will focus on quality assurance and accreditation and then the second one will focus on what the NCTE is doing now; policy planning and research.
Mr Speaker, I note that the advantage of having one Commission is that we will be able to plan more effectively because I recall that there were times that a university wanted to mount a programme and the NCTE would consider the national interest, economic status of the country, our human resource gap and so on and will approve the programme for it to be mounted. However, the NAB will delve deeper by looking at the facilities, faculty and will decline the
approval that the NCTE had earlier granted the institution.
There are pros and cons as some have argued that it allows for checks and balances. Others have said that it undermines the national effort and that it was really stepping in the way of the NCTE. Be that as it may, now, if this Bill is passed, we will have one entity that will then regulate generally and in-house, they can look at both what is in the long-term planning national interest of Ghana and what also meets the accreditation criteria of these institutions.
So it is an experiment that is worthy of pursuing as we have done that before. This was between the years of 1993 and 2006 when the NCTE performed this role and if now, we want to elevate it to a Commission, I believe that at a point in time, we would need to have a special Bill that will spell out into detail, what the terms of reference would be, the modus operandi and the conditions of service of those who will be working at this Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). This is because we must all be mindful that article 21 of the Constitution has clearly stated that because of the right to protect academic freedom, we must have such an entity, howsoever we may want to call it.

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu)

Mr Speaker, so if we now want to call it the TEC, we must know that because of the constitutional safeguards, we must ensure that this Body will protect academic freedom, and will not undermine the institutional autonomy that the universities ought to enjoy under article 21 of the Constitution.
The other matter that needs to be raised is financing. Quality assurance is very expensive and I would want to see in this new law, how we will be creative such that despite the taxes that will be extended to the TEC, they will be able to raise their own revenue and source for funds.
Mr Speaker, for example, I recall what the NCTE did when they were able to raise funds for research in our tertiary institutions. We should look at how the TEC would become very resourceful to be able to advance research, develop faculty and carry out its constitutional mandate of quality assurance of accreditation, planning, policy and research.
The other matter that I also need to speak to is the private institutions and the granting of charter. This is one matter which has been a major challenge in terms of the lack of
consistency; that is, the lack of a clear criteria that has to be met.

Mr Speaker, I see that the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019, allows for the Tertiary Education Commission to advise the Hon Minister and eventually the President on the grant of charter. I would hope that when we get to the details, we would clearly spell out the criteria so that that matter which is of major concern to private universities who are now in the majority - they may not be graduating many students as compared to the public universities, but in terms of number of institutions they are more than the public universities. Mr Speaker, the private universities really contribute their quota to advancing the human development needs of our country. So the granting of charter is a matter that can be developed further from its current frame when we get to the next stage of considering this Bill.

Mr Speaker, however, this is a good initiative and I support it and once we work on the financing and larger policy issues; issues that would do with the charter and how we would properly support our private universities, then we should be in a good place.

Also, I am enthused about the merger of COTVET and NABPTEX. I would say that this is long overdue but after we do this, we should bring all of these technical institutions under one Ministry and they should all be regulated under the new Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training. This is because the challenge is that all these technical institutes are scattered under more than 20 ministries with different regulations and certifications. This does not really allow us to promote TVET in the way that we should.

Mr Speaker, sometimes some certificates are not even known or valued and industries are not sure of the kind of certificates that people hold because they are scattered all over the place. Mr Speaker, some of the institutions are under ministries like the Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Roads and Highways and so on.

However, I am glad that we are bringing the NVTI, COTVET and NABPTEX together and it is important that the institutions should all be brought under this body, and the body must be given full powers to regulate technical institutes in this country.

Mr Speaker, this sector is really a game changer for job creation in our

country because all the marketing, business and grammar types of education do not provide jobs for the youth as they should. So we need hands on the type of education to be able to become an industrialised nation and move to the next level and take the full benefits of the African Continental Free Trade Area which would promote manufacturing, industrialisation, One District One Factory and so on. Mr Speaker, we cannot meet the targets of that objective if we do not properly regulate and have a harmonised certification of our skills-oriented young people.

Mr Speaker, finally, at the basic level it is sad to say that in Ghana, private investors can virtually start schools without much regulation. I am glad that this Bill would address that matter so that education provision would not just be seen as an avenue for making profits, but really about human development and standards that must be met. Just as a person would have to meet standards before setting up a hospital, so must one meet standards before establishing a school.

So this is a worthy piece of legislation, however, there is the challenge of a possible loss of jobs. Mr Speaker, in my mind there should be no job losses because we should be able to merge the existing bodies

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, thank you very much for this enlightened contribution.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum (NPP -- Bosomtwe)

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute in support of the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019.
Mr Speaker, today is indeed a day of fasting and prayer and it is also the day that I have agreed fully with my Hon Brother, the Hon Member for North Tongu. I fully share his concerns and I am so happy that he also shares various tenets of this Bill and the reason we brought this Bill before this august House.
Mr Speaker, as we all know, Ghana has made great strides when it comes to access on education, but we have also understood that there is an element of quality that is missing. The World Bank refers to Learning Poverty and this is reflected in the Human Capital Index of this country, where we have not done well based on the fact that the quality of our
educational system does not measure up to what is required at the global level.
Mr Speaker, this Bill is actually on improving quality and ensuring that the resources that the nation has committed to education would truly inure to the benefit of this nation. Also, how to ensure that we can truly transform education and use it to benefit the economy of the country. Mr Speaker, that is why this Bill is so critical.
If we look at the various aspects that the Hon Minister of State and the Hon Chairman of the Committee alluded to, we would see that we are considering every aspect in terms of ensuring quality education. To begin with, the National School Inspectorate Authority would ensure that the curriculum that has been introduced by the National Council for Curriculum Assessment would be implemented to the fidelity and make sure that teachers are also supported through the National Teaching Council. Mr Speaker, it goes all the way to the tertiary level because every aspect of education is being reformed in a manner that we can really bring about the quality that we need.
Mr Speaker, if you look at the work of the Inspectorate Board as it
exists now, they are limited in terms of staffing. So I share the concern of my Hon Friend when he alluded to the fact that we should ensure that the expertise of the staff are put to good use. Mr Speaker, we do not anticipate to lay off staff because of this major merger of institutions and so on. In fact, as the Hon Member rightly alluded to, the National Inspectorate Board would need a lot of hands in order to ensure that our schools are adequately inspected. Mr Speaker, not just for the purposes of public schools but also the inspection of private schools. So in every aspect of this transformation, we would need expertise and people who have worked for a number of years.

Therefore as we look at it, everybody's expertise should be put to very good use for the benefit of our nation. I think we also have to look at how to ensure that the National Accreditation Board and the NCTE works together. They have done some very good collaboration, but when they are put under one entity, then they can truly sync and ensure that quality is improved and we also make sure that the agency that works on policy does it in tandem with what the NAB expects. In that way, when we have a very vibrant tertiary educational system, that would also

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much, Hon Deputy Minister.

Mr Speaker

Yes, Hon Member and then Leadership?

Mr Bernard Ahiafor (NDC -- Akatsi South)

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Second Reading of the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill,
2019.
Mr Speaker, in so doing, I would refer the House to section 100 of the Public Financial Management Act, with your permission, I beg to read: it is under the marginal note, fiscal impact analysis of legislations and proposals.
“100 (1) Any legislation to be laid before Parliament or proposals submitted for the approval of Parliament, shall be accompanied by fiscal impact analysis stating the estimated effect of the revenue and expenditure for the fiscal year in which the legislation or proposal is expected to come into effect.”
Mr Speaker, we have Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019 but there is no fiscal impact analysis which

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much.
Yes, Leadership?

Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu)

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Motion moved by the Minister of State for Tertiary Education that the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019, be read a Second time. I would urge Hon Colleagues to support.

Mr Speaker, as you may recall, a decade ago, the World Bank had recognised under-funding and decline in funding as one of the major problems that confronts higher education in Ghana. The World Bank again recognised relevance and quality as the most challenging, relative to the growth of higher education in Ghana.

The World Education news recognises that notwithstanding the critical challenges within Ghana's educational sector, compared to many sub-Saharan African countries, Ghana still has a good educational system. We need to work to improve it. We would need to look at our curriculum for it to reflect our values and culture as Ghanaian people at all times.

