Odekro | What has your MP done for you?

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, we
will start with the correction of Votes
and Proceedings of Tuesday, 26th
October, 2021.
Page 1, 2 …9 -

Mr Iddrisu Habib

Mr Speaker,
yesterday, I think I saw my nephew;
Hon Alhassan Suhuyini Sayibu - Member of Parliament for Tamale
North in the Chamber but he has been
marked absent on page 8, item
numbered 71.

Mr Speaker

Please, Table
Office, take note.
Page 10, 11 -

Mr Speaker,
on page 11, even though I raised the
issue, procedurally, the Table Office
would have to vet the proceedings of
that particular day so that it is not as if
I only used yesterday's opportunity to do a Second Consideration of that
matter when I referred to the oath to
be sworn before the President or such
other person as the President may
designate.
What I did yesterday was
appropriate but they have to go back
to the records to reconcile it. Other
than that it would seem as
though, if a matter passes through
Consideration Stage, I just came
through a window to be able to correct
it and that would be wrong to our
procedure and practice. Even though I
am holding the Constitution which is
what is appropriate but I cannot
vividly recall what happened the day
we Considered that particular Bill. So,
if what we did at the time is consistent
with this, that is acceptable, but if it is
not, Mr Speaker, you would have to
give a direction on that. Other than

that tomorrow, anybody would rise up

during the correction of Votes and

Proceedings to seek to tamper with

decisions that were taken at the

Consideration Stage.

Mr Speaker

Table Office, the
Hon Minority Leader is right. Can
you testify and was that the decision
taken by the House when the Bill was
being considered or it is just because
of his intervention yesterday? I ask
this because we did direct that you
should cross-check to make sure that
the decision that was taken by the
House is what was captured as part of
the Votes and Proceedings.
So, what you have done now gives
the impression that this is the decision
of the House. Is that the situation?
Please, let us know.
All right, we will proceed so that
when they get the response, they will
get back to us.
Page 12 …14 -

Mr H. Iddrisu

Mr Speaker,
except that my Twi is not that rich but
on page 12, I wish the word in bracket
next to “Nana Kwame Ampadu” I wish somebody fluent
in Twi did the pronunciation
(Nwomtofuo Hene).

Mr Speaker

Pardon me? What
page?

Mr H. Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, page
12.

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, are
you back to page 12?

Mr H. Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, yes.
The Hon Member is saying that it is
correct. I have my research team and
the spelling they sent to me was
(Onyumtofuo) but I am just saying for
the records that this is linguistics.
I admit that maybe, the Hon Second
Deputy Speaker must take interest in
this matter since it is about the Twi
language. Mr Speaker, whatever
“hene” it is must be spelt correctly and
linguistically. I am unable to reconcile

Mr Speaker

Can any Hon
Member clarify whether what we
have is correct.
Well, the authority says this is the
right one and it is talking about the
chief of a group of musicians. If it is
one person then your point comes in.
Page 13, 14, 15 -
Mr Rockson-Nelson E. K.
Dafeamekpor: Mr Speaker, under
item numbered (g), I believe the word
‘for' should come after “responsible”
to read: ‘By the Hon Minister
responsible for Parliamentary Affairs,
Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on
behalf of the Hon Minister
responsible for Public Enterprises.

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, you
are right. The Table Office should
kindly take note.
Page 16, 17 … 19.
Hon Members, in the absence of
any further corrections, the Votes and
Proceedings of the First Sitting, of the
Third Meeting, for the First Session
held on Tuesday, 26th October, 2021
as corrected is hereby adopted as the
true record of proceedings.
Hon Members, we have two
Official Reports for correction.

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, we
would move to item numbered 5 and
fortunately, I have a number of

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, you
are on your feet.

Mr A. Ibrahim

Mr Speaker, if I
heard you clearly then it means all
Statements and Questions from both
Sides of the House would have to
come through the nominated Hon
Leader so that there would be sanity.
I think the directive is in the right
order.

