Debates of 20 May 2020

MR SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:42 a.m.
VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker 10:42 a.m.
Hon Members, Correction of Votes and Proceedings of Tuesday, 19th May, 2020.
Pages 1…9 --
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Mr Speaker 10:42 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member for North Tongu, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa?
Mr Ablakwa 10:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, please, on page 9, the name of the Hon Minister for Health, has not been captured accurately. His surname, “Agyeman-Manu'', is hyphenated as it has been indicated in item numbered 26 on page 2. So it is not consistent
so far as the records of this House are concerned.
Mr Speaker, also, with regard to the title of his Statement, a “pandemic'', is a global event, so we cannot say “pandemic in the country''. So, if the Table Office could pay attention to that?
Mr Speaker 10:42 a.m.
Pages 10…15 --
Yes, Hon Member for North Tongu, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa I see that they just brought you your mask, you may please wear it and continue. Maybe, your constituents would see you on the television and they would wonder whether you are doing what you told them to do.
Mr Ablakwa 10:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the name of the nominee who appeared before the Appointments Committee, “Professor Henrietta J. A. N Mensa- Bonsu'', has not been captured accurately. The surname is supposed to be hyphenated.
Mr Speaker, it also appears that some of us do not have page 7 of our Votes and Proceedings, so if we could know exactly what was supposed to be there, we would be grateful.
rose
Mr Speaker 10:42 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mrs Alorwu-Tay 10:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the page of my Votes and Proceedings is blank.
Mr Speaker 10:42 a.m.
Page 16…18 --
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Mr Speaker 10:42 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member for Tamale Central, Alhaji Fuseini?
Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 10:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, page 18 is blank on my Votes and Proceedings. Mr Speaker, the Standing Orders Committee met at Akosombo and I expected that the names of the Hon Members who were present, would appear on page18, but there is no page 18 on my Votes and Proceedings.
Mr Speaker 10:42 a.m.
Page 19…22
Hon Members, the Votes and Proceedings of Tuesday, 19th May, 2020 as corrected is hereby admitted as the true record of proceedings.
We also have the edition of the Official Report dated Wednesday, 26th February, 2020. Any corrections therein please?
Mr Speaker 10:52 a.m.
Item listed 3 -- Statements. We have a Statement filed by the Hon Member for Nsawam-Adoagyire, Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh, on supporting local treatment practices in the journey for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Hon Annoh-Dompreh?
STATEMENTS 10:52 a.m.
Mr Frank Annoh-Dompreh (NPP-Nsawam-Adoagyiri) 10:52 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for your kindness.
Mr Speaker, Ghana has exhibited commendable efforts in the fight against the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as it continues to have an enormous impact on our socio- economic activities. Leveraging on the power of a united force, leaders and citizens alike have all assumed a level of responsibility in managing the pandemic to the best of our abilities.
Mr Speaker, as of May 20, 2020, statistics showed a total of some 6,096 confirmed cases, out of which 1,773 have recovered, and an
Mr Speaker 10:52 a.m.
I thank you very much, Hon Annoh-Dompreh, for your very well-researched Statement.
Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa?
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu) 11:02 a.m.
I am most grateful, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement, which as you have rightly said, is very well-researched, erudite and well delivered as well by the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Mr Speaker, he raises a very fundamental issue; an African solution to a global challenge which we are all grappling with.
Mr Speaker, the matter to do with treatment medication at this point is crucial because we all know that, as we speak, no vaccine has been found. The clinical trials have begun; the search is on but no vaccine as of yet has been developed. Indeed, the experts are telling us that it may take some 12 to 18 months before a vaccine could be found. Some say it could even be longer. But we do know that the pandemic rages on and many countries are afflicted at this point. It has gone beyond crisis to an economic, national security, social, educational and psychological traumatic one as we speak.

Mr Speaker, we do know that quite a number of people are recovering and at this point, treatment

is the only salvation in the absence of a vaccine. Countries are finding their own solutions so far as the matter of treatment is concerned.

Mr Speaker, we do know that Western nations for example have been relying heavily on the drug they call hydroxychloroquine; in France, United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA) solely for treatment, though the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that it is not a cure, but rather to help treat patients.

The challenge Africa and many poor countries have had is that, when we read literature about vaccines, medications and so on, it suggests that when a vaccine is finally developed the rich Western nations will want to have it first and so will often pay the pharmaceutical industries to ensure that there is adequate supply in their nations before they think about other countries.

That is why last week, our President became the first President to sign up to a United Nations (UN) Agenda to commit global leaders to an agreement that when a vaccine is found, there should be equity, fairness, justice so that all countries will have access to that. I salute our

President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for signing up to that global Pact because of the history that we have had in this world.

However, as I commend the President for signing on to that Pact, African leaders must be urged to also look within for African solutions. There is this talk of the Madagascan herbal cure which, as we speak, the President of Magadascar, Andry Rajoelina is promoting. He has sent Ghana some samples and our Ministry of Information confirmed this yesterday that it has been received in forwarded to the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) for testing its efficacy. We must commend our government for keeping an open mind and receiving that herbal cure and we urge the experts at the FDA to expedite the test.

Mr Speaker, I would believe that that is the surest way to go and that is why I salute the African Union (AU) for also keeping an open mind despite the initial criticisms by the World Health Organisation (WHO) who reach out to the Madagascan authorities to receive samples for the African Centre for Disease Control

(ACDC).

As we speak, the ACDC is researching further into this Madagascan herbal treatment which
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu) 11:12 a.m.
is being referred, in some quarters as the ‘herbal wonder drug' or “COVID organics” for short'.
Mr Speaker, so it is important that we invest in seeking a vaccine and also find treatment for the COVID- 19. We should not always be at the receiving end. We must invest in science and research. For a long time, the AU has urged member nations to spend at least, one per cent of their GDP on science research.
Unfortunately, we have not yet met that target, but as there is a race now for treatment, medication, and for vaccine, African countries should pool their resources together. That was why two weeks ago, I was quite worried when the European Union (EU) led a financial vaccine contribution effort; a virtual conference as they called it to pull resources together. They were able to raise about US$8.2 billion and sadly, when you look at the list of donors, no African country donated in that effort. We even had individual celebrities such as Madonna -- the pop star icon -- donating about £1 million as I monitored the meeting at the time.
The challenge is that, if we do not contribute to the search for a vaccine and other countries spend all their resources -- [Interruption.] -- Also, on the issue of fairness, are they
not entitled to at least, show some greater interest in taking a greater share of what comes out of it? That is why we must also invest in our solution.
Mr Speaker, this Statement is very timely and I commend African presidents for keeping an open mind and welcoming the news from Madagascar. I noticed that other countries such as Tanzania, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone are all receiving samples to see how we can rally behind Madagascar in search of an African cure.
However, as we make this point, let us also be reminded as the Hon Member who made the Statement has said, that in Ghana, we have had centuries of growing wisdom of herbal experts of repute who have held the fort. Maybe, the challenge has been that they have not been able to transfer the knowledge to succeeding generations and the efficacy has not been documented over the years but we have capacity as well.
As we speak, we know that the local herbal medicine practitioners are not too happy with officialdom. Three days ago, I read in the newspapers about their complaint on sending a number of samples for which, the results have not been forthcoming and they are even asking for resources which have not yet come to them.
Mr Speaker, I hope that as we show interest in the Malagasy wonder drug, we would also show interest in our own herbal medical practitioners. Fortunately, we have made progress as a country in trying to improve on our herbal medicinal science.
At the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), we have a whole department now, at least, over the last 10 years which is seeking to research further and certify and provide the clinical and scientific basis for our herbal medicinal treatment.
So let us invest -- yesterday, His Excellency the President launched the GH¢600 million COVID Alleviation Programme for Small and Medium- sized Enterprises (SMEs). I heard him clearly say that the pharmaceutical industry will be one of the sectors that he will focus attention on, so far as the GH¢600 million stimulus package is concerned, and we would see some substantial amount go into our local pharmaceutical industries to support our herbal practitioners so that they can help us with treatment. Who knows if a vaccine may come from Africa? If we look at the drugs that are helping so far, according to the experts, they are drugs that have correlation with malaria such as
chloroquine which have so far been very successful in the treatment of COVID-19. Africa has been dealing with malaria for many decades and so if there is any continent that can come up with a solution, it should be Africa.
Where we are lacking so far is strong vibrant leadership and coming up with the resources in terms of putting money behind this effort. I believe that if we do that, we would be able to find our own medication and who knows, probably, a vaccine that the world will gladly welcome.
Mr Speaker, so I commend the Hon Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs for this very timely Statement and I hope that our government will race against time to invest meaningfully in supporting our local herbal practitioners.