Mr Speaker, it is reported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and the World Bank that globally, the access to education was also a major problem that confronts

higher education in Ghana. So the problems were quality, relevance and access. We had the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to solve our access problems by expanding our educational infrastructure and facilities.

Mr Speaker, there is still the problem of faculty. We need to look at the quality of our faculties. The global education report of UNESCO reports that Ghana has doubled its intake for higher education from 41,000 to 157, 000. The number of Ghanaians now, who have access to higher education is very encouraging, thanks to the libralisation, the commoditisation or the privatisation of higher education in that sector; whichever words that one would want to use. However, we would still have to deal with gender disparities in access to higher education.

Mr Speaker, a new development is that, the quality of higher education in public universities is probably better than that of private universities. The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is currently conducting some study in that respect, and I am sure that their recommendations would guide what we would all do in future.

Mr Speaker, it is also reported that youth literacy in Ghana has risen from 71 per cent to 80 per cent. What that means is that if we tailor our educational policies and interventions well, Ghana can benefit from a demographic dividend. That is why some of these progressive policies implemented by Government is worthy of note.

However, 70 per cent of Senior High School graduates normally fail the examinations conducted by the West African Examination Council. This means that if we are not careful, what we parrot everyday as an investment in human capital may end up being an investment in substantial proportions of literacy and numeracy. That should not be equated to a competitive human capital. We are investing huge sums of money into education all right, but if they do not climb the ladder - it was reported in 2014, that we had 70 per cent of senior high school graduates who failed the senior high school examinations. If we had that situation now and today, then it means that much of our investment would end in literacy and numeracy, and not in competitive human capital.

Mr Speaker, I would also like to speak on accreditation. One would wonder where some of the universities that have been accredited got their accreditation from, and what the justification was for them to be

Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu)

accredited. The quality of the teaching staff - faculty, are profoundly poor and unacceptable. So how come that they got a charter and registered that they could run a university? Did they meet the basic minimum re- quirements? That is why this intervention of a strengthened regulatory regime is commendable and worth supporting.

The National Accreditation Board, in my view, in many instances failed this State. If we even look at the physical infrastructure of what is referred to as a university, between Kumasi and Accra, we had what we called the massification or the mushrooming of private universities.

The quality is worrying, but whiles I support the merger, we would have to caution that the remit of the National Accreditation Board was not the same thing as the National Council for Tertiary Education. I still see that they would play a regulatory function, a coordinating function, and an accreditation function.

However, the National Council for Tertiary Education did more, relative to policy. As the Hon Okudzeto observed, at all times, we must assure the universities of non-interference by the State, and by political office holders, who would seek to interfere with the jealously safeguarded academic freedom of those universities. So in this Bill, we would be interested in it.

Mr Speaker, I would also want to refer you to clause 10 of the Bill. We would look at it when we come to the Consideration Stage, but to raise a concern, it reads, and I quote:

“Conflicts with other enactments in approval of programmes”.

It continues to read:

“Where there is a conflict between the provisions of this Act and the provisions of any other enactment, in matters relating to the approval of accreditation of academic programmes offered by tertiary education institutions, the provisions of this Act shall prevail.”

Mr Speaker, is that not to threaten what exists currently in Ghana's universities? We are saying that where there is a conflict, this law must prevail. So if the University of Ghana has its own statute which had a way of determining the approval of its accredited programmes, are we saying that it should be abandoned for this law? That is primarily one of our many concerns; We must guarantee academic freedom, but we must also respect existing laws. We should not interfere too much and say that where there is conflict in enactment, this law must prevail.

Mr Speaker, my second point is on the future of higher education. Ghana has no developed manpower plan, and we are not even focusing on it as a country. In the next ten

years, what category of human resources are we looking for and training our people for? We need to have one. Perhaps, the Minister for Education, the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, as well as other Ministers in Government must engage. We cannot have a country that has no defined manpower needs. Everybody knows that science, technology, and engineering into the future is what we should be looking at as a country.

Mr Speaker, however, currently, as we have observed, all the universities; public and private are interested in the social sciences and matters that relate to marketing. We know that universities provide generic academic training, and they are not necessarily meant to produce men and women to satisfy the needs of industry and commerce. But as a country - everyday, we are being told of graduate unemployment. This is because we are producing unemployable graduates. We should accept that, and the universities must also accept some responsibility that they are not training the Ghanaian young people in the desired areas to fit the needs of contemporary times.

Mr Speaker, again, as I said, there must be quality of faculties. We know how your generation and that of

professor Yankah's generation were trained in academics. Do those opportunities still exist? How many scholars can our youth benefit from? We would have to look at it.

Mr Speaker, I would conclude with another half of the Bill which deals with technical and vocational education. I would want to add that Ghana has not taken full advantage of ensuring that we keep our young people with employable skills. The emphasis of Government on technical and vocational education is also worth noting and worth commending, but we would need to do more. If we go through the country - I visited one of our Hon Colleagues, the Hon Member from Yamfo in the Bono Region. There, the young girls and boys were looking for some opportunity to learn catering, carpentry and masonry to earn a living from.

Mr Speaker, I have maintained that the best measure of living standard is employment, not the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, which is reported on every day by our economists. How many technical and vocational institutions do we have across the country? I know that Government has taken some loans to beef up and expand access to technical and vocational education.

Mr Speaker, we still have significant problems persisting in the education

classroom, infrastructure, teaching and learning materials and the disparity between rural Ghana and urban Ghana in terms of access to education generally.
Mr Speaker, with these, I support the Motion.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much, Hon Minority Leader.
Majority Leadership?

Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu)

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker for the
opportunity to also make a few remarks about the Report of the Committee on Education supporting the Second Reading of the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019.
Mr Speaker, the purpose of the Bill, we were told, is to establish regulatory bodies to regulate the educational sector in the country effectively and efficiently. The emphasis is on the words, “effectively and efficiently”. That then should suggest to us that currently, the system that we are operating is not very efficient and is not very effective. And in that case, I expected that sequel to the provisions of article 106(2)(a) of the Constitution, the policy underpinning the Bill would be clearly spelt out. The principles and also the defects of the existing law would be clearly spelt out.
Mr Speaker, it looks like everything has been jumbled up in the Memorandum; it is not very clear what the defects in the existing laws are.
Mr Speaker, then, we also are required to set out the proposed remedies to deal with the defects. Again, reading the Memorandum, one is not too sure of what the remedies proposed to deal with the defects are, and indeed, the necessity for
introducing the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019.
Mr Speaker, all who have spoken ahead of me relate to the fact that this is going to help us to really effectively and efficiently regulate the educational sector in the country; and the Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa even added that it is going to help in the effective planning of the educational sector in the country; but what really are the defects, we are not too sure. The Memorandum which ought to capture it has not really done a good job capturing the defects of the existing law.
Mr Speaker, we do know of the fact that the quality of the education in the system leaves much to be desired. So I thought that we would be talking about these: access to education, how the Bill is going to help escalate access to education, how it is going to help us deal with the quality of the teachers that we produce to ultimately affect the pupils and the students; how is education feeding into productivity and sustainable development in the country? These, I believe should be part of the Memorandum.
Mr Speaker, we have spoken about funding, and every year, when we have had Budgets presented to us
and we have asked experts and specialists to interrogate various issues relating in particular to education, they have always spoken about funding, the deficit in funding especially at the relevant sectors of the educational structure.
Mr Speaker, so, I would have thought that these ones would be interrogated by the Memorandum accompanying the Bill and indeed, address it adequately, but as I am saying, even though the purpose, as in the first paragraph makes it clear that this Bill sets out to effectively and efficiently regulate the educational sector, throughout the Memorandum, we do not see that these things have been properly set out and indeed captured.
Mr Speaker, my joy is the fact that we have recognised that we should be placing technical and vocational education under the Ministry of Education. Thus far, we have left them in the corridors of the Ministry of Employment, and sometimes, it goes elsewhere. And technical and vocational education is left orphaned, which explains why funding is really a difficulty.
Mr Speaker, my understanding of article 25 of the Constitution and respectfully, I would like to read article