Mr Speaker, however, after they

have been submitted to you, I wish

that if the Hon Members who

submitted the Questions or

Statements to Leadership would be

notified in advance the day that the

Statement has been scheduled to be

presented on the Floor. Mr Speaker,

because sometimes there is a vacuum

since a Statement may be admitted by

your good self and you would notify

the Hon Leaders at the pre-Sitting

briefing that you have admitted two

Statements for today, but maybe the

Hon Member who submitted the

Statement either at the beginning of

the week or the previous week may be

absent on the day that the Statement is

to be presented. Mr Speaker, so if we

can be notified in advance of the day

that the Statement would be taken on

the Floor, I think it would close this

vacuum and there would be sanity.

Mr Speaker, I just want your

guidance on this.

Mr Speaker

Well, it is a good
proposal but the challenge we have is
the nature of business for the day.
Sometimes we may want to take a
number of Statements but there may
be so much business such that
Leadership would say that we do not
have time to take these number of
Statements so we may have to delay
or take it another day.
Another reason may be that,
timing of the Statements is very
important. When it is delivered at the
appropriate time, it gets the maximum
impact. When you delay it for far too
long, it loses its value, particularly for
urgent Statements and some
Statements of political value. That is
what you are here for. You are
partisan politicians, and there is
nothing wrong with it. That is why we
opted for partisan politics. So it is
permitted to be partisan on the Floor
of the House and to represent your
constituency. Only we do that in
civility and decency.
I am still going through plenty of
the Statements. I think from next
week we would start taking
Statements.

Mr Francis-Xavier K. Sosu

Mr
Speaker, I rise on Order 73 of the
Standing Orders of this House to
bring a complaint of a contempt of the
Parliament of Ghana before the Rt
Hon Speaker for him to make
appropriate orders in respect of same.

Mr Speaker, I request that this

House cites A. C. P. Isaac Kojo

Asante who is the Regional

Operations Commander of the

Greater Accra Region and A. C. P.

Eric Winful who is the Divisional

Commander of the Adentan-Abokobi

Division of the Ghana Police Service

for contempt of this Parliament under

Orders 73 and 31 of the Standing

Orders.

Mr Speaker

Just a minute, yes,
Hon Member?

Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker, my colleague who was
on his feet relied on Order 73. It is just
a clarification. The provision there is
clear that “…provided he has previously notified Mr Speaker”. He did not add that to his submission to
the effect that he has previously
notified you of his application. I only
wanted to be sure that this has been so
done.
This is because, Mr Speaker, there
was a similar application during your
temporal absence, and an objection
came from the Hon Deputy Minority
Leader when the Hon Second Deputy
Speaker was in the chair, and his
contention was to the effect that the
rule is specific that Mr Speaker should
have been previously notified.

Can I finish? Mr Speaker is talking

about civility and decency.

Mr Speaker, the Hon Deputy

Minority Leader's contention was to the effect that at the pre-Sitting

meeting, that matter did not come to

the attention of Leadership, and that

the Hon Second Deputy Speaker did

not draw the attention of Leadership

to the effect that there was such a

notification in respect of an

application under Order 73.

I am only humbly seeking to know

from Mr Speaker whether or not Mr

Speaker has been notified prior to this

application as required by the rules

since he says he relies fully on this

Order and he quoted it to mount his

application.

Mr Speaker, this is all.

Mr Speaker

Yes please.

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim

Mr
Speaker, as the Hon Deputy Minority
Whip, on that day, I had to interrupt
the Hon Deputy Majority Leader for
his non-compliance with Order 73.
When Hon Sosu wanted to come

under Order 73, he came to me on the

Floor here, and I inquired of him

whether he had notified Mr Speaker

already. He answered in the

affirmative that he had already done

that.

If that is the clarity my Hon

colleague wanted, that compliance

has been - [Interruption] - The clause says “… provided he had already notified Mr Speaker on that”, and that has been done.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu

Mr Speaker,
I think the Hon Member for Madina is
appropriately invoking our Standing
Orders to state a matter which affects
him personally and is of public
interest. My colleague the Hon
Deputy Majority Leader did not even
avail himself at conclave.
He just came in when Hon Habib
Iddrisu was holding the fort for all of
them. That is why I am saying he
should not spoil the temperature here.
At conclave, even matters to discuss
on this Floor, it was the Hon Deputy
Majority Whip who held the fort in
their absence. He just walked in.
So even if this matter was
discussed at conclave, he would not
have benefitted from it. Indeed, Mr
Speaker, I must admit that I also got
to conclave late when you were
almost rounding up with the Clerk to
Parliament and other people. But you
still put the Question openly which
matters we were to consider.
The Hon Member raised a matter,
but he should not forget that he was
not available himself.