Let us do away with the stigmatisation and discrimination against them.Herbal solutions work and can also be efficient in the provision of healthcare. So let us do away with the stigma and discrimination that often greets traditional medicine against western medicine because none is inferior to the other. Let us be Pan-Africanist and move to support the African agenda in this course.
Mr Speaker 11:12 a.m.
Hon Ablakwa, thank you very much. I have been advised that we would take one contribution from the Majority Side and then the Leadership of both sides.
Mr George Nenyi K. Andah (NPP -- Awutu-Senya West) 11:12 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement on the Floor. Mr Speaker, as you have rightly said, this Statement has been well-researched and well- delivered so I would thank my senior Colleague who made the Statement.
Mr Speaker, I would like to touch on a few areas that I think as a country we should focus on, which include the production of the nose masks that we are all wearing. I am sure that we all drive on our roads and see a lot of people selling some of these nose masks which have been locally produced.
Mr Speaker, I think that it is very important for us to find a way to make sure that the nose masks that are being sold by the road sides have passed through the proper standards and individuals who buy them would not
be exposed . We also have to help the local industry. Mr Speaker, I remember when you gave the order for us to wear the nose masks in this Chamber, some of us wore it upside down. So it is very important to have serious education as to the proper way to wear these nose masks to help manage the situation.
Mr Speaker, my third point is in support of the directive that you gave yesterday, that Hon Members of Parliament should make sure that we know our status with regard to COVID-19. I realised that following your directive, there is a team in the foyer of the Chamber Block who are checking the statuses of Hon Members of Parliament and staff of the Parliamentary Service. Mr Speaker, I would like to commend you for this action and Hon Members should ensure that their status is checked.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much and together let us stay safe.
Mr Speaker 11:12 a.m.
Minority Leader- ship?
Mr Joseph Y. Chireh (NDC -- Wa West) 11:12 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for this opportunity. The issue of COVID-19 is topical and many people -- [Interruption] -- I will not remove it. Mr Speaker, the Hon Majority Leader wants me to
remove my nose mask but I will not do that; I would speak while wearing it because that is the best way to demonstrate the wearing of the nose mask.
Mr Speaker, some people call it nose mask, however, they wear it while exposing their noses and it becomes ‘mouth mask' or ‘face mask'. It should cover the nose and mouth so if both are not covered, then an individual is not safe.It is through the nose and mouth that droplets would escape to infect other people. Whether an individual is suffocating or not, he or she should make sure that their nose or mouth is covered.
Importantly, there are many things that as a nation we can do to combat COVID-19. With regard to vaccines and medications, the danger is about the fake ones because people want to take advantage of the crisis to sell anything. Mr Speaker, if you check social media you would see so many remedies. Some of them are very dangerous, yet because people are panicking, they would likely patronise these products. It is sad that people who deliberately propagate these remedies know very well that they are not effective. Most importantly, as a
country, we would have to look at our testing regime. I would recommend that where we have a potential source of this disease, we should isolate, screen, check and test the people so that we can confine it to that particular area once we have identified the epicentre of that spread. Mr Speaker, otherwise we would likely trace people we suspect to have come in contact with other people, but more importantly, those who are in crowded areas.
I get worried when I look at the market situation because in almost all the markets, people are talking about social distancing, meanwhile you look around and there is no social distancing. With the way we have lived our lives, it is not easy to enforce social distancing so we must make extra efforts to ensure social distancing otherwise we cannot limit the spread.
Indeed, in the past few days, there has been talk about relaxing the restrictions so that more activities could take place. One of them is whether we should consider lifting the ban on churches with the assurance of maintaining social distancing while worshipping the Lord, as well as lifting the ban on schools.
Mr Speaker, again, my position on this matter is very clear, that we have to hasten slowly. In France, the
Mr Joseph Y. Chireh (NDC -- Wa West) 11:22 a.m.
schools were reopened but they have just been closed again. It means that nobody knows exactly how we can manage this disease. The scientist are still struggling to identify the true nature of the disease and how it can be confronted. Therefore if we rush and release everyone like a market place situation, where everybody does what they want to do, then we are likely to have an increase in the spread of this disease. This would not be good.
Mr Speaker, I am very happy and I would commend you for directing the conduct of COVID-19 tests. I hope that the results would be brought quickly for us to know those who should be isolated. However, the problem with it is the facilities to isolate and quarantine the people. For instance, if about 20 people in this Chamber test positive, where would they be quarantined?
So more importantly, I believe that the Government should take more steps and not just be interested in good figures. Mr Speaker, they just praise the figures because there is a decline, but cumulatively, the numbers are increasing. Those who are not mathematicians and cannot even do arithmetic find these discussions very unfortunate because it creates the impression that things are good.
Mr Speaker, as it was mentioned by one Hon Colleague yesterday, we should not pretend that the pandemic is over because it is not. It is still present and it is a threat. I believe that all of us should take caution in all we do.