Mr Speaker, with your permission, I beg to quote article 38(3)(b) which says

“The State shall, subject to the availability of resources provided --
(b) a free adult literacy programme, and a free vocational training,
Mr Speaker, so, it is not only technical education but vocational training is supposed to be free as well and yet, we have left them to rot. So I am of the view that this new Bill would attend to this defect, which is why I suggested that all these could have been part of the Memorandum which would have really made reading it much more to be appreciated than the form that it is in now.
Mr Speaker, I have been told that there are some petitions from some bodies - the Business of this House is to smith proposals from the Executive which comes to us in the form of Bills. So we should listen to those of them who have submitted their petitions and see how to smith them into the Bill that is before us. Certainly, we would not be able to
satisfy everybody but of course that is human nature, nobody would want to move from his or her place to another destination - people want to remain stuck.
However, I believe that ultimately, the responsibility is ours on how to merge the petitions and the representations that have been made to the Committee on Education, which would find expression in the amendments they would proffer to the House.
As individuals, we also represent various segments in our constituencies and if petitions come to us individually, let us bring them to brighten up the provisions in the Bill that is before us.
Mr Speaker, we do not have too much time between now and the period of adjournment sine die - I want to believe that we would be able to deal with this all important Bill, which indeed, is purposed to introduce a revolution in the regulation of the educational sector.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the space granted.

Mr Speaker

Hon Minister, you may make a few concluding remarks as you please.

Prof Yankah

Mr Speaker, I am enthused about the wide ranging comments which have been made by

Prof Yankah

Hon Members from both Sides of the aisle on the issue of the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019.
Mr Speaker, this Bill does not seek to embrace and accommodate various aspects of education that have come with heavy criticism, neither does it seek to come out with a broad tertiary education policy. It is best understood alongside the existence of a number of documents which include the various reforms within the tertiary educational sector, reforms in the TVET as well as a comprehensive tertiary educational policy document which has been approved by Cabinet and that it has to be considered alongside the existing of that wide range of policy document - it need not be taken into consideration as an isolated item.
Secondly, we should also bear in mind the fact that the document which has gone a long journey, having arrived in Parliament at long last, has at various stages of the journey, undegone modifications where a significant number of issues have been raised and been taken care of. Even much more significantly, as far as this document is concerned, there is a very important aspect of it that has been by the very nature of laws and Bills need not be taken care of. We have not gone into the extent to look at the
earlier laws that existed -- whether laws that set up the NCT or NAB to see the minute differences between each of them and the overlaps between each of the laws whether NCT or NAB does on one hand and this particular Bill.
Interestingly, there is one aspect of this Bill, which is so silent which silence could also be definite in a way. It has to do with the process to obtain certification, accreditation and charter. This aspect of the Bill would rest with the regulatory body, the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), that would come out with specific regulations that would be referred to and have not been stipulated.
Thirdly, I would want to allay the fears of Hon Members, who are concerned about the motivation behind this Bill, which could probably be as they suspect with regard to the laying off of redundant staff. That has not been the motivation of this Bill. It has been meant to eliminate redundancies not human redundancies but functional redundancies in the functions and aims and objectives of the various bodies that have been merged. However, much more importantly, it comes with a harmonised or consolidated body that would lead to greater efficiency in the running of the tertiary education and other levels of education.
The issue of access is very important and one area that has confronted tertiary education and has limited access all these years has been an unfortunate perception about private universities.
In all the contributions that I have heard so far on the Floor, I got the impression that private universities have probably set us back in terms of quality of education. What we often forget is that we have thrown so much spot lights on the private universities in the challenges that they have such that we completely ignore the challenges faced by public universities.
We have not put on the scale objectively, to determine which of these two institutions of education run us down. To what extent has the National Accredited Board (NAB), spotlighted public universities and raised issues that they would normally raise about private universities?
Nobody talks about student- lecturer ratio in the public universities, which is clearer a function of the NAB but when the private universities falter in one way or the other, it is natural that we are all up in arms because there is a perception that private universities are of substandard quality.
However, one aspect of this Bill which has been suppressed and would be taken care of within the specific regulations of the GTEC, has
to do with the issue of affiliation, where the regulation clearly states that not until a private university with accreditation is at least 10 years old, they are not entitled to apply for charter. That aspect has been suppressed because that aspect of the regulation that is highly bureaucratic and delays the progress of private universities has been supressed and abolished. Otherwise, we would clearly see the number of private universities within the country that are very good and competent and are of global recognition, which because of the very bureaucracy that requires them to wait for a period of 10 or more years. They have not been considered and we are still issuing the certificates of mentoring institutions. That aspect of the regulation has been suppressed and not being considered here.

Mr Speaker, I can assure you that the various comments particularly dealing with the physical impact analysis, the issue of quality and relevance have all been taken care of in one way or the other in the various aspects of the Tertiary Education Policy document which is not represented within the Bill that is being introduced.

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, before we proceed any further, we know that today has been declared the National Day of Fasting and Prayer wherever we are. This is where we happen to be, and we would observe it as such. We would have Christian and Muslim prayers in this House at the moment and areas that have been discussed with relevant persons and leadership. We know our country is a godly nation; we are
Muslims and Christians and would all cooperate to look to the face of the Lord our God to look after our nation, and in fact, humanity as a whole.
As we know and believe the living God is able to do the impossible in the face of mayhem. We all know that in the two main religions, Islam and Christianity, there are times for fasting and for prayers. Both the Muslims and Christians believe in this. We also know that there are things which cometh by fasting and by prayer. The good Book talks about the fact that if the people of God, in case and in times of crisis, will humble themselves and seek His face and plead, He has ability to come to our aid.
As per what we have arranged, we shall have a short statement by the President of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship and then a short exhortation before we continue with both the Christian and Muslim prayers.
I will call on the Hon Bedzrah to please start the process with a Statement.
We shall maintain what we do in the church or mosque during the process by way of the relevant dignity before the living God.

Mr Emmanuel K. Bedzrah(NDC --

Mr Speaker, I thank you.
Mr Speaker, as we all know, the President of the Republic has declared today, Wednesday, 25th March 2020, as a national day for fasting and prayers. We, the elected representatives of all the 275 constituencies, are gathered here in this august House to represent the State of Ghana as well as leaders of the people. The entire nation comes before the Lord's throne to seek His face in the wake of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic nationwide.
As we all know, it is written in the Holy Book, II Chronicles 7:14, that
“if my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”
Therefore, this morning Hon Colleagues, we are calling upon the name of the Almighty God to forgive us our sins and the sins of our forefathers, for we all have sinned and as we all know, we have sinned in the
areas of idolatry, adultery and fornication; shedding of innocent bloods, false accusations, backbiting, deliberate killing of innocent and unborn babies, corruption, greed and stealing. We have allowed men to have carnal knowledge with other men and women with other women; witchcraft and ‘spiritism' and even our religious leaders are misleading our people, etc.
Therefore we are praying that God will forgive us and cleanse us just as he said in his word again in Isaiah 59:1 that
“behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that He cannot save; neither His ear heavy that He cannot hear our prayers.”
Even as we confess our sins and humble ourselves through this moment of fasting and prayers, we would besiege our Lord, God Almighty, the father of all nations, that these plague of COVID-19 would pass us by in the name of our Lord Jesus and He would heal even those who tested positive.
God protect our health workers and those who are on self-quarantine and preserve their lives.
We commit the nation Ghana, Africa and the whole world into His mighty hand for His preservation.
Finally, Hon Colleagues, we are sure in God's word, in the Book of

Mr Emmanuel K. Bedzrah(NDC --

Psalm 91 that, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High God shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty and we would say of the Lord that He is our refuge and our fortress and our God, in him we would trust. For He would surely deliver us from the snare of the fowler and from the noise pestilence. He will cover us with feathers and under His wings we shall trust: His truth shall be our shield and buckler. For we would not be afraid for the terror by night, nor the arrows that fly by day, nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor the distraction that wasteth at noon day. A thousand would fall by our side; ten thousand on our right hand, but it shall not come nigh our dwelling. Only with our eyes shall we see and behold the reward of the wicked because we have made the Lord our God our refuge and the Most High our habitation.”