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker,
with respect, just to respond to Hon
Haruna Iddrisu, I spoke to Hon Habib
Iddrisu. On the issue of contempt, he
is saying that I did not avail myself at
conclave, but this matter, according to
him, did not come up at conclave.
Mr Speaker, I am surprised that the
very rule that my Hon colleagues
from the other Side insisted on, when
same is being discussed, then they are
now raising issue. All I wanted to
know was whether or not he had
previously notified Mr Speaker,
because that was what he used in
addressing Hon Habib Iddrisu's application. It is for Mr Speaker, and
he does not answer for Mr Speaker. I
inquired from Mr Speaker, and he
wants to answer for Mr Speaker. I am
only asking because that was his
concern.

He used that to arrest somebody's application. He knows it, and so I am

only asking Mr Speaker.

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker,
respectfully, this morning, at
conclave, I was there with the Hon
Second Deputy Whip, Hon Doyoe
Cudjoe Ghansah, when Hon Minority
Leader joined, followed by Hon
Ahmed Ibrahim. It was never
discussed, and I am not aware that
such a motion was going to be moved
this morning.
So notification on Leadership or
this issue being discussed this
morning has not been discussed. I was
there in the presence of Mr Speaker,
and was not aware of it before coming
into the Chamber.

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, this
is a very simple matter. First, let me
emphasise that matters of contempt of
Parliament or of Members of
Parliament or of staff of Parliament
are very serious matters. These are the
building blocks of democracy. If we
allow that to be eroded, we have no
legs to stand on. As we sit here, we are
not individuals. You are the corporate
body of your constituents, you also
represent your political parties and
you represent Ghana. So you are not
individuals. The Police - the security agencies represent the
state. That is why if even one is
beating you and you are stronger than
the person, you cannot touch him
because that is a serious offence. If
you touch the person, you touch the
State and the State would deal with
you.
As a result of that, those special
rights that they have given to the
Police, the security services and the
rest are also given to Members of
Parliament and some staff that work
in Parliament. You do not joke with
that. You are not just Members of
Parliament; you are leaders and if
leaders cannot even take care of their
constituents, what is your value? They
have given their all to you to lead
them to have better lives; protect
them; defend them and care for them
and make sure they enjoy the
fundamental human rights and
freedoms that are guaranteed in the
Constitution so that they can exercise
their potentials to the fullest. You
have that responsibility and you have
to discharge it. That is why you are
given special rights.

So when we are dealing with

contempt, it is not one of those issues

that can be toyed with and I take a

serious view of it. The Orders that

have been referred to are very clear. If

you look at Order 53, it gives the

opportunity after Statements, for

Members to come in with issues of

contempt. You can go through it. It

comes as Order 53(1) (l), which is

after Statements, which is (k). When

you go to Order 73, it is very clear. It

says:

“A Member may, at the time appointed for Complaints of

Contempt of Parliament

under the provisions of Order

53(Order of Business) bring

to the House any complaint of

contempt of Parliament,

provided he

has previously notified Mr

Speaker.”

I am the one to determine; if I am

not notified, I would say so - I would hold the person and say that he is out

of Order so he should go back and do

the proper thing. Even in situations of

urgency, which is what Order 73(2)

takes care of. It says:

“In urgent circumstances such complaints may, with

Mr Speaker's prior permission, be made at a time

other than that appointed for

it.”

You can have contempt in the face

of the House. In court, they would say

in facie curiae - in the face of the court. We can have it here and a

Member can get up and raise that

issue. It is an urgent matter and you

need my permission. I may just say

that these are some of the things - just take it that the Member has made

those comments or statements in jest

and then we proceed. But I think the

Hon Member has done the right thing.

I was given a written complaint by

the Hon Member dated 25th October.

The Clerk to Parliament was also

given a copy. It is not only the

Speaker. The other practice you are

referring to is not part of the Standing

Orders - that at conclave, some Speakers decide that it is something

that we discuss there. It is not part of

the Standing Orders. It is a good

practice but I do not want to talk about

what happens in conclave. I do not.