Those of us who are elderly people should stay in our homes and attend to duties when necessary, but the younger ones think that they have higher immunity. I can trust them but immunity can easily drop if an individual is exposed unduly. So my general advice is that you should stay at home if you can work from home but in the case of Parliament, we are here working for the people of Ghana. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Yieleh Chireh. Finally, Majority Leadership. Yes, Hon Deputy Minister?
Deputy Minister for Health (Dr Bernard O. Boye) (MP): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I would like to commend the Hon Member who made the Statement for a well- researched work on where we started from and how far we have come.
It is very important to state that in Ghana, we have shown a lot of seriousness when it comes to the
management of the COVID-19 condition. In fact, in Ghana, the incident commander who is the leader of the whole team is the President himself. It is not the case in other countries, and there is good reason to be happy when your President is the incident commander. It helps in the mobilisation of resources and the commitment of all Government agencies and individuals or public officials towards the fight. This is very instructive.
Mr Speaker, when all is over, the story would be told also of the legacies of COVID-19. We have started seeing the legacies already. This is a country that has a total capacity of only 1,500 tests a day for Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) which is the same as the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) Test.
Due to COVID-19, today, our capacity is about 5,000 tests a day. We need these tests to even confirm cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) infections. Absolute confirmation is done with PCR, and I remember when I was in the Upper West Region on the tour, I was told that sometimes, they have to wait for weeks to get the PCR done in Tamale. Now that we are scaling and ramping our testing capacity, in future, some of these would be addressed.
Mr Speaker, it is important to state that all Ministries have so far collaborated well; the National Security in terms of ensuring the integrity of our borders to make sure that we do not have people coming in with the risks of infecting citizens in the country. It is also important to say that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has been instrumental in partnering our Missions abroad to support the course.
Mr Speaker, I am also impressed about the attitude and output of the Ministry of Health being very diligent when it comes to coordinating the supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and making sure that the supply chain is kept.
Mr Speaker, let me take this opportunity to explain few things. Nobody would have more than enough of the PPE. Even if you give a facility all the PPEs they required, only within a week, they would tell you that it is inadequate and the reason is simple. These are items we use and discard. They are consumables and so what we must speak to is the supply chain that would ensure that adequate levels are maintained for a long time, which is very important.
Mr Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Minister, for your very insightful conclusion. Hon Members, we have another very important Statement -- a tribute to an international judge of Ghanaian origin who has passed on. He is Justice Thomas Aboagye-Mensah of the University of Ghana fame and elsewhere. We would come back to Statements later to be presided over by the Hon First Deputy Speaker. In the meantime, the Hon First Deputy Speaker would move the Motion numbered 6.
Chairman of the Committee (Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu) 11:22 a.m.
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 adoption of the Twenty-Sixth Report of the Appointments Committee on H.E. the President's nominations for appointment as Justices of the Supreme Court may be moved today.
Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu) 11:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion.
Question put and Motion agreed to.
Resolved accordingly.
Mr Speaker 11:22 a.m.
Hon First Deputy Speaker, you may kindly move the Motion numbered 7?
MOTIONS 11:22 a.m.
Chairman of the Committee (Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu) 11:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, that this honourable House adopts the
Twenty-Sixth Report of the Appointments Committee on H.E. the President's nominations for appointment as Justices of the Supreme Court. Mr Speaker, in so doing, I present your Committee's Report.
1.0 Introduction
On Thursday, 19th March, 2020 H. E. the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo communicated to Parliament the nomination of four Justices to the Supreme Court for appointment in accordance with article 144(2) of the 1992 Con- stitution.
The nominations were conse- quently referred to the Appointments Committee by the Rt Hon Speaker of the House for consideration and report, pursuant to order 172 of the Standing Orders of the House.
The nominees are:
i. Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga -- J u s t i c e Designate to the Supreme Court;
ii. Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu -- Justice Designate to the Supreme Court;
JUSTICE CLEMENCE 11:22 a.m.
JACKSON HONYENUGA -- 11:22 a.m.
JUSTICE DESIGNATE TO 11:22 a.m.
THE SUPREME COURT 11:22 a.m.
JUSTICE ISSIFU OMORO 11:22 a.m.
TANKO AMADU -- JUSTICE 11:22 a.m.
DESIGNATE TO THE 11:22 a.m.
SUPREME COURT 11:22 a.m.
MR EMMANUEL YONNY 11:22 a.m.
KULENDI -- JUSTICE 11:22 a.m.
DESIGNATE TO THE 11:22 a.m.
SUPREME COURT 11:22 a.m.
MENSA-BONSU -- JUSTICE 11:22 a.m.
DESIGNATE TO THE 11:22 a.m.
SUPREME COURT 11:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker 11:32 a.m.
Yes, Hon Minority Leader?
Minority Leader (Mr Haruna Iddrisu (MP) 11:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to second the Motion and in doing so, I would want to seek your leave and indulgence to make my remarks, so that I do not have to come back to this matter again.
Mr Speaker, I support the Motion that this honourable House approves the nominations of those justices to the Supreme Court of Ghana as captured by the Hon Chairman of the Committee: Justice Clemence Jackson Honyenuga, Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu, Mr Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi and Prof Henrietta J. A. N. Mensa-Bonsu.
Mr Speaker, the Appointments Committee met, prior to it as the Hon Chairman has said, we invited and solicited information from the Ghanaian public. The Appointments Committee, like the Public Accounts Committee, is one that has endeared and elevated our image as a country -- the way we subject recommenda- tions or nominations from the President to public scrutiny and to the scrutiny of Parliament.
Mr Speaker, in supporting the Motion, Justice Henrietta J. A. N. Mensa-Bonsu, brilliant at law, there is no doubt about that and she has paid her dues very well. Particularly, she has shaped the criminal law of this country and she has contributed immensely to our criminal jurisprudence. She has served as a member of the National Reconciliation Commission.
Mr Speaker, what was significant was, she demonstrated wit and will. It is important that Justices of the Supreme Court show fidelity to the law and not to the appointing authority, because constitutional law is important, particularly in a multiparty constitutional democracy.
Mr Speaker, what was remarkable about this woman of substance was that she served on the Ayawaso- Wuogon Commission of Enquiry.
Mr Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Leadership, what is the understanding or the arrangement?
Yes, Hon Majority Leader?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, we have had some discussions about this, and we had agreed that after the Motion had been moved and seconded, we would allow not more than three contributions from either Side, including Leadership.
Mr Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Yes, Hon Atta Akyea?
Mr Speaker 11:42 a.m.
Hon Member, the Supreme Court gives judgement from archaeology to zoology daily, and the essence of ours is that it is not a constitutional court. That is what makes this issue of putting a cap on the court a very tricky one. If it were a constitutional court, concentrating on
constitutional cases, then we would limit the number of judges like it is done in the United States of America. However, our Constitution gives appeal to the Supreme Court, to a Ghanaian or to a litigant as of right. That dilemma is worthy of our attention.
Mr Akyea 11:42 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the enlightenment. That is what it is supposed to be.
Mr Speaker, with the greatest of respect, there is a very controversial issue that touches on the fact that the nominee who is also a paramount chief had openly endorsed President Akufo-Addo. It was a very interesting dimension to what we were doing. It had to do with a publication that alledged that he endorsed the President for a second term.
Mr Speaker, it was at the centre of the interrogation, and he said something which for me was very interesting. He said that he was not acting for himself, he was a paramount chief, and was carrying the sentiments of his people along. He also said that there were a number of chiefs, but one person was expected to speak, and he happened to be the one to speak. We left it as it is because I did not see
anything so bad about it. The man had already said that he would uphold the judicial oath.
Mr Speaker, I would move on to another nominee who displayed a lot of intellectual depths and also a deep understanding of his role as a judge. I am referring to Justice Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu.
Mr Speaker, he was a private practitioner before he was elevated to the Bench. If I may say, this culture of always getting the best from the private practice to ascend the Bench is always very good and important. We could see that those of them who had done advocacy, when they are assigned the Bench, the mix is powerful, and that is what I saw in Justice Amadu Tanko.
Mr Speaker, I was concerned about the issue of review. In review applications, we have the original judges seated with perhaps two more to determine a matter. I was of the view that when we include the original judges in the review application, they would come out with the conclusion that they have made up their minds already, so they should not be disturbed with the facts.
Therefore I was of the fair view that when we would want to do review, we should have a new set of
Mr Akyea 11:52 a.m.
judges to have a look at it. The answer of the nominee on it was very interesting, but that would be another level of an appeal. The Constitution should not be disturbed in terms of the way we go about with review applications.
Mr Speaker, we have a misconception that relates to the Woyome case, and the answer of the nominee was very interesting. He said that there was no way -- he sort of played with the Rules of Court to the disadvantage of the Government. His explanation may be found at page 20 of the Report.
Mr Speaker, my good friend and brother, Mr Emmanuel Yonny Kulendi was also vetted. I did not have any doubt in my mind that Yonny Kulendi has been a successful practitioner. He has shown a lot of what I call; “strong sense of the law,” and I could only wish him well and say that when one is elevated to the Bench, especially to the highest level; the Supreme Court, one's decisions should be seminal and should be trans- generational so that when people sit back and read one's decisions, it is not just somebody doing you a favour but indeed and in fact, you have the power and authority to sit at that place.

Mr Speaker, his sacrifice was also immense but if a young practitioner as I see him, should ascend the Bench and then, go and receive salaried arrangements like what he is going to face, I can only say that this is a huge sacrifice.

Mr Speaker, the last but not least was Professor Henrietta J. A. N. Mensah-Bonsu, a lady who attended Wesley Girls High School, the Ghana Law School and she taught me Criminal Law. I have no doubt in my mind that she has the intellectual bent to become a Supreme Court Judge. She would be counted as the Date- Bah stock. Most of them who were lecturers but exhibited a lot of intellectual prowess when they ascended the Bench.