“There shall no evil befall us neither shall any plague come nigh our dwelling. For the Lord shall give His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. He will bear us up in His hands, lest we dash our foot against a stone. We shall tread upon lions and adder, the young lions and dragons shall we trample under

our feet. Because the Lord has set His love upon us and therefore, He will deliver us, we will set Him high on because He has known our name. We shall call upon Him and He will answer and He will be with us in trouble, He will deliver us and honour us and with long life, we know that God will satisfy us and show us His salvation”.

Mr Speaker, thank you very much and we know that the Lord God will hear our petition today in this august House.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much, Hon Bedzrah. I will call on the deputy clerk; Mr Djietror to read a short exhortation.
Clerk-at-the-Table (Mr Ebenezer Ahumah Djietror): Mr Speaker, thank you.
Indeed, today is a special day. Ordinarily, parliamentary clerks do not speak on this Floor, we act behind the scenes and advice but to borrow the expressions of the Speaker this morning during our devotion with him, he said ‘we are in extraordinary times and so, we will act in extraordinary manner in response to the demands of the times.'
Mr Speaker, I believe that it is in this regard that this morning, through the wisdom of God, the Speaker, Leadership and clerkship and Hon
Members have found it worthy to offer me some space here to enable us exhort ourselves in the word of God.
The Bible says in Psalm 74 and I read from the Good News Bible, interesting enough, the headnote to this Psalm reads: “A prayer for national deliverance”. So I believe that on a day like this - I did not know about this scripture with this headnote because I use the King James Version but interestingly enough, I believe the scriptures chose it and it is appropriate for the occasion.
Mr Speaker, I read a few of the verses; “Why have you abandoned us like this, Oh God? Will you be angry with your own people forever? Remember your people whom you chose for yourself long ago, whom you brought out of slavery to be your own tribe. Remember Mount Zion, where you once lived. Walk over these total ruins, our enemies have destroyed everything in the Temple. Your enemies have shouted in triumph, in your Temple, they have placed their flags there as signs of victory.”
Mr Speaker, we are caught up in a situation where we find ourselves helpless. Currently, medical doctors and specialists do not have proper solution to the pandemic we are fighting and indeed, nations are
terrified and even richer nations like the United States of America (USA) who could have afforded the cost of vaccination of the entire people of the USA, are in a state of pandemonium. No help is coming from anywhere and we are just struggling with ourselves all over the world and indeed, it reminds me of the Scriptures which says; ‘except the Lord build the house, we labour in vain that build it, except the Lord watch over the nations, they that watch over it, watch over, in vain'.
The situation we have has gone beyond human reasoning and understanding and so, like the Bible says in the Book of Second Chronicles 7:14, this is a time for us to turn to the Almighty God. This is because indeed, the Scripture says; ‘the arm of flesh will always fail and by strength shall no man prevail'.
Mr Speaker, in the times in which we live, ‘by strength shall no man prevail'. Indeed, the Scriptures say; “money answereth all things” but you and I know that that Scripture is true in relative terms as far as things that must be purchased with money are concerned. You and I know that health cannot be purchased with money otherwise, rich people will not lose their lives when they have lots of money.

Mr Speaker

From the Scriptures here, the nation of Israel was caught up in that situation and the only thing they could do was to turn to the Almighty God. So this morning, it is proper and fitting that we observe a national day of fasting and prayers to enable us trace our steps back to the Living God, humble ourselves before Him and ask for times of refreshing. It is not a matter that you and I should treat lightly and we cannot joke with it. We would do our very best but our help cometh from the Lord and the Lord will surely remember His own.

Mr Speaker, in the Book of James 5

13-15, the Scriptures exhort us;
“Is anyone afflicted among you, let him pray. Is anyone happy or joyous, let him sing a song unto the Lord. Is anyone sick, let him call upon the elders of the church and let them pray for him.”
So, the remedies are available to us. In times of frustration, distress and difficulties, the only thing we can do is to call on our Maker. So the Psalmist calls on his maker to intervene in the situation by asking; “Lord, why have you abandoned us?”
This morning, we are being called upon to go on our knees and call on our Maker by praying for the nation, that God should remember the nation, the world, the Executive, Legislature,
Judiciary, the Hon Members of Parliament, the staff, our families and loved ones. Except He remembers us, there is nothing we can do. We have no remedies and are clueless because we are mere mortals. What has struck us is something that goes beyond our imagination and it will take the Hand of the Almighty God to intervene in our lives and rescue the situation.
Mr Speaker, so this morning, we invite all of you to join us in this clarion call to wait upon the Lord and call upon our Maker and ask for His intervention. He will surely remember us as He did for Daniel in the lion's den.

He remembered His loved ones and He remembered all those in difficult times. He remembered Sampson even at the point when he was so helpless with his eyes plucked out and in chains. But Sampson prayed that “Lord if you would remember me this once”. Do we call upon our Maker to remember us in times like this; times of distress and frustration when we do not know what to do and where to turn to? We are worried when our children go out, we are worried about friends and loved ones who are locked up in other nations. We can only pray because we cannot go and visit them, neither

can we ask them to return because borders are being closed. All this tells us that we need the divine hand to intervene and that He would surely remember us. As we return to Him, He would remember us, He would remember you, He would remember Parliament, He would remember Ghana, the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary, the media, the school children and all the people of Ghana. God will surely remember us because we would cry upon Him in faith.

May the Lord remember us in Jesus' name. Amen.

Hon Members: Amen.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much, Rev Djietror.
Hon Members, we would have prayers and we would start with a set of five prayers from the Christians and another set of five from the Muslims. We have some selected prayer topics so each person would pray according to a selected topic.
The Hon Majority Leader would give us a Christian prayer on thanksgiving for peace. Those who are praying may stand but the others may sit.

Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu)

Almighty God, we thank you for how far you have brought us as a nation in the face of the outbreak of the Coronavirus disease in Ghana and the rapidity of its spread. We acknowledge that we are not in normal times and we recognise our nakedness. In times of adversity we must do serious introspection and recognise our deficiencies as human beings and as a country. God has created us in His own image and given us wisdom and knowledge. Yet, without his own illumination we may be grappling in the dark and that is why we come to God today in due supplication.
Lord, we are thankful for the food, clothing, shelter and the resources that you have provided for us. We thank you for the breath of life that keeps us alive and we thank you for the fortitude and the fortification that you have granted us as a nation.
Almighty God, keep us safe, united as a country and as a people in these moments. Lord please raise your hand; for you are the strength to still raging storms and you who healed what was perceived as incurable, you who raised up the dead and you who conquered death by embracing death and subduing death by shattering the gates of death. We are convinced, persuaded and indeed believe that you would deliver the nation from the snare of this disease.

Mr Speaker

Hon Seth K. Acheampong, on behalf of the Christian Fellowship would pray for forgiveness.

Mr K. S. Acheampong (NPP- Mpraeso)

Today, as has already been announced and is being observed, is a very solemn day for our country. As part of the comity of nations in the world, we are observing this day solemnly in prayer and fasting and we can only ask for forgiveness for our sins as humans created by our Maker. This is a time for us to reflect and surrender all our actions, thoughts and meditations before our Maker.
At this moment, we commit and lift our country and the people before God who created all of us. If any actions of ours have caused the wrath of God to fall on our land, we plead for forgiveness. If any of our neighbouring nations in West Africa have committed any action that has caused the wrath of God, we plead for mercies. If our region and Africa
has caused any sin, transgression and iniquity, O' Father in Heaven, we plead for your mercies.
Father, the world at large is before you this day through Ghana and our prayer is that grant us your mercies, let your grace find Ghana, favour us with healing and grant us strength. Our Redeemer and our Maker; you are the I AM that I AM. Father, you created us in your own image and in your own likeness. If we have erred, as of old and the good Book and Scriptures teaches us, your children come before you in a broken and contrite act. Lord Almighty, you have been merciful onto them. On this day, our Motherland Ghana is on her knees asking for mercy and pleading for your intervention. Lord, we ask that if any action or activity of ours, be it by ourselves or any relation and in any form, manner or shape, we ask our Heavenly King to favour Ghana and be merciful towards Ghana and to the entire universe such that this COVID- 19 disease will pass as in the days of old when you passed over Egypt and your children of Israel had on their doorposts the sign of the blood. Let it pass over the universe and sweep away right as you ordered for people to be swallowed up into the earth.
It is our prayer for you to let the earth open for Coronavirus to be swallowed by the earth and for us on
the earth to be redeemed. You are our strength as your Word tells us. Your Scriptures says in Psalm 19 vs 14 that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be accepted by you, my strength and my redeemer. We pray in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Mr Speaker

Hon Ntoso, would pray for God's continuing intervention.