You are raising it but I do not want to

raise it. Sometimes, I am compelled to

come late because of conclave. I do

not want to talk about it. So please, the

Hon Member has given the Speaker

prior notice and the Speaker gave him

permission to place that complaint

before the whole House and for us to

take the necessary action and this one

deals with you

Members of Parliament, not me. At

the end of his complaint, I would

make a statement before I refer it to

the Committee to handle.

So Hon Member, please, you may

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, sub
part two of our Standing Order is very
clear as to the procedure to adopt
when a complaint of contempt is
launched before the House. There are
even some instances that are detailed
out in the Standing Orders, and Hon
Members should take time to go
through them.
Statements

In the circumstances, I can only,

under Order 31, direct that the matter

be referred to the Committee of

Privileges. [Hear! Hear!] The

Committee will investigate the

complaints and it would submit a

report to the House for the full

consideration of the matter. At the end

of the day, it is the House that would

determine

whether the complaint and the report

with whatever evidence gathered,

really constitutes contempt of

Parliament. So, it is a decision that

would be taken by the House, but we

must pass through the process.

I will be issuing a Statement in the

near future in what is happening to

Members of Parliament from both

Sides of the House. I receive

complaints and information about

how some personnel of the Police

Service pursue Members of

Parliaments from both Sides of the

House. I have on a number of

occasions intervened to talk to the

authorities and to draw their attention

to the law. Even sometimes, I have to

call the Attorney-General and

Minister for Justice in these matters.

So apart from this, I have decided to

come with a comprehensive

Statement on this matter, and let

people know that Members of

Parliament have some special rights

because of the peculiar nature of the

position, functions and the duties of

the Member of Parliament.

It is not during my tenure of office

that I will sit still, stare and allow

those things to be flouted with

impunity. It will not happen. [Hear!

Hear!] Let it be known that the power

of the people is stronger than the

people in power. [Hear! Hear!] The

matter is so referred.

Hon Members, we would move to

Presentation of Papers, that is at the

Commencement of Public Business - Item numbered 6(a)(i) by the Hon

Majority Leader and Minister for

Parliamentary Affairs.

Deputy Minority Whip (Mr

Ahmed Ibrahim): Mr Speaker, thank

you. Item numbered 6(a)(i), the Paper

is to be laid by the Majority Leader

and Minister for Parliamentary

Affairs. However, I just want your

guidance on that same item. It is

Annual Statement by the Audit

Statements

Committee of the Coastal

Development Authority for the year

2020. The Coastal Development

Authority's budget came under other Government obligations and it is

under the Ministry of Finance. The

overseeing committee on the

development authorities, at that time,

was of the view that looking at the

quantum of money going there, it

must be under the substantive

Minister for Local Government, Rural

Development and Decentralisation,

but it was not. The Budget was

presented by the Minister for Finance

and the Committee on Finance went

through it, the expenditures have been

made and the audit has also been

done.

Mr Speaker, the Hon Majority

Leader is going to present the Annual

Statement by the Audit Committee,

but it would not help with the proper

oversight of this House. I believe that

with the Annual Statement by the

Costal Development Authority, if it is

not under the authority of the Hon

Minister for Local Government,

Decentralisation and Rural

Development, then the Minister for

Finance must lay that Annual

Statement or Audit Report for a better

oversight and scrutiny.

Mr Speaker, this is an Authority

that has awarded over 1,500 contracts.

The Hon Majority Leader has no

Committee under him. To do a proper

oversight and go to the project sites to

see for ourselves whether those

projects exist or not, the Hon Minister

for Parliamentary Affairs or the

Majority Leader cannot do that. So, if

this House wants to do

Ghanaians a favour, then we must let

the Minister for Finance lay it. The

Committee on Finance must go round

to juxtapose the fundings, the audit

queries and all those things with the

actual projects.

Mr Speaker, besides that, there is

also another Paper on that same

sector, which the Hon Majority

Leader is again expected to lay, and it

is on the National Service Scheme for

the year 2020. I believe that during the

time of the previous Administration,

the National Service Scheme came

under the Ministry of Education.