Mr Speaker, my chief concern so far she was concerned was the issue of a lecturer; somebody who is interested in irate intellectual activities being given the opportunity to go and deal with human matters; not just matters of academia, but seriously speaking, matters of great consequences, and she said she would be up to the task.
Mr Speaker, what was very important for me 11:52 a.m.
she also said she saw the Constitution as a political
document. So, Mr Speaker, she is just endorsing the position that you have just given us this morning.
Mr Speaker, for my part, I am in support of the Motion and I invite everybody here to support this Motion. And I am still persuaded that the quality of men and a woman who are being nominated to the Supreme Court is fantastic and we should wholly endorse them to the Supreme Court.
Mr Speaker, I thank Mr Speaker for your kind indulgence.
Mr Speaker 11:52 a.m.
Thank you very much, Hon Minister?
Yes, Hon Member?
Mrs Angela Oforiwa Alorwu- Tay (NDC -- Afadzto South) 11:52 a.m.
I thank you Mr Speaker for the opportunity to speak in support of the Motion for the approval of the Justices to the Supreme Court.
Mr Speaker, I am particularly happy about Prof Henrietta Mensa- Bonsu's nomination as a woman of substance. She knows her law, particularly, the Criminal Law.
Mr Speaker, I take you to page 39 of the Report where she
commented on commercial sex. Her view on this matter is that both the seller and the buyer need to be punished, because currently the law does not permit commercial sex - I am happy about that one. Even though the law does not permit it, the act is still ongoing so it should not be only the woman who should be punished for providing that service.
Mr Speaker, I also want to support Justice Hoenyenugah who is from my Constituency for his elevation from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court. It is a matter of progression. In fact, Justice Jackson Hoenyenugah is my Paramount Chief, and we, the people of Batugu-Bagbor and on behalf of the chiefs and people of the Afadzato South congratulate him on this progression and pray that he would make us proud as we support and continue to pray for him.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker 11:52 a.m.
Thank you very much.
Minority Leadership - very well, five minutes.
Yes, Hon Member you may - Hon Majority Leader, I am a bit confused; who speaks from your Side?
Hon Ursula Owusu-Ekuful?
Mr Speaker 12:02 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the quality and depth of knowledge of all the nominees are without question. What is interesting is the diversity in the appointments made: we have a Muslim Judge; we have a traditional ruler who is also a judge who is being nominated to the Supreme Court; we have a youthful judge, one of the youngest ever judges appointed to the Supreme Court and we also have an astute female academic, international jurist, leading lecturer who was also my lecturer and who introduced me to the exciting world of women's rights and human rights, also being nominated to the Supreme Court.
This diversity would undoubtedly enrich the work of the Supreme Court as they join their equally well- endowed colleagues on the Bench to administer justice to all of us at the highest level of the Judicial Service.
Mr Speaker, on Justice Honyenugah, his work as the Judge leading the Justice for All Programme, which is fostering access to justice for the remand and incarcerated prisoners, and has been running for many years, was very commendable. It is a duty that he takes passionately and his responses to questions from the Committee -- and he is advocating that more resources should be allocated to the programme to reverse the current trend and help facilitate access to justice by the vulnerable. Justice should be made not just available, but accessible and affordable. And this programme, which he has spearheaded since its inception, has worked towards achieving its end and I thought that was commendable.
Mr Speaker, he also indicated that Judges should not be partisan because they are not politicians and they are not permitted to openly and publicly conduct themselves as such and so, should a Judge of the lower Court make a political comment in public, he would summon him quietly and speak to him to refrain from such conduct.
Mr Speaker, he has also got knowledge and expertise in cybercrime and electronic evidence, which is of interest to me and so with
this increasing use of technology, we know that when cases rise up to the apex court of the land, we have Judges well versed in this to also assist in the adjudication of those cases.
Mr Speaker, on the matter of judges doubling as traditional rulers, I thought his response was interesting, and he stated that it was difficult to maintain a balance between the responsibilities as a judge and to become a development agent of the traditional area within the tenets of the judicial office holder.

Juggling both wills; his duty to spearhead development in the area mandates that he worked with current rulers of the country at the local and national levels, to drive development to his area.

He indicated that he has worked assiduously to ensure that none of his two roles would suffer because of this challenge. The current predicament he found himself in largely is as a result of mis-reportage, because the Daily Graphic publication indicated that the durbar was held in his traditional area when it was not. It ascribed words to him that he did not make and he indicated clearly that he was

reading the welcome address on behalf of the chiefs and people of the Afadjato South Traditional Area.

Mr Speaker, on Justice Issifu Tanko, his religion and judicial responsibilities also came to play when he gave his responses on Muslim rights of inheritance and the wearing of hijabs in public. On Muslim rights of inheritance, the clarification that he provided was an accurate statement of the law, in that PNDC Law 111 is the universal application and it applies regardless of the religion, type of marriage, tribe, social standing or the form of traditional inheritance that one is subjected to.

Obviously, that would not be palatable to certain people who would want the primacy of their form of inheritance as against what the law requires.

However, he indicated that parties could agree to order their own affairs without regard to the law. That does not mean that the law does not apply, but the parties could agree to settle their own matters without respect to the law if they all consented to it. It cannot be an imposition by one party or the other.

On the wearing of hijabs, I would urge all of us to take a cue from the sentiments that he expressed, that there are many schools with different forms of uniforms and the decision to
Mr Speaker 12:02 p.m.
Thank you very much. Now, Leadership. Hon Ablakwa for the Minority Leadership. The Leaders have five minutes to conclude.
Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa (NDC -- North Tongu) 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity. I must commend the very judicious work of the Hon Chairman of the Committee, the Hon Ranking Member who is my own Minority Leader and the Clerk of the Committee who have spent days and a lot of man hours in putting this Report together.
Mr Speaker, the nominees who appeared before us as has been said were quite a fine balance. Two were from the Appeal Court and were being promoted, one was a practitioner of many years and the fourth was an academic who is very rich in criminal jurisprudence as we have been told by many of the students who Prof. Heneritta Mensa-Bonsu taught.
The matter which I believe should begin to engage the attention of this House is that during the vetting, I
observed that some nominees were quite hesitant to provide answers because they did not want to be rendered impotent as some of the nominees said because they feared that if they provided answers and a case was subsequently brought before them at the Supreme Court, that may create some biases and applicants may say they should recuse themselves.
Mr Speaker, I believe that moving forward, we should encourage the nominees to be free-minded. I have watched proceedings in other jurisdictions and they make their cases, state their points and indicate their philosophies without prejudice to whatever case that may come before them.

We want to really know thoroughly what these nominees stand for and what their positions are and nothing prevents them from even changing their minds when they assume the role if given the nod. Moving forward, that matter would have to engage the attention of this House so that nominees could be as free as possible to put across their arguments and philosophies, for example, on matters to do with gay rights, the position on abortion and certain provisions so far as human
Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu) 12:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the space to also make some contribution on the Report from the Appointments Committee.
Mr Speaker, I want to commend the Appointments Committee for a very thorough Report. The Appointments Committee of today has succeeded to raise the bar of report writing after vetting.
Mr Speaker, the appointments of the nominees, as articulated by Hon Members who have spoken before me, really represent a cross section of the Ghanaian society -- men and women, young and old, academics and professional jurists. The appointment criteria of Justices of the Supreme Court are set out in article 128(4) of the 1992 Constitution and it highlights three main matters. One; that the nominee should be of high moral character, two; that he or she should be of proven integrity and three that, that person should not be of less than 15 years standing as a lawyer. These are the acid tests that we should as a House, apply. We should also be careful in applying some other yardsticks that may give room to adulterate what the House is required to do.
Mr Speaker, enquiring into the moral character of a person, may open
Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei- Mensah-Bonsu) 12:22 p.m.
some windows and we could walk on that path. Again, the proven integrity of a nominee in my view, should include the judgement of the nominee. If the person is a lawyer for example, we want the person to address him or herself to matters that he or she has handled as an individual, how many times the person has succeeded in taking matters to the Supreme Court, what has been his or her own conduct and what has been the experience of that person. These should influence our thinking.
Mr Speaker, I want to agree with the Hon Member for North Tongu, Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa, when he said that we should accord some space to nominees to espouse their political philosophy. We should not shy away from that. We should also question them on where they stand in human rights as established in chapter five of the Constitution and how they relate to the directive principles of state policies as set out in chapter 6. We could perhaps, take them through this and let them show us where they stand in these matters.

Mr Speaker, going forward, we should create more space when we come to vetting the nominees who come before us.

Mr Speaker, we should have a careful balance because the Constitution frowns against discrimination of any form and character as contained in article 17 (2) and also in article 12 (2) of the 1992 Constitution.