Ms Helen A. Ntoso (NDC- Krachi West)

Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before your presence in one accord and in humility. We cry unto you, we are in distress and trouble as a country. Father, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit that you would have mercy on us, for our hope is in you and you only. Your word says all those who hope in you will never be put to shame. We pray Father in the name of Jesus that we will never be put to shame as a country.
Father remember, O Lord, Your great mercy and love, for they are of old. Against you and you only have we sinned and done what is evil in your sight, but for the sake of your Name, forgive our iniquities and cleanse us
and the world as a whole of the Coronavirus Disease. We give You all the glory and thanks, because your word says, “In all things, we should give You thanks”. The world has seen that all power belongs to You only. To You only Father, we give you all glory.
Father, it is in the Name of Jesus that we are in fasting and praying because You advised that when your disciples could not heal the epileptic and You healed him, You said that “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Father, we are before you today, fasting and praying. Accept our supplications O Lord and we pray that our nation would have a national psyche to be of faith, not of doubt because You have not given us the spirit of fear; You have given us the spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. Give us a sound mind; we come against the spirit of fear in the Mighty name of Jesus. We pray, spirit of the living God, heal the sick; we ask for your supernatural intervention against the spread of the disease. Father, You can do it. You have said in your word in Matthew 21:22 that when we ask; whatever we ask in Your name, we should believe and we will receive.
Father, we trust in your word, in Matthew 21:22, that whatever we

Some Hon Members

Amen!

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, we will continue with Hon Emmanuel Armah- Kofi Buah. Prayer for the health team in particular.

Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (NDC - Ellembelle)

Heavenly Father, we pray this prayer for the health of our healthcare team of doctors and nurses who have to work tirelessly to save lives at the risk of our own lives. As the Psalmist said, “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and fortress my God in whom I trust. Surely, He will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings, you will find refuge. (Psalm
91:1-4)
Heavenly Father, we pray and commit our country and our healthcare workers into Your hands. We ask that You would put us under
Your refuge and forgive our sins. We pray that we would not get any bad news of our healthcare workers falling victim of this dreaded disease, that You will forgive our sins and heal our land and save us from this dreaded Coronavirus. At the end of the day, we will thank You and give You praise. We will thank You and give You praise.
We ask all of these in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen!

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, a faith Christian prayer, by the Acting Clerk to Parliament for vision and knowledge for researchers for cure; the wonderful people who work in Noguchi and other places of research; home and abroad for direction and God's Power.
Acting Clerk to Parliament (Mr Cyril K. O. Nsiah): Father God, we pray for our beloved country Ghana. A nation created by Almighty God.
In our National Anthem, we always plead, “God bless our homeland Ghana.” Our prayer is for Ghana, its people, for Parliament, the Rt Hon Speaker of Parliament, Leadership, all Hon Members of Parliament, all staff of Parliament and their families.
Father, Your word says in the book of Psalm 103:1-5:
“(1) Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me, bless His Holy name.
(2) Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits
(3) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all the diseases
Father, we pray that You will forgive all our iniquities and You will heal all our diseases.
(4) Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving- kindness and tender-mercies;
(5) Who satisfieth our mouth with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle's.”
Father we pray that You will redeem our life from destruction and crown us with loving-kindness and tender-mercies and You will satisfy our mouths with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Father, Your word again says in the book of Exodus 15:26 that:
“If we will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord our God and do that which is right in His sight and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, then I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth thee.”
Father, according to Your promise, we pray that You will deliver this nation from the scourge of this demonic Coronavirus disease and that this sickness abate immediately in Jesus Name.
Father, it is our prayer that You will grant deep wisdom, vision and intelligence as You did for Daniel in the book; Daniel 1:4. We pray for our scientists, researchers, laboratory technicians that, Father, You will give them deep wisdom and insight understanding in science and knowledge and vision to find a cure for this dreaded disease.
Father, we pray that our scientists will find a cure as soon as practicable; almost immediately.
We thank You Father, in Jesus Name we have prayed. Amen.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much, Clerk to Parliament.
Now, we would begin our set of five Moslem prayers starting with Hon

Alhaji Inusah A. B. Fuseini (NDC -- Tamale Central)

[Islamic Prayer]
O Allah, this afternoon, we have heard intercessions calling on You to intercede in these difficult and trying times. You have told us in the - [Arabic] - Call Me and I will respond to you.

Today, we are calling on you because you have told us that when your servants ask about you, you are indeed close to them. We believe that this morning, Allah, you are close to us, and we are asking of you, that you would protect us because we believe in you. We believe that you are the creator of the heavens and the earth, and all that goes on in the heavens and in the earth.

Allah, you have told us; - [Prayer in Arabic] - “Oh, you who believe, fast is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may guard against evil, so that you may draw closer to me, and so that you may repent”.

Today, we are confronted by the greatest of evil. An evil without proportion, an evil without definition, an evil we cannot see, and an evil we are not immune against; that is why we are fasting. This is because you have told us to fast to protect ourselves against evil.

We pray seeking your goodness and your knowledge. With your knowledge and might, we seek strength. We ask of you; Allah, your great blessing and protection against the plague; this pandemic that is ravaging mankind because you have the power. We do not have the power, but you do, and that is why we are asking you Allah.

Allah, you know everything, but we do not know. You have the knowledge of the unseen, so Allah, draw us to yourself and protect us because you are the greatest protector. Nobody can protect us, save yourself. We ask this, reciting the opening chapter of the Quran. Those who can, can join me in reciting it.

[Recitation of the Quran in Arabic].

Mr Speaker

The next prayer is by the Hon Ben Abdallah Banda, that God should, under this threat, strengthen all families, bring closer union in all homes, and for his peace to dwell there.

Mr Ben Abdallah Banda (NPP -- Offinso South)

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for giving me this opportunity.
Mr Speaker, as we bow today before God in fasting and in prayer, we have in no uncertain terms realised our complete frailty and the limit of our knowledge as human beings.
We are told in the Holy Qur'an that all knowledge is from God because God is all knowing. It is only God who is referred to as the Omnipresent and the Omnipotent. We are told by our Prophet Mohammed; may peace be upon him, that there is no disease that is on the surface of this earth that Allah has not created, cured or provided cure for.
We learn in the Holy Quran that God created us, but nobody created Him. We all know the sort of unprecedented calamity that has befallen our nation and the rest of the world. Scientist, erudite doctors and other health professionals are all at their wit's end. Economic, religious and all related affairs have all come to a standstill.
We pray to you Allah, to wipe from the surface of this earth, what has now become known as COVID-19 and any other calamity that may befall us. We pray for forgiveness and
extraordinary knowledge for the cure of all diseases on this earth.
Oh Allah, you have admonished us to pray, and you would answer our prayers. That is the bases of the spiritual exercise that we have embarked upon for today. I therefore beseech thee use this occasion to strengthen the nation and all of us as a whole. [Prayers in Arabic].

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, we are continuing the prayer with the Hon Abdul-Samed Muhamed Gunu. He would pray for strength at a time like this from the Almighty God Himself, for him to rather use this pandemic as a way of strengthening all of us in God.
Yes, Hon Member?

Mr Abdul-Samed M. Gunu (NDC -- Savelugu)

[Prayer in Arabic] --
Oh, Almighty Allah, the whole world is shock with fear and this is a test time and nothing is beyond your powers. We pray to you to grant us your mercy and protection from this Coronavirus and other diseases. Oh, Allah, we seek refuge in you from leprosy, insanity, elephantiasis and all evil diseases.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much, Hon Member.
Hon Members, let the person who prays say what the person wants to say. If Atabir (At-takbir) is all you
know and he has not asked us to say Atabir (At-takbir) --[Laughter]- - Hon Members, please, we are either in the Church or we are in the Mosque. At times like this, Leaders must show that they can seek God's face for the nation.
We continue with the prayer. Hon Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique would pray for wisdom for the President and all those in authority to direct the affairs of the State at this time of crisis. And pray for other world leaders as well because this is a matter of our collective security.

Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique

Thank you Mr Speaker. -- [Prayer in Arabic] --
Ya Allah, you said we should not be troubled, we should believe in you Allah. And so the saying goes: - [Prayer in Arabic]-- Insha Allah, once you believe and you say -- [Prayer in Arabic]- Believe in me God, Ya Allah. No god shall compare himself or itself to me, Allah. There is only one God, and that is Allah; Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, is a Messenger to Allah. Ya Allah, you are the vine and we are the branches.
You, Allah, once when the Angel Gabriel came to you to seek permission to visit a Holy man, you said, this man is a man of hell fire. The
Angel Gabriel was surprised but you gave him the order to visit the Holy man. And when he came, the Holy man realised that the Angel Gabriel was troubled, then he asked him, what was his problem and Angel Gabriel said to the Holy man, God said you are a man of hell fire. And the Holy man said, is that why you are troubled? Even if I am the man of fire, I would not stop worshiping Allah and Angel Gabriel was still surprised.
When he came to Allah, he said, this is what the Holy man said, and Allah said, this man would be on my right side at the end of world; he would be a man of the Heavens.
Ya Allah, we believe in you and if you say, whoever on earth who claim has not committed sin, then he has no belief in me and he would rather be troubled. But he that believes he has sinned before me God, shall be forgiven once he recognises that I am God.
God, we do not see you but we hear from you. We have prophets who have prayed in this world. Ya Allah there are men of wisdom, we should believe in you. You said if we believe in you, we shall be able to do things that you would have done yourself. You act through people. Today, we have realised everything that is created
on this earth; anything that is manufactured on this earth is through your wisdom; you instilled that wisdom in humanity. We stand hopeless; helpless but we believe that once we have that conviction that Allah, you are the beginning and the end; no man shall live on earth, every being shall perish.
And you have it in the Qur'an that -- [Arabic]-- to wit, that every being on this earth would taste the pain of death even if it is an ant. But we believe that we would die, but this test, Ya Allah, forgive us; give us the hope and spare us.
The wisdom that you have bestowed on our Leaders, the President of the Republic of Ghana and Presidents all over the world, Ya Allah, still give them that confidence. Let them believe that this is a test -- whether it is man-made or by you, it is a wake-up call for us to believe that whatever we are doing, there is a Supreme Being; no one compares himself to that being. We believe in you and we have the hope that we shall conquer whatever has come to us as a test.
Insha Allah, I would say, -- [Prayer in Arabic] -- You gave this Aya to warriors, to prophets to be able to conquer their enemies. We see this disease as an enemy of development.

Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique

We thank H. E. the President for having that wisdom to call on Allah and all Ghanaians to sacrifice today to fast and his eminence Dr Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, who has also added that Muslims should fast today and tomorrow. Yes, it is dedicated to Muslims apart from the obligatory fasting of 30 days, they also have the optional fasting of Mondays and Thursdays. We agree and believe in the President for the wisdom that dawned on him to come out to know that however powerful, strong and spiritual a person is, there is one person, who is more powerful, move spiritual, supportive and forgiving. In this, I start with the first Aya of the Quran to say to -- [Prayer in Arabic].

Mr Speaker

Healing processes are very important in situations like this.
The Hon Minority Leader, would wind up the Muslim prayers and pray for the healing power of God, to work in this land both proactively and also for those who would be hit by the disease.

Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu)

Mr Speaker, I want to thank you for the opportunity and for the leadership you have provided for Parliament to comply with the directive of the Head of State of the
Republic of Ghana that we engage in national prayers and fasting.
That Allah, we are going through your torments and trials and Allah, I refer to Quran chapter 2 vrs 155- 157. which says and I quote:
Qu'ran Chaper 2
Qvrs 155 “And we will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good things to the patient”.
Qvrs 156 “Those who when diseaster strikes them say, Indeed we belong to Allah and indeed to him we will return”.
Qvrs. 157 “Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the rightly guided.”
Allah, we are your patient people asking for your protection, forgiveness and grace. Allah, you say you are the Rahim (The Merciful) and the Gafuur (All forgiving). Allah, we ask of this. For the national leadership of our country, I pray [Prayer in Arabic].
For our frontline health workers, doctors and nurses [Prayer in Arabic]. For Ghanaian women and children [Prayer in Arabic] For grandmothers and grandfathers [Prayer in Arabic].
May I for the record, relate to Al baqarah in Quran chapter 2 vrs 214, Aal-Imran vrs 41, Al-a-Araf vrs 96. If I am able to recite vividly Aa- mana-Rasuul, that is what I would end with [Prayer in Arabic]. Allah, protect this country and its people from the deadly Coronavirus. Allah, heal all those we have heard of
recoveries globally. Allah, let the affected people in Ghana, benefit from your grace from recovery and Allah, protect us better [Prayer in Arabic]. Amen.

Mr Speaker

Shall we rise and say the closing prayer?
Oh God our father, you who made heaven and earth and all within it and you who made human beings. You know our strengths and our weaknesses and you know how our bodies operate. You know that which would heal and that which would disjoin.
At this moment, we commit ourselves into your hands as a people. A people you have put in this part of the world called Ghana and we pray, claim and hang on your promises that when we seek your face and ask, you give unto us. You said that if we knock, it would be opened, when we ask, it would be given onto us, if we seek, we would find. So at this moment, we pray that you would remember us and not turn away your face from us because in the hour of need, where else can we go?
We extend this prayer to the entire world, this global village that we have become that Lord, you would be with us. We ask for exceptional wisdom, guidance for the President of the Republic and all those who take decisions that affect your people at a time like this. God, not long ago, when
those who arrived from abroad one night were sent to hotel pre-prepared, we did not know what would have happened, if this had not happened - but the wonder finger of God directed the President and soldiers, vehicles and hotels had been prepared without any public funfair, otherwise 30 people who had already had the disease would have been around your people. Now they are being taken care of in quarantine. This is the doing of the Lord God and may his name be glorified.
Lord, we pray that you would continue to guide those in authority. Let your will be their will and their direction. I pray that let us all come together at a time like this because Lord, when you give guidance, you give it to them who are in authority first. You speak to them first, so may they listen - may they hear your voice and may we give them support because God, it is your doing.
Mighty Father, just like you did with Moses and others, in the days gone back -- with David and others with all the valours who were used as the hand of God, do the same to our leaders and all those whose decisions would affect your people. And may the people support and share ideas with them. Bring your healing power

Mr Speaker

upon on our land and your preventive medical power also on our land and may your will which is a good will, be done in our land.
Forge us together in divine love, eschew selfishness from us oh God and even when we have to share medication or anything, let us gladly share it that it may be well with all our people - wo yonku da ne wo da. Lord have mercy upon us that in togetherness, we shall be a victory.
This sickness, ailment and malady, knows no status. Today, the Prince of Wales has been attacked. Lord, help us all to help each other and stand as a people to ward off dangers from our ways and when all is said and done, Lord, rescue your people from the north to the south, to the east to the west, to the centre and to all parts of this world. Forgive us our sins and our trespasses and teach mankind your ways and may we all live together in joy, harmony and peace because the Lord is good and his mercies endure forever.

For these and all other blessings that you give unto us, particularly unto this land, we pray in the mighty name of Jesus with thanksgiving. Amen!

Hon Members: Amen!

Mr Speaker

Hon Majority Leader, please, where do we go from here?

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, I believe we need to reflect a bit on what we have done today as a House, so I would want to suggest that we suspend Sitting for one and a half hours and come back at 3.00 p.m.
Mr Speaker, if that is acceptable, I would want to move that the House takes a suspension and resume at

Mr Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, there is no objection. I thank you. [Pause]

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, as it is being suggested by the Leadership, the House would suspend Sitting until 3.00 p.m. when we shall meet again accordingly.
I thank you very much for your cooperation.
1:20 p.m. -- Sitting suspended
3.17 p.m. -- Sitting Resumed

Mr Speaker

Hon Majority Leader, please where do we go from here?