Therefore, if there is anybody in this

House to lay that Paper, then it should

be the Hon Minister in charge of

Education

Mr Speaker, if we allow the Hon

Ministers for either the Ministry of

Finance or Education to lay the

Annual Statement of the National

Service Scheme, then scrutiny and

oversight from this House would not

be properly done, and we may not do

Ghanaians any favour. Therefore, I

would just want to seek your guidance

and in seeking your guidance, I would

want to add that if this House of the

Republic wants to do Ghanaians any

favour, then we must show concern

on where the moneys are being

channelled to and must do a follow

up. I am saying this because just last

week, the Committee on Education

was on nationwide monitoring and

they visited project sites. The same

thing happened with the Committees

on Health and Local Government,

Decentralisation and Rural

Development.

Mr Speaker, finally, even the

Annual Statement on the Ministry of

Inner-City and Zongo Development is

to be laid by the Hon Majority Leader.

Mr Speaker, we cannot overload the

Hon Majority Leader with all those on

funds. We created the fund, so, we

must oversight and investigate it.

Therefore, if we allow the Hon

Majority Leader to lay this Paper,

then we may not do Ghanaians any

favour. So, if the items are not

mistakenly loaded under the Hon

Majority Leader, then he cannot usurp

that territory or else he might be

treading on a very dark area, where

oversight would be in jeopardy.

Mr Speaker, I, therefore, would

need your guidance on this.

Thank you very much. [Hear!

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng

Mr Speaker, before you provide the
guidance that the Hon Member
sought, I thought that I should add
mine so that we could all be guided by
you.
Mr Speaker, the concerns that the
Hon Member raised related primarily
to oversight and I identify with that. I
think that we must work in such a way
that we can exercise the oversight
responsibilities of Parliament well.
However, that discussion should be
referenced to the referral as to which
Committee looks at it. Once these
items have been brought to the Table
Office, it would have come under
somebody's signature and that somebody is really the owner of that
Paper that has come here. If the Hon
Member is concerned about
oversight, then Mr Speaker, I would
like to know whether that should
reflect in the kind of referral that
would be made, or it is a matter to do

with who lays it. That is the guidance

that I seek.

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, this
is a very simple matter. This is
Government Business and all
Government Businesses come
through the Hon Leader of
Government Business to the House.
The Business is chaperoned by that
Hon Minister, which we now call the
“Minister for Parliamentary Affairs”. However, that Ministry does not
oversee Parliament because it is a
Ministry which has the Hon Majority
Leader, who is also the Hon Leader of
Government Business as its Minister.
So, he champions Government
Business on the Floor. He does not do
so when it comes to Parliamentary
Business or constituency business,
and that is where the Hon Speaker
comes in.
However, when I preside, I preside
over all the Businesses and I apply the
rules; the practices and procedures as
we know them.
These Reports are not annual
reports of those institutions. These are
Annual Audit Reports and they are
specific. Therefore, audit reports as
we all know are usually handled by a
specialised Committee of Parliament
called the Public Accounts
Committee. It is not left to the general
oversight of Parliament. The
Committee over the years has
specialised in handling audit reports
from audit agencies including the
Audit Service. So, these Reports
would be referred to that Committee
and not the sector Committees. It is a
good point that has been raised by the
Hon Deputy Minority Whip. We pass
the laws, but the proper thing is that
all audited reports must be referred to
the specialised Committee, which is
the Public Accounts Committee. They
would do all what the Hon Deputy
Minority Whip is talking about. It is
not only going to look at the
finance, but they would also ensure
that the Performance Audits are well
done.
So, I think that it is proper from
our quarters that we decided to take
that aspect in trying to give some
autonomy and independence. That is
why you would realise that almost all
the constitutional commissions' reports and the rest passed through the
Hon Majority Leader to be laid. So, I
do not see anything wrong with it
being laid by the Hon Majority Leader
and Minister for Parliament Affairs. It
is only that it should have been done

under the authority of the Hon Leader

of Government Business. However, in

this case he is the same person.