Mr Speaker, issues about their political leanings, religious affiliations, and ethnic background and so on, to me, should not be of much moment to the extent that they add together to have us united as one people.

A person's religious belief should not disqualify him or her just as their political beliefs should not disqualify him or her. After all, in some jurisdictions, we are even required to identify your political colouration just as we know the religious colouration of people who come before us. To the extent that they do not put the nation asunder, we should allow for these freedoms.

Mr Speaker, we should also recognise that above everything else, the Constitution is a political document which is well structured to ensure for ourselves and posterity the blessings of liberty, equality of opportunity and prosperity as the preamble of the Constitution provides.

Mr Speaker, I am happy that at the end of the day, in spite of a few

turbulence, the Committee has come together to sing with one voice that all the nominees - “in the light of the provisions of the 1992 Constitution and Order 74 of the Standing Orders of the House, the Committee is now satisfied that the under listed nominees have exhibited character, com- petence, independent thinking and depth of knowledge of the law”. That is the entirety of the Committee with no exception and that is what is required. These are the measuring rods.

That is why I was a bit disturbed when issues came up but the good thing is that the entirety of the Committee is standing together to assure us that they recognised that the people who came before them assured them that they would live above partisanship and interpret the law without fear or favour in the discharge of their duties.
Mr Speaker, that is where the crack is 12:22 p.m.
to live above partisan consideration. No Supreme Court Justice can rise above political consideration; after all, the Constitution is a political document and they are required to interpret that political document. How else could anybody say that they would not be political? They definitely would be political but they must not be partisan and that is the most important thing.
Mr Speaker, we are told that the Nominees further demonstrated to the Committee that the Constitution being a living document needs not be interpreted with their personal biases and that the spirit and letter of the law would prevail for the good of the citizenry. That is what we would want to hear.
Mr Speaker, the Committee tells us without any equivocation that no evidence of corruption, incompetence or biasness in the performance of their respective roles in the legal sector was brought before the Committee. So what else could we be looking for?
Mr Speaker, I believe that at the end of the day, the people have acquitted themselves creditably and we have no cause to attack the integrity of anyone of them. We should also ensure that we protect the collective integrity of the Justices of the Supreme Court. It does not mean that when subsequently they come with their own rulings we cannot perhaps critique them. We could always do that but we must not overly pontificate and make it appear that “we are holier than thou”.
Mr Speaker, with this, I thank the Committee for the unity of purpose that they have displayed inspite of the initial turbulence. It is good that with the passage of time and allowing for
Mr Speaker 12:22 p.m.
I thank you very much, Hon Majority Leader.
Hon First Deputy Speaker?
Mr J. Osei-Owusu 12:22 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much and I wish to thank all my Hon Colleagues for contributing positively to the debate.
Just one comment, Mr Speaker; during the debate, a young lawyer's name appeared with questions and
answers relating to that lawyer. I would want to put on record that the lawyer has written to protest and that I will place his protest on record, otherwise, I wish all Hon Members to vote in support of the Motion.
I thank you.
Mr Speaker 12:32 p.m.
Thank you very much, Hon First Deputy Speaker.
Question put and Motion agreed to.
Hon Members, I wish to take the opportunity to congratulate the nominees as the House approves their nomination to the Supreme Court.
Mr Speaker 12:32 p.m.
Hon Members, we would continue to debate this matter of capping or not which often continues to appear. I read carefully and I appreciate our Committee's findings and reportage on the viewpoints expressed by Mr Kulendi.
I have made this reference here before and indeed, as we are Sitting, I can find the reference regarding same.
We are best instructed by that viewpoint that the capping position in the United States should not be
compared to ours at all and for very good reasons.
The locus classicus on the matter for us is that of Prof. A. K. P. Kludze, who examined our situation vis-à-vis that of the United States of America (USA), and his very brilliant expose was published in the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Constitutional Review Series, Number 4 of the year 2010. In fact, I will ask for copies for Hon Members of this House, particularly, the Appointments Committee for the sake of records so that we will not reinvent the wheel but move ahead. The title was “To Cap or Not Cap the Supreme Court of Ghana” and he made a very interesting analysis under the Constitution of the USA, the Supreme Court declines to hear a large number of cases by a winnowing process, the Court of Appeal is essentially one's last point of appeal unless the Court decides to move further to hear the appeal as such.
However, the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, under article 131(1) (a), allows the right to appeal in all matters, civil or criminal, from the stealing of a chicken to the pulling down of a house as a matter of right and every single appeal to the Supreme Court must be heard, considered and
decided upon by the Court. This is a very interesting situation and we see that essentially, our Court is divided into various groups, hearing various cases at the same time. The Supreme Court of the USA sits as one Court, but our Court sits in different chapters or groups at the same time and this is because of the Constitutional compulsion and the right granted everybody to appeal. Therefore something may have to be done to this before we come to cap or not to cap the Supreme Court.
Sometime ago, in this country, appeals ended at the Court of Appeal which was the apex Court. We realised that under the French Constitution, they have the constitutional court separately looking at constitutional cases only. We have adopted the American way and went the full hob over their own application. I think we should consider this very carefully in future by this honourable House and by Ghana as a whole, to decide on the matter or otherwise, we will always be asking Judges questions on that which they cannot make a specific pronouncement on, especially, when they are seeking approval to the Supreme Court. This is the dilemma of our situation.
Thank you very much.

Deputy Speaker, will now take the Chair as we proceed.

Hon Members, as I earlier indicated, we shall read a tribute by the Leadership to Justice (Dr) Thomas Aboagye Mensah; a well renowned jurist and Ghana's Judge in the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire border dispute by Hon Majority Leader - Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
STATEMENTS 12:32 p.m.
Majority Leader (Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) 12:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for this opportunity to pay this tribute to the memory of His Excellency, Judge (Dr) Thomas Aboagye Mensah; a world renowned jurist and Ghana's Judge in the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire border dispute.
Mr Speaker, while the House was on suspension, a real, rare breed, a colossus of a lawyer, Dr Thomas Aboagye Mensah who played a profound role in the boundary dispute between Ghana and La Cote d'Ivoire transitioned to the greater beyond, aged four scores and seven years.
Mr Speaker, a product of the Achimota School, where he graduated in 1951 with grade one in Cambridge School Certificate Examination (CSCE), he proceeded to the University College of Gold Coast (later christened, University of Ghana) gaining Bachelor of Arts (B.A) first class in Philosophy in 1956.
He took a course in law at the University of London, graduating in June 1959 with LLB following a postgraduate course at the Yale University Law School; he was awarded a Master's Degree in law in 1962 and a Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD) in 1964.
After Yale, he was appointed a lecturer in law at the University of Ghana from 1963 to 1968 and acted as Dean of Law Faculty from 1967 to 1968. Between 1965 and 1966, he served as an Associate Legal Officer, on secondment, with the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. He also chaired the Constitutional Commission which prepared proposals for the Third Republican Constitution which ushered in President Hilla Liman.
Mr Speaker, in 1968, he joined the United Nations International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London as head of the then newly created legal division. He was appointed Assistant
Secretary General in 1981 and retired from the Organisation in 1990.
Later, Judge Thomas Mensah held various positions; a consultant for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1992; Clever Inga Professor of Law at Leiden University, the Netherlands from 1993 to 1994; Professor and Director of the Law of the Sea Institute at the University of Hawaii from 1993 to 1995. In 1995, he was appointed as Ghana's first High Commissioner to the Republic of South Africa.
In august 1996, he was appointed as Judge in the then newly established International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany.
The Judges at that Tribunal elected him as the first president of that entity. When his term ended and his colleagues, amazed by the depth of knowledge and balance, wanted him to serve a second term as the President of the Tribunal, he declined, insisting that another among them should be elected to serve in his place.
Mr Speaker, indeed, his tenure as president and later as Judge of the Tribunal was serenaded by sheer intellectual brilliance, unquestionable integrity and quintessential leadership.
Under his leadership, the ITLOS strongly evolved into a veritable international adjudicatory institution and that was why he enjoyed the utmost respect of his intellectual and professional peers.