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, if I may lay some Papers
on behalf of the Hon Minister for Finance on the Order Paper Addendum 2.

Mr Speaker

Item numbered (a)(iii)?

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, just a minor correction. The insurance premium and management fee of the Agreement between the Government of Ghana is €257,586.76 and not €257 million.

Mr Speaker

The correction is to be effected accordingly. Item numbered (a)(iii)?
By the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs (Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) (on behalf of the Minister for Finance) --
(iii) Request for waiver of Import Duties, Import VAT, GETFund Levy, NHIL, EXIM Levy, Special Import Levy, Domestic VAT, Domestic NHIL and Domestic GETFund Levy amounting to the Ghana cedi equivalent of thirty-five million, nine hundred and fifty- six thousand, one hundred and seventy-one euros (€35,956,171.00 [made up of €9,274,014.60 for local purchases and €26,682, 156.00 for imports]) on goods and equipment required for the imple mentation of the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project.
Referred to the Finance Committee.

Mr Speaker

Item numbered (b) by the Hon Minister for Com- munications.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, if I could stand in for the Hon Minister for Communications and lay the Paper on the Commercial Contract Agreement?
Mr Speaker, my attention has been drawn to the fact that the Hon Deputy Minister for Communications is here so he can hold the fort for the substantive Minister.
By the Deputy Minister of Communications (on behalf of) the Minister for Communications --
Commercial Contract Agree- ment between the Government of the Republic of Ghana (represented by the Ministry of Communications) and the Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei) and China National Technical Import and Export Corporation (CNTIC) for an amount of up to one hundred and fifty-five million euros (€155,000,000.00) to execute the implementation of the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project.
Referred to the Committee on Communications.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, if we could deal with the

Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza

Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion.
Question put and Motion agreed to.
Resolved accordingly.

Mr Kwame G. Agbodza (NDC -- Adaklu)

Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion.
This would be the second major market project that has been approved in this House; the first one is a project in Kumasi which arguably may be one of the biggest purposed- built market in West Africa. Mr Speaker, what we have heard so far concerning the project in Kumasi suggests that the decisions we took in this House were appropriate because the traders are able to mobilise the resources that are required of them to be able to pay off

Mr Kwame G. Agbodza (NDC -- Adaklu)

the on-lending agreement. So this is good.
Mr Speaker, markets are part of our culture as a people because there are some people in this country who would prefer to go to the market to shop rather than go to the shopping malls. It is a source of enterprise to a lot of people and majority of people in this country are self-employed. Mr Speaker, out of 30 million people, perhaps less than 800 thousand people are directly employed by the State. This shows that majority of Ghanaians are enterprising by themselves.
Markets create jobs and create critical revenue for the local assembly and the national economy, so when we invest to build these markets, we would actually help ourselves in diverse ways, encourage culture and provide opportunities for people to do their own businesses and generate revenue for the local and national purse. So this is a very good thing.
Mr Speaker, some of the issues that we discussed include about 12,000 square metres of leasable commercial spaces. We were also told of stalls, 33 restaurants, and food courts and so on. Just as it was indicated in the Kumasi project, there is a police station, officers for unions,
a health facility and other facilities for this project as well. However, this project would have larger parking spaces than the one in Kumasi because as a principle, the project in Kumasi did not have a lot of parking space simply because of the location. So, the Kumasi project is more of a park and ride project, but the Takoradi Market would have a larger parking space.
Mr Speaker, the major things discussed in this Report suggests that the issue of relocating people who are currently trading in the area has been resolved. I sat in the Finance Committee meeting where the Metropolitan Chief Executive Officer said that they have already worked together with the traders. So, there is no cause for alarm in terms of anybody suspecting that they would be short-changed when the project is completed.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Vice Chairman already referred to the performance security. However, I think that this is needed to be clarified and to be written into the contract appropriately because these are the sources of conflict between developers and the State. If it is ambiguous then obviously the developer would try to take the easy part by pretending that he is not aware
of the exact guarantees that he should provide.
With regard to the Value for Money, the Report should have captured it clearly. Normally, when the Value for Money is not brought here at this stage, one of the lines should specifically say that the conclusion of the value for money audit would form the basis of the true cost of the project.

So that we do not do value for money audit just for the sake of it. If the value for money audit says that for instance, the project should be €40 million that would be the cost of the project and not €43 million. I believe that the Report should take note.

Mr Speaker, we already talked about the viability. We have been told the Kumasi Project is viable. So we have no doubt this one will also be viable.

Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I think this project is a good one and I am happy my senior Colleague who is now the Western Regional Minister is in the House and I am sure it is a good thing that during his reign Takoradi will get this market. We believe we would leave a mark for

his people by the time he finishes his term.

Mr Speaker, I would encourage Hon Colleagues to support this project and approve it.

Mr Speaker

Yes, Leadership, nominate one person from each Side.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, the Motion was moved and seconded, if you may allow at least one contribution from either Side before Leadership comes in. The Hon Minister for the Western Region is here.

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, except I would have to close early. Neither the Hon First Deputy Speaker nor the Hon Second Deputy Speaker is available.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, beyond this we may even have to take an adjournment.

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, at 4.00 p.m., the House will close and we would continue tomorrow.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, yes. We could close at 4.00 p.m.

Mr Speaker

And I just want us to operate within that time. So be mindful of that.

Mr Speaker

Hon Leaders, tell me. We will close at 4.00 p.m., so however you would want to handle it.
Minority Leadership, you may decide who speaks?

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, respectfully, as I said the Hon Minister is here, so from him, we could take one more person and then the Minority Leader could come in.

Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko- Mensah (NPP--Takoradi)

Thank you Mr Speaker for the opportunity to add my voice for the approval of the €48 million for the construction of the new Takoradi Market. If this is approved by the House, that would be a dream come true because we have lived in Takoradi all our lives. This market has played a very important economic and social interaction point for the people of Takoradi. This market was initially developed in 1927 when the harbour was built.
Today, anybody from the environs of Takoradi is coming to the market, that person says he or she is coming
to town. Therefore, if the market would be developed, clearly, it shows that it would be one of the major attractions for the city of Takoradi.
Mr Speaker, as you are aware, we would increase the number of stores from 642 to 2400 stores. It makes the market viable because there would be more space to take more rent from assembly and pay for the construction of the project.
Secondly, this project would give jobs to our young men and women. Mr Speaker, you know the issue of unemployment is a major challenge in this country. The construction would create jobs and after it, because of the number of stalls, we would create more jobs for the youth.
Mr Speaker, as you are aware, this project is supposed to provide all other things including a day-care centre for our market women and that is very important. What we realised is that because this market was developed long time ago, it floods every time it rains and that has been taken care of. The infrastructure would be done such that it would no longer flood.
We also experienced a lot of fire outbreaks in the market. This project would forestall that because we know that they would build a modern market
that is easier to get in and out when there are cases of fire outbreaks. I believe that when we approve this project, it would help us go a long way to make sure that the market can serve the purpose for which it was meant to.
Mr Speaker, one of the critical issues that we are bombarded with since this project came up is that of consultation. It is whether we have consulted enough and whether we have made the necessary arrangements to make sure that the market women are happy with it.
Mr Speaker, we have put in place a registration system. We would use three different types of cards: Green, yellow and red. The green card is for those who already have stalls in the market, so that no matter what happens, when the project is completed, they will get shops.
The second group is those who rent the stalls. They are given the yellow card because they do not own the shops but rent them from people who have either acquired the shops in the 1920s or 1940s to get the opportunity, and lastly, if you come to the Market Circle, the whole place is overcrowded. Those who are outside the market would get the opportunity to have shops to sell and we would give such people the red card. When we finish, we then know
that those with red cards were not part of the original system but they can be accommodated, so that peace can reign the market.
Mr Speaker, it is expected that after this first phase, we should be able to do a second and a third phase, so that we can accommodate more people. Takoradi is not just a metropolis; it is a twin city. We have the Sekondi side. We believe that after this project has been completed, this House should expect another loan opportunity for us to consider the second and third phases and then the Sekondi Market. So that Sekondi, which is the regional capital can also have a befitting market that can propel the economic activities of our dear city.
Mr Speaker, on this note, I would like to urge my Hon Colleagues, brothers and sisters to support the Takoradi Project and make it a reality.
Thank you very much.