In some Parliaments including

ours, it could happen that the Hon

Majority Leader would not be the

Leader of Government Business. This

is because we can have Majority in

opposition. That is the system that we

run, and that person cannot be the one

in charge of Government Business. It

would be somebody else that the

Government would decide that he

should be in charge of Government

Business in the House even though

that might be a Minority person. So, I

think that we should allow the Hon

Majority Leader and Minister for

Parliamentary Affairs to present these

Audit Committee Reports to the

House for consideration.

Mr Speaker

Hon Deputy
Minority Leader, do you disagree
with the Hon Speaker?

Mr Avedzi

Mr Speaker, I would
just want to draw your attention to the
Report. The Report itself is not the
Auditor-General's
Report. This is the Report of the Audit
Committee established under section
86 of the Public Financial
Management Act. Now, these Reports
are the Audit Committee Reports,
which worked on the
recommendations of the Auditor-
General and the Public Accounts
Committee to ensure that those
recommendations are implemented
by the sector agencies.
So the law demands the Audit
Committee to submit a report
annually to Parliament to tell us how
they have implemented the
recommendations of Parliament, the
Auditor-General and the Public
Accounts Committee (PAC). The
difference here is that, it is not a report
that comes here directly from the
Auditor-General, but that of the Audit
Committee. What we did in the past
was to refer this report to the sector
Committees to do a follow up based
on the recommendations of the
Auditor-General, PAC and
Parliament. I just want to draw your
attention to the difference between the
two types of reports.

Mr Speaker

Hon Deputy
Minority Leader, do not belabour the
point. I did not restrict my submission
to only reports from the Auditor-

General; that is not what I said. If you

read our Hansard, you would realise

that the initiation of the establishment

of those Audit Committee reports was

from me. It is through my efforts that

we established those committees to

follow up on the recommendations

that have been approved by

Parliament, and ensure that they are

implemented.

It is because issues were raised

about Parliament just being a talk

shop, and that what recommendations

were approved were not

implemented. Thus, we had to do that.

I, as the Hon Chairman of the Public

Accounts Committee from 2001 to

2004, insisted that those committees

send reports to PAC annually. We

realised during the course of that that

it did not amount to anything. That is

why they are included in the later

legislation.

Hon Members, PAC was political;

it used to be chaired by the Minority

Leader. I insisted that it should be

chaired by professionals for us to

focus on professionalism than

politics. As Hon Minority Leader, I

stepped aside and brought in Hon

Sallas- Mensah as a professional to

chair the Committee. That is how

come we moved away from the

politics to professionalism.

I know the background, and I still

believe that the correct place for those

Reports to go is PAC to follow up on

the implementation, and not sector

Committees. The annual reports of

those agencies, which are

comprehensive and do not deal with

audit, would go to the sector

Committees, and they would handle

them. That is why I have given my

positive response that that is the right

thing to do.

The Hon Majority Leader and

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs

should be given the opportunity to lay

the Reports, and I will refer them to

PAC to handle and report to the

House. If you are inundated with

work, let us know, and we would

know how to help you to finish up the

work.

Mr Avedzi

Mr Speaker, the
Committee is overwhelmed with the
number of reports that we work on.
Annually, we have more than 10
reports from the Auditor-General, and
so, if we add the Audit Committee
reports, it would be too heavy for us
to carry. I, therefore, suggest that we
continue what we have been

practising already, giving it to the

sector Committees, and when there is

the need for PAC to also assist, we

would do so.

Currently, we are in arrears; we are

finishing the report of 2017 and we

have planned to work on those of

2018 and 2019 next year. If we are

able to do that, then we would have

bridged the gap. The Committee can

then come back for this, but for now,

we have been overwhelmed with the

numbers of the reports that we are

supposed to work on. I would want to

plead that the sector Committees

continue working on the reports for

now.

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu

Mr
Speaker, we should be very careful in
these matters. The Audit Committee
under the Public Finance
Management Act (PFMA) has been
constituted to serve a special purpose.
The sector Committees are
constituted bearing in mind their
expertise and it is largely the technical
matters relating to that sector. Where
you have an Audit Committee of a
covered entity doing work on what
even the Audit Service could have
done, and a report comes to this
House, I am not too sure merely
because the Committee feels
overburdened, is good reason to
redirect it to Committees that may not
have the right competence to do that.
I sympathise with the Hon Member,
but the solution he proposed could be
problematic.