He was at ITLOS as a Judge until the year 2005. Before then, his contribution to the Law of the Sea had been recognised in May, 1998 when he was inducted into the Maritime Hall of Fame in New York. The ceremony was performed by Mr Kofi Annan, our own, the then Secretary General of the United Nations.

On his retirement from the ITLOS, his colleagues and peers at the Tribunal and friends around the world honoured him with a 1,186 page festschrift or liber amicorum; a compilation of scholarly essays by admirers extoling his pacesetting, profound contribution to international law and the Law of the Sea. In 2007, Judge Thomas Mensah was honoured by the Government of Germany with the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 2012, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council unanimously agreed to award the prestigious International Maritime
MR FIRST DEPUTY SPEAKER
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:49 p.m.
Hon Ayine?
Mr Dominic Ayine (NDC -- Bolgatanga East) 12:49 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much and I rise to add my voice to that of the Hon Leader of the House in paying tribute to an illustrious son of this land who has passed on having served offshore with such distinction.
Mr Speaker, Dr Thomas Mensah was a real legal luminary and the term
“legal luminary” has been used very loosely in this country. Most of the times, we hear people on radio maybe talking about Constitutional Law and they would be referred to as a legal luminary. The next day they would be talking about Commercial law and they would be referred to as a legal luminary.
Mr Speaker, Dr Thomas Mensah was a true legal luminary in the sense that he illuminated the path of the law. He chose an area of specialisation in law which is the International Maritime Law. He distinguished himself so well that all over the world, nobody spoke about International Maritime Law in authoritative terms more than Dr Thomas Mensah. That is why he became one of the distinguished Judges of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, when it was established by the United Nations General Assembly in the 1980s.
He was its first President and he served with distinction such that, as the Hon Majority Leader has said, when he finished his term he was urged by his colleagues to stay on. However, he refused and said someone else should take his place, but he stayed on and served as a Judge for ITLOS for a very long time.
Mr Speaker, he was also a man of integrity and this is measured in many ways. If we look at the fact that this
Mr First Deputy Speaker 12:49 p.m.
Hon Member for Asante Akim Central?
Mr Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi (NPP -- Asante Akim Central) 12:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you. I rise to also contribute to the well-researched tribute that has been read by the Hon Leader of the House.
Mr Speaker, yesterday, I happened to be at the Majority Leader's office late in the evening and he said he needed to write a tribute and that he was going to organise himself. I am surprised that he comes with a “thesis” about this legal luminary.
Mr Speaker, personally, I never had an opportunity of meeting this great man, but it is obvious that indeed, Ghana has lost an intelligent, brilliant and serviceable man. The Akans have a proverb which says “A man dies and rot, but his tongue never rots”. Because of the writings and sayings the late Thomas Mensah had
given to the world and not only Ghana, we would always remember him.
Mr Speaker, the tribute shows that this man was well industrious, ambitious, affable, learned, adventurous, a good father, a nationalist, an arbiter and he had good conscience. I would not say he was selfless, but he had good conscience, for an arbiter to sit on a case against his own state and his conscience told him that, that was wrong. It was therefore not surprising that Ghana had to fall on him to actually settle on the dispute between La Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.
Having perused the tribute that had been written by the Hon Leader of the House, out of his 88 years, one would realise that he used 56 in serving the nation and the international community, if you calculate, from the time he had actually done his schooling up to his doctorate level in 1964 and started serving his country as a lecturer in Law at the University of Ghana and later rose to become the Dean of the Faculty of Law and served at other places as well.
Mr Speaker, he went on to serve the international community, and there were many years he had served in that field. I said he was ambitious because even now, we would not have people
delving into areas like International Law of the Sea; and he rose to become the chairman of the Tribunal of the Law of the Sea.
I would say that he was very ambitious and adventurous. He was not selfish. If you look at page 2 of the tribute, may I just quote, with your kind permission, just one sentence that has been read already:
“When his term ended and his colleague, amidst his depth of knowledge and balance wanted him to serve his second term as the president, he declined insisting that another should be elected to serve in his place.”
Mr Speaker, we are not talking about no meaner a place than the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany. It is a clear indication that this man was selfless and not selfish.
May I join the rest of Ghana including his family and the Hon Leader to say that may his gentle soul rest in perfect peace.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Mr Mutawakilu Adam (NDC -- Damongo) 12:52 p.m.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement read by the Hon Majority
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:02 p.m.
Yes, Hon Minister for Works and Housing?
Mr Samuel Attah Akyea (NPP -- Abuakwa South) 1:02 p.m.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
This eulogy is also reflective of the fact that in this House we have a Leader of deep intellect. As a matter of fact, I also call him a colossus of an intellectual because just perusing the tribute, one could see the scholarship and the extent of research in trying to pay tribute to the Late Dr Thomas Aboagye Mensah. As a matter of fact, I never met him, but the whole issue of life is what one leaves behind.
We could see all the tributes put to one fact that the one is gone but his intellectual depth and scholarship remains, and for that we are grateful to God for giving us such an illustrious son of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, I may be bold to say that in the international world, we find Ghanaians who prove their sterling qualities. So we find this great man who showed to the whole world when he was at the United Nations International Maritime Organisation (UNIMO) that the mind of the Ghanaian is not cheap. It is one of the things that I have also observed that anywhere a Ghanaian is placed in the world, he or she displays excellence and scholarship.
Mr Speaker, I am particularly amazed by the fact that when a person has serious powers of intellect, the whole world would make space for him because, if we look at the fact that he was appointed as a Judge in the newly established International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, it tells us that he was a trail blazer. So this is not something that tells us that he became a Copycat. It seems to me that he originated this tribunal. And for that, we thank God for such a great person.
Again, he was honoured in the Maritime Hall of Fame in New York,
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:02 p.m.
Hon Members, that should bring us to the end of the Statement. Shall we observe a minute silence?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:02 p.m.
May the soul of Justice Aboagye Mensah and the souls of all the faithfully departed rest in eternal peace. Amen.
Yes, Hon Majority Leader, what is next?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:02 p.m.
Mr Speaker, we assured ourselves
yesterday that we would deal with the Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019. Given our own circumstances and the meeting that we had to call which involved the chairpersons and ranking members of the committees -- unfortunately, many of us are here in the Chamber. I do not know whether we can go on?
Of course, we have done the preparatory work, so if we want to do a few things we could before I also have to exit because there is still another meeting that I have to attend almost immediately. So Mr Speaker, we are in your hands. Whatever your direction is, we would go by that.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:02 p.m.
Yes, Minority Leadership?
Mr Yieleh Chireh 1:02 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the relevant people are not here. I have not seen the Minister for Education. I cannot see the Ranking Member and other members of the Committee. So it is a little bit of a problem -- [Interruption] -- all right. We will accept 30 minutes and not more.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:02 p.m.