Mr Speaker

It is now the turn of the Minority including Leadership. The time is a quarter to -- unless you do not want us to vote on this matter today. The available Minority Leader should please nominate.

I would yield to my Colleague, Hon Bedzrah.

Mr Speaker

Yes, Hon Member, you may commence.

Mr Emmanuel Bedzrah (NPP - Ho West)

Mr Speaker, I rise to support the Motion, but with few reservations.
Mr Speaker, yesterday as we discussed issues about contracting, your Committee of Local Government and Rural Development was tasked to look at the contract agreement of this project.
Mr Speaker, if you read the conclusion of your Committee's Report, it states that, with your permission, I beg to read:
“The Committee believes that the project will have enormous impact…”
The Committee therefore recommends to the House to adopt the Report and approve by Resolution, the Contract Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the contractor.
Mr Speaker, that means that your Committee is supposed to look at the contract agreement and not on any other thing, but we have noticed that the Committee went out without looking at the very details of the contracts.
Mr Speaker, I brought into this House the contract itself. If we look at it, there is a bill of quantities. Now, a figure of €48 million has been given. We should ask ourselves what the detail costing of this amount is. It is not in the contract. So how did they arrive at the cost? After going through the document, I have realised that there were only schematic drawings -- the drawings have not been conclusive and therefore we cannot conclude on the €48 million for this project. So I asked myself, where did you get it from? The Committee was supposed to look at it; his contract is an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and there are certain things that go into such contracts.
Mr Speaker, I discussed with the Hon Majority Leader that we should have a standard in this House such that any contract that comes to this House, we would look at it and use it as basis of our reports. So that we would not just look at other benefits and not scrutinise the actual details of the contract.
3. 47 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I have noticed one thing that I would like to bring to the fore before I sit down. The EPC Contract is part of the ten key contracts, but in this contract, we have extended it to include what we call fluctuation. It means that if there are variations, then we would value the cost. It is in the contract; we have approved that there would be variations and fluctuations in this contract.
Mr Speaker, it clearly means that we are not doing what we are expected to do as Committees of the various specialities in this House.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I thank you.

Mr Speaker

Thank you very much, Hon Member.
We would move on to the Majority Leadership.

Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu)

Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker, the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development has submitted this
Report on the Contract Agreement between the Government and the contractors. They are asking us to approve of the Agreement, and that is how it should be.
Mr Speaker, unfortunately, if we must admit, the Contract Agreement is supposed to come up with greater details of the referral, even more than what the Finance Committee was required to do. The Finance Committee would be looking at the terms and conditions of the Agreement. We keep insisting on this. Now, when we look at the Report, whereas that of the Finance Committee referred us to the number of stores as against stalls, here, we have stores, but we have no provision on the stalls. [Interruption] --
That is the current status, but after they had finished -- where is the provision for the stalks? That is where they are wrong. I am talking about the stalls, but they are mixing up the stores and the stalls. It is not there. It is in the Report of the Finance Committee, but I am saying that this Report should have spoken to that, not the Finance Committee's Report. The Finance Committee's Report should ordinarily be dealing with the terms and conditions of the Project; the viability of the project and so on.

Mr Speaker

And in conclusion?

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I would want to express gratitude to the Committee for what they have done, and to urge them that there is enough space; a big space for further improvement on the quality of work that they have submitted to us. On that note, I would still urge that we approve of it, subject to the value for money that they have submitted to this House.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much.

Debates of 25 Mar 2020

PRAYERS 10:37 a.m.

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Ras Mubarak 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Ablakwa 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Boamah 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Iddrisu 10:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:37 a.m.

Mr Anim 10:47 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:47 a.m.

Mr Anim 10:47 a.m.

Mr Iddrisu 10:47 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:47 a.m.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 10:47 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:47 a.m.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 10:47 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:47 a.m.

Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education (Prof Kwesi Yankah) 10:47 a.m.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu 10:47 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:47 a.m.

BILLS -- SECOND READING 10:47 a.m.

Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education (Prof Kwesi Yankah) 10:47 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:47 a.m.

Mr Speaker 10:47 a.m.

Mr Quaittoo 10:57 a.m.

SPACE FOR APPENDIX SPACE FOR APPENDIX 10:57 a.m.

SPACE FOR APPENDIX 10:57 a.m.

Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe (NDC- Akatsi North) 11:07 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:07 a.m.

Dr Sagre Bambangi (NPP -- Walewale) 11:07 a.m.

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu) 11:07 a.m.

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu) 11:17 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:17 a.m.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum (NPP -- Bosomtwe) 11:27 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:27 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:27 a.m.

Mr Bernard Ahiafor (NDC -- Akatsi South) 11:27 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:27 a.m.

Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu) 11:37 a.m.

Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu) 11:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker, we still have significant problems persisting in the education 11:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:37 a.m.

Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) 11:37 a.m.

Mr Speaker, with your permission, I beg to quote article 38(3)(b) which says 11:57 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:57 a.m.

Prof Yankah 11:57 a.m.

Prof Yankah 12:07 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:07 p.m.

STATEMENTS 12:07 p.m.

Mr Emmanuel K. Bedzrah(NDC -- 12:07 p.m.

Mr Emmanuel K. Bedzrah(NDC -- 12:17 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:17 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:17 p.m.

Mr Speaker, in the Book of James 5 12:27 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:27 p.m.

Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) 12:27 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:27 p.m.

Mr K. S. Acheampong (NPP- Mpraeso) 12:27 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:27 p.m.

Ms Helen A. Ntoso (NDC- Krachi West) 12:37 p.m.

Some Hon Members 12:37 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:37 p.m.

Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (NDC - Ellembelle) 12:37 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:37 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:37 p.m.

Alhaji Inusah A. B. Fuseini (NDC -- Tamale Central) 12:47 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:47 p.m.

Mr Ben Abdallah Banda (NPP -- Offinso South) 12:47 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:47 p.m.

Mr Abdul-Samed M. Gunu (NDC -- Savelugu) 12:57 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:57 p.m.

Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique 12:57 p.m.

Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique 1:07 p.m.

PRAYERS

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Ras Mubarak

Mr Speaker

Mr Ablakwa

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Boamah

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

Mr Anim

Mr Speaker

Mr Anim

Mr Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu

Mr Speaker

Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education (Prof Kwesi Yankah)

Mr Haruna Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

BILLS -- SECOND READING

Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education (Prof Kwesi Yankah)

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Quaittoo

SPACE FOR APPENDIX SPACE FOR APPENDIX

SPACE FOR APPENDIX

Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe (NDC- Akatsi North)

Mr Speaker

Dr Sagre Bambangi (NPP -- Walewale)

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu)

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu)

Mr Speaker

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum (NPP -- Bosomtwe)

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Bernard Ahiafor (NDC -- Akatsi South)

Mr Speaker

Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu)

Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu)

Mr Speaker, we still have significant problems persisting in the education

Mr Speaker

Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu)

Mr Speaker, with your permission, I beg to quote article 38(3)(b) which says

Mr Speaker

Prof Yankah

Prof Yankah

Mr Speaker

STATEMENTS

Mr Emmanuel K. Bedzrah(NDC --

Mr Emmanuel K. Bedzrah(NDC --

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker, in the Book of James 5

Mr Speaker

Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu)

Mr Speaker

Mr K. S. Acheampong (NPP- Mpraeso)

Mr Speaker

Ms Helen A. Ntoso (NDC- Krachi West)

Some Hon Members

Mr Speaker

Mr Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah (NDC - Ellembelle)

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Alhaji Inusah A. B. Fuseini (NDC -- Tamale Central)

Mr Speaker

Mr Ben Abdallah Banda (NPP -- Offinso South)

Mr Speaker

Mr Abdul-Samed M. Gunu (NDC -- Savelugu)

Mr Speaker

Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique

Mr Boniface Abu-Bakar Saddique

Mr Speaker