Mr Speaker

Hon Deputy
Minority Whip, you started the whole
thing.

Mr A. Ibrahim

Mr Speaker,
before I started the matter, I did not
know the Hon Chairman of PAC
would come up with a submission that
he would be inundated with too much
work. In that regard, I just want to
draw your attention to article 187(6)
of the 1992 Constitution which reads:
“Parliament shall debate the report of the Auditor-General
and appoint where necessary,
in the public interest, a
committee to deal with any
matters arising from it.”
Mr Speaker, right from 1992, we
have not been able to form this
committee. In considering the
submission of the Hon Chairman of
PAC, going forward, we would
consider constituting this committee
to deal with the report of the PAC

after it has been debated in this House.

I believe it would help in settling

some of these matters so that they

would not be overburdened with work

where the reports of the Auditor-

General would come, and instead of

dealing with them, they would deal

with the secondary reports from their

original reports.

Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza

Mr Speaker, I am grateful for your
education on how we came to
improve the work that we do up to
here. It is important that those of us
who just joined would understand
how the Parliament of Ghana has
evolved so far.
Mr Speaker, I agree with whatever
you have said, but just to sympathise
with my senior Hon Colleague, the
Hon Chairman of PAC, yesterday, we
laid similar documents, and we
referred all of
them to sector Committees. For
instance, all those that had to do with
the assemblies were referred to
Committee on Local Government and
Rural Development Committee, and
those on health to the Committee on
Health. I am sure the Hon Chairman
pleads that their burden is lessened.
Mr Speaker, we just started this
Meeting. We have enough time to do
a lot, but I can count only 15 Hon
Members of the Majority. In other
words, we have a 15 member
Majority. I say this simply because,
getting close to the end of this
Meeting, you would see Hon
Ministers and Hon Chairman of
Committees rush to Parliament to
force us to work till midnight. It will
not happen this time around. If they
call themselves Majority, 15 of them
cannot be here -

Mr Speaker

Actually, you are
not in charge of that one so, go on
with your submission.

Mr Agbodza

Mr Speaker, 15 of
them cannot be seated in this
Chamber and call themselves as
Majority. Are they not ashamed
calling themselves Majority? If you
are not ready -

Mr Speaker

Hon Member,
please, make your point.

An Hon Member

Resume your
seat.

Mr Agbodza

All right.

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, we
had notice that the New Patriotic
Party (NPP) has a regional conference
for the Ashanti Region.

And we know the Ashanti Region

has forty-nine (49) Constituencies,

and out of that—

Mr Ibrahim

Mr Speaker, there
are forty-seven (47) Constituencies.

Mr Speaker

Thank you for the
timely correction. Forty-seven (47)
Constituencies and out of that, they
are in control of what -? As at now, it is forty-three (43) so, they did inform
me that they had to be part of what is
happening today. And I gave them the
permission; they came through the
Majority Leader himself so, I gave
permission for them to attend that
conference for today.
I am not even sure it is forty-three
(43); I think it is forty-two (42)
because one is independent, and that
is why he is here — and that is the main reason why he is not a Member
of the New Patriotic Party. [Hear!
Hear!] He is an independent Member
of Parliament. Anytime there is
evidence that he is a Member of the
New Patriotic Party, he stands
constitutionally disqualified from
being a Deputy Speaker of
Parliament. Read your Constitution
very well and be careful how you
speak. He, himself has shown that he
is not a Member of the New Patriotic
Party and that is why he is here. Do
not compel him to be a Member. If he
wants to, he will join at any time but
if he does so during the tenure of his
office, he stands disqualified to be a
Deputy Speaker and we will have to
look for one.
He has been doing well; he has
been very supportive of my effort; I
am happy with him and usually, I
thank him for learning very fast.
[Hear! Hear!] But let me say that we
have one High Court in the country
but it is not just one person, so we can
have one Public Accounts Committee
but with branches. We need to support
you. I sympathise with you; in fact, I
empathise with you. I was there
before; that time, the load was not that
huge. We have added onto and
Parliament is prepared to support you.
We have the men and the women here
to add but we need professionalism in
that Committee.
In fact, the India Parliament has
invited me to celebrate with them

their hundred years of the

establishment of their Public

Accounts Committee. And I am going

to give the Keynote Address in India.