Who is sponsoring this Bill?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:02 p.m.
Mr Speaker, there is a Cabinet Committee Meeting now. Indeed and in truth, the Winnowing Committee met and the Minister himself was there. So the amendment that we have proposed here had the sanctions of the Hon Minister and indeed the Winnowing Committee, which is why I believe that we would not even waste time when we come to deal with the various amendments proffered.
Mr Speaker, I would propose to us that let us begin in earnest to see where we can get to.
Tomorrow is Cabinet day and it may also be difficult for him to stay the entirety of the day. So Mr Speaker, I would plead with us. Let us resume the consideration today.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 p.m.
I do not know, but this is an executive work. The Ministry is big, so one person's absence should not mean that the Hon Minister of State and his two deputies should not also be here.
Very well, let us see the little we could do without them. Hon Members, the Education Regulatory
BILLS -- CONSIDERATION 1:12 p.m.
STAGE 1:12 p.m.
Chairman of the Committee (Mr William Agyapong Quaittoo) 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, subclause (1), redraft as follows:
“There is established by this Act a body corporate known as the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.”
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 p.m.
Hon Members, we would move on to the item numbered 8 (ii).
Mr Quaittoo 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, subclause (3), lines 1 and 2, delete “immovable property, the
immovable property” and insert “land, the land”.
Mr Speaker, the new rendition would now be captured as 1:12 p.m.
“Where there is a hindrance to the acquisition of land, the land may be acquired for the Commission under the State Lands Act, 1962 (Act 125) and the cost shall be borne by the Commission.”
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Clause 41 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 42 -- Object of the Commission
Mr Quaittoo 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, headnote, delete “Object” and insert “Objects.”
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 p.m.
Hon Members, we would move on to the item numbered (iv) of clause 42.
Mr Quaittoo 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, line 1, delete “object of the Commission is” and insert “objects
of the Commission are” and in line 3, at end, add “of the national economy.”
Mr Speaker, the new rendition would then read 1:12 p.m.
“The object of the Commission are to regulate, promote and administer technical and vocational education and training for transformation and innova- tion for sustainable development of the national economy.”
Mr Mahama Ayariga 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I think that sustainable development goes beyond the economy. It portrays a wider concept, and the question is whether we would want to restrict innovative work and the re-engineering of the technical and vocational education just so that we would focus on the economy.
I therefore think that we should just leave it at “sustainable development” instead of restricting all this towards the economy. It goes beyond the economy; it goes up to our environmental sustainability, the sustainability of construction industries and so many other sectors, not just the economy. So I think we should leave out the word “economy”.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the developments in all the
various sectors, as my Hon Colleague the Hon Ayariga has alluded to, would amount to the development of the nation as a whole. They are saying that it is for the national economy and not merely for economic development. So it has to do with the totality of the nation.
However, if the insistence is that it would be better for us to leave it at “sustainable development,” it does not spoil any broth. I thought that “of the national economy” would also focus the attention on what the totality of this is meant to achieve.
Mr Ayariga 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the idea is that sustainable development itself is a very broad concept. It covers the economy and areas that are not directly about the economy but just sustainable development. So we should leave it at “sustainable development” because technical and vocational education does a lot for development generally. Therefore once we have introduced the concept of sustainable development into the equation, we should leave it there and not restrict it to just economic development.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, as I said, I do not see any difference; however, if the understanding is that adding “of the national economy” makes it a bit
Mr Quaittoo 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I would say that the Hon Majority Leader is rather appealing to himself. Any amendment that is done is ascribed to the Hon Chairman of the Committee. I remember very well that it was his amendment so if he has given in, then I give in too. We would leave it at “sustainable development.”
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:12 p.m.
Hon Chairman, you should therefore read the final rendition.
Mr Quaittoo 1:12 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the final rendition would read:
“The objects of the Commission are to regulate, promote and administer technical and voca- tional education and training for transformation and innovation for sustainable development.”
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Clause 42 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 43 -- Functions of the Commission
Mr Quaittoo 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, subclause (1), paragraph (b), line 2, delete “public and private providers” and in line 3, after “training”, insert “institutions.”
Mr Speaker, the new rendition would read 1:22 a.m.
“Coordinate, harmonise and supervise the activities of Technical and Vocational education and training institutions including the informal sector”.
Question put and amendment --
rose
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Yes, Hon Member for Bawku Central?
Mr Ayariga 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Chairman has not given us the policy underpinning this proposed amendment. Especially, in the technical and vocational education sector, we actually have the private sector dominating in the provision of
technical and vocational education. Some of it informal, some of it, really formal, relatively well structured. So I do not know why we want to take out “public and private” and maintain only the “informal” as if all providers of technical and vocational education in the private sector are informal.
Some of them are actually formal so to the best of my knowledge, in the provision of technical and vocational education as we have it now, the dominant providers are the private providers and the public institutions. And in the private sector, they have quite a significant informal segment. So taking this out does not account for private providers who are formal. That is my concern.
Mr Chireh 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the reason the Committee recommended the removal of “public” and “private” is simple. If we do not put them there, it means that everybody is involved. If we just say “public and private”, it means that we want to include everything. There is no reason why we should be repeating “public” and “public”. We do not also want a distinction between private and public as he is indicating; it is just technical and vocational education institutions including informal ones. And with informal ones, we are thinking about those wayside garages and other
places where people train as master craftsmen and graduate.
Mr Speaker, so the purpose really is to create no distinction, and in this particular one, once we remove it, it does not qualify as public or private; it is just any technical and vocational education institution.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Yes, Hon Ahiafor, what is your position?
Mr Bernard Ahiafor 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, thank you for giving me the opportunity. I support the position of Hon Yieleh Chireh, but to make it clear, we should further amend it so that we do not only delete “public and private providers”, we delete “public and private providers of” -- [Interruption] -- I am looking at the advertised amendment as against what is here so that the rendition would be:
“Coordinate, harmonise and supervise the activities of technical and vocational education…”.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, that indeed, is the reason for the deletion of “public and private”. You would see that in sub clause (a), they have taken everything on board by talking about formal, informal and alternative education so; that is very much all-embracing. The moment we

come to subclause (b) and begin to make the distinction, then, when we come to subclause (c) and all of them following after, we have to give that qualification but the subclause (a) makes the provision to capture all of them in one basket and that is why it is not necessary to repeat “private and public”. The spectrum is entirely covered.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Hon Members, so, which is the final one on which I should put the Question?
Mr Quaittoo 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, we could include the word “of” in the amendment on the Order Paper so that it would read:
“Coordinate, harmonise and supervise the activities of technical and vocational educa- ption and training institutions including the informal sector”.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Hon Members, the item listed (vi)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause 1, paragraph (c), line 2, delete “technical,” and insert technical and”.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Hon Members, the item listed (vii)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause (1), paragraph (d), line 1, delete “equity and” and insert “equitable and inclusive”.
Mr Speaker, the new rendition would read 1:22 a.m.
“…take measures to ensure quality, equitable and inclusive access in the provision of technical and vocational education and training”.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Hon Members, the item listed (viii)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause (1), paragraph (e), line 1, delete “technical,” and insert “technical and”.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Hon Members, the item listed (ix)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause (1), paragraph (h), opening phrase line 1, delete “providers” and insert institutions.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:22 a.m.
Hon Members, the item listed (x)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause (1), paragraph (m), delete “public, private and pre-tertiary” and insert “institutions”.
The new rendition would read:
“Accredit programmes, institu- tions, centres, facilitators, assessors and verifiers at the formal, informal, non-formal, technical and vocational education institutions to ensure quality delivery”.
Question put and amendment—
Mr Ayariga 1:22 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I noticed a general pattern of taking out the word, ‘providers' and replacing it with ‘institutions'. And I still come back to the initial issues that I raised about the different categories of providers especially in the technical and vocational education subsector,
providers are largely not institutional.So if we insist on describing them as institutions, we may miss out on a lot of providers.
A lot of providers are existing industries with outfits that also provide skills training in the nature of technical knowledge in different spheres. So I think that the original rendition is to account for the providers who are strictly not institutions but are providing technical and vocational education.
So where we do not have the words recognising informal sector, and we take out the word, ‘providers' and replace it with ‘institutions', we would be leaving out those large segments that are providers but not institutions. That is my little bit of concern.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Yes, sponsor, what is your position on the problem expressed? Yes, Chairman?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the intention for this clause is to register all kinds of technical and vocational training providers. So whatever you are, you must be known and registered and that is why we are classifying them as institutions. Once you are registered, we think that you would become an institution.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member for Bawku Central in his intervention threw the whole thing out of gear and I was struggling to see what he was talking about. This is because we are at clause 43(1)(m) which provides:
“accredit programmes, institu- tions, centres, facilitators, assessors and verifiers at the formal, informal, non-formal, public, private and pre-tertiary technical and vocational educa- tion and training institutions to ensure quality delivery”.
So when he mentioned “providers”, I was struggling to see where it situates in this context. In clause 43 (1)(m), I believe we are home and dry if we delete “public, private and pre-tertiary technical and vocational” because subclause 2 is on the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Item numbered (xi)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause (1), paragraph (o), line 1, delete “object” and insert “objects”.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Item numbered (xii)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause (2), line 1, delete “and” and insert “shall in conjunction with”, and in line 2, delete “shall jointly”.
The new rendition would read:
“The Commission shall in conjunction with the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission, accredit technical and vocational education and training programmes and institutions at the tertiary level.”
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Item numbered (xiii)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 43, subclause (3), line 2, delete “or an authority”.
The new rendition would read:
“The Commission may delegate any of the functions of the Commission to a person that the Commission may determine.”
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Clause 43 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 44 - Governing body of the Commission
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Item numbered (xiv)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 44, subclause (1), paragraph (a), delete “with at least ten years of industry experience” with regard to the Hon Chairperson.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Item numbered (xv)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 44, subclause (1), paragraph (e), line 2, at end, add “nominated by the Council”.
Mr Ahiafor 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I just want to urge the Hon Chairman to give the rationale for the amendment, so that the House can come along with us. As a Member of the winnowing Committee, I agree with the amendment but we need to know
the principle underpinning the amendment.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr Avedzi 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, when you put the Question, we did not hear anybody say “aye”. So if you would put the Question again, we are now willing to say “aye”.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Did you hear a “no”? [Pause] Then the “ayes” have it.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Item numbered (xvi)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 44, subclause (1), paragraph (f), line 2, at end, add “nominated by the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission”.
The reason is that it is coming from the Commission, so they must nominate.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:32 a.m.
Item numbered (xvii)?
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 44, add the following new subclause:
Mr Kpodo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, I think that this is a redundant amendment because the President is so experienced that he would know who to nominate. When we begin to add this, the law becomes verbose. The President has been doing this and would be competent enough to know whom to nominate. So I think that this amendment is unnecessary.
Mr Quaittoo 1:32 a.m.
Mr Speaker, it is necessary in the sense that if you look at subclause (a), it was originally a Chairperson with at least 10 years of industry experience. So once we delete that, we must of course bring in a clause that would indicate that somebody of that required experience should be nominated by the President.
That was why we combined paragraphs (a) and (i) where the President is to nominate a person and where the President is to nominate to
qualify the calibre of person that he should nominate.
Mr Ahiafor 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I support the proposal of the Hon Member for Ho Central, Mr Kpodo that this is superfluous. This is because clause 44(2) states that:
“The President shall, in accordance with article 70 of the Constitution, appoint the chairperson and other members of the Board''.
The President in doing the appointment, would be guided by the provisions of article 70, so why do we want to tell the President what to do? What should guide the President in doing the appointment is the Constitution.
Alhaji I.A.B. Fuseini 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, article 70 talks about the exclusive right of the President to appoint those office holders. It does not talk about expertise. There are article 70 office holders, who do not have expertise. As Hon Members of Parliament, we should be interested to circumscribe the powers of the President to ensure good governance. I am surprised that the Hon Members
for Ho Central and Akatsi South, Mr Kpodo and Mr Ahiafor have argued this way.
The President in the appointment of the people into this council must have regard to their expertise and they say no. Is that what they said? We want to circumscribe the powers of the President so that he would not behave in a whimsical and capricious manner. He should have regard to the experience and qualification of people and the two Hon Members said we should not do that?
Mr Ahiafor 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, if the framers of the Constitution in their own wisdom, have given unfettered power to the President to do the appointment, why do we want to limit that power by telling him what to do?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
This is not the power to make an appointment under the Constitution. This is an act of Parliament and so, it has the power to prescribe how it exercises its power.
Mr Ahiafor 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the law said that the President must do that in accordance with article 70 of the Constitution.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
Yes, it is a mode of selection but we can
decide the kind of person who could be selected. Can we not?
Mr Kpodo 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I would want to estimate your own imagination. Do you think that there is any President who would appoint somebody to this position without regard to the experience and expertise of that person? He cannot just name anybody.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
We have not seen all the Presidents yet. [Laughter] -- If we are not lucky and Mr Kpodo probably becomes President and he chooses to appoint his daughter irrespective of whatever she could do -- when it comes to ministerial position, we would give you free hand but when it comes to the management of public bodies, we want to circumscribe.
Mr Kpodo 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I am so experienced in public and private sector that I would not miss that mark at all.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
I did not refer to the Hon Member for Ho Central though. I just said “Mr Kpodo''. [Laughter]
Mr Ahiafor 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, would we by this law say that after the President in line with article 70, has done the appointment, I could go to
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
We would cross the bridge when we get there.
Mr Ahiafor 1:42 p.m.
If that is what we want to legislate, then we need to be clear so that we could come along.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
If we put that as a criterion, then you could.
Mr Ahiafor 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, so in the circumstances, is it proper to put up -- ?
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
Hon Member, I have not recognised you. You just want to seize the Floor.
Yes, Hon Majority Leader?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, the article in the Constitution that my Hon Colleague related to, really is the appointment of public officers and that is the root that is defined for the President. In that exercise, the President is required to be fair and candid as required by article 296 of the Constitution.
However, by what the Hon Member said it means that when it comes to the constitution of any Body or Authority, we should just say that the article establishes body and it should be populated by maybe, 10 members and we leave it to the President for him to do as he deems fit and appropriate. Is that the extension of reasoning? I do not think that is where he wants to go at all. Let us do what is needful and move away from this.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Clause 44 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 45 -- Establishment of committees
Mr Quaittoo 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 45, subclause (1), line 2, delete “of the Board or non- members or both'' and insert the following:
“or non-members of the Board or both members and non- members''.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr Quaittoo 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 45, subclause (2), line
1, after “member'', insert “or non- member''.
The new rendition would read:
“A committee of the Board may be chaired by a member or non- member of the Board''.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr Quaittoo 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, I beg to move, clause 45, subclause (7), delete and inset the following:
“The Board may assign a function to a standing committee established under section (4)''.
Question put and amendment agreed to.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:42 p.m.
Mr Speaker, if you put the Question on the whole of clause 45, then we could rest the Consideration Stage and continue tomorrow.
Clause 45 as amended ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:42 p.m.
That brings us to the end of the Consideration Stage for today.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:52 p.m.
Yes, Hon Majority Leader?
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, my attention has been drawn to the fact that item numbered 4 has not as of yet been discharged, but I could do the presentation of the Bill on behalf of the Hon Minister for Education.
Mr Avedzi 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, that is in order, especially when it is the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Bill, 2020. So it is in order.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:52 p.m.
So, it is in order because it is the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Bill, 2020? [Laughter] Very well.
Item numbered 4; Presentation and First Reading of Bills, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana Bill, 2020 by the Hon Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs on behalf of the Hon Minister for Education.
BILLS -- FIRST READING 1:52 p.m.
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:52 p.m.
Yes, Hon Member?
Mr Ahiafor 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, that has not been the practice. It is strictly to be referred to the Committee on Education.
Mr Chireh 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, this Chartered Institutes, among others, are for the Ministry of Education. So, the referral has always been to the Committee on Education because they are more or less training institutions.
Now, yesterday we talked about Borrowers and Lenders Bill. That has more legal than financial issues and that is why they were included. So in my view, it does not prevent anybody
to come on board but if we are looking at this, the Hon Deputy Minority Leader who is interested could attend, he could come but please it should be referred to the Committee on Education.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, yes, indeed, this referral should go to the Committee on Education. There are so many other institutes; the other one in the pipeline is the Human Resource Institute. All those ones would go to the Committee on Education.
Mr Speaker 1:52 p.m.
Very well, I hereby order the withdrawal of the referral and refer the Bill to the Committee on Education to consider and report.
Yes, Hon Member for Ho Central?
Mr Kpodo 1:52 p.m.
Mr Speaker, yesterday a similar Bill was referred to the Committee on Finance. The one on lending and borrowing but they invited the leadership of the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to participate. I think we could do a similar thing.
When the Chartered Institute of Taxation was referred to the Committee on Education, they also
Mr First Deputy Speaker 1:52 p.m.
Hon Member, that was not the consensus of the House. The consensus of the House is that it should be referred to
ADJOURNMENT 2 p.m.
  • The House was adjourned at 1.59 p.m. till Thursday, 21st May, 2020 at 10.00 a.m.