[Hear! Hear!] I have done a serious

research, right up from the

establishment of the Public Accounts

Committee globally; when it started

and how it has developed up till now.

It is the key Committee for the

oversight of Parliament, and we are

prepared to build it up to support us

because one of the weakest functions

of this House is oversight. We are

very good in law making and we are

ranked very high when it comes to law

making but we are ranked also very

low when it comes to oversight. We

need to strengthen that, so please, put

your challenges before us, we would

try and assist you to be able to handle

the load that we are putting on. But I

think the proper Committee to handle

Audit Reports is the Public Accounts

Committee, not sector Committees.

What we have learnt; the skills of

even probing, tracking, tracing and

asking questions when it comes to

Audit Reports is not what is in the

sector Committees' level, so let us— I cannot review the earlier referral but

I think the proper thing is for this

Report to be referred to the Public

Accounts Committee. So, please, may

we allow the right representative of

Government to present the Report to

us.

Mr Speaker

I thought we had
done so much talking on this matter.
Yes, Hon Member?

Mr Alhassan Suhuyini Sayibu

Mr Speaker, I thank you. Maybe,
before that clarification, on a lighter
note, I wish to be one of your
assistants when you are going to

Mr Speaker

Do you want to be
Assistant Speaker?

Mr Sayibu

No, Mr Speaker. I
wish to be one of your assistants just
to assist you on the trip. I am not
qualified to wear the shoes of Mr
Speaker yet. Just to assist you on the
trip. In case you need water to drink, I
would be there to serve the water.
Mr Speaker, but you indicated that
the Majority Leader made a request
through you to lead the MPs from the
Ashanati Region to meet with the
Asantehene. I just would like to have
clarification, if the meeting is with the
New Patriotic Party Members of
Parliament from the Ashanti Region

or Members of Parliament from the

Ashanti Region. That is just what I

wanted clarification for.

Mr Speaker

I am sure you were
not here from the very beginning, if
not, this question does not arise. It is a
Regional Conference of the New
Patriotic Party and Members should
be there. And a request had been made
through the Leader, and the Leader
did approach me. It is part of your
duties and functions so I granted
permission that they could attend,
which they have done and they said
they will be absent only today. So,
they are there and I
think it is the right thing to do. Any
party can do the same and would get
the permission. Today, we can forgive
the Majority for being Minority on the
Floor but if it continues, I know what
to do to bring them up to speed.
So, please, can we allow the lawful
representative to lay the Papers?

Mr Speaker

Hon Kpodo, you
have a special type of - is it face mask or nose mask?

“(2) An annual statement required under subsection (1) (b)

shall

(a) indicate the remedial action taken or proposed to be

taken to avoid or minimise

the recurrence of an

undesirable feature in the

accounts and operations of a

covered entity;

“(c) be endorsed by the relevant sector Minister and

forwarded to the Minister,

Parliament, Office of the

President and the Auditor-

General within six months

after the end of each

financial year.”

So, the Audit Committee

Statement is to be endorsed by the

relevant Minister and forwarded to

Parliament. So, there are two issues I

want us to clear. First, is about the

Coastal Development Authority,

Middle Belt Development Authority

and the Northern Belt Development

Authority. Which Ministry are they

now operating under , so that we can

trace the Report to the sector

Minister? I know that it is now under

the Office of the President, but the law

says that it should be endorsed by the

sector Minister. So, which Minister is

responsible for it, even though it is

under the Office of the President?

Mr Speaker, again, it says that they

should be forwarded to Parliament,

Office of the President and the

Auditor-General. So, once such

statements are issued, what are we to

do with it in Parliament? It is to be

forwarded to Parliament, and I want

us to be clear on that “forwarded”. Does forwarded to Parliament mean it

should be referred to an appropriate

Committee to deliberate on it and

bring a Report to the Floor for plenary

discussion? These are the issues

bothering my mind. This however, is

a provision of the law, under Act 921,

Section 88 (2).

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, the
purpose of referral is for the
appropriate Committee to look at the
state of the law, vis-à-vis the contents
of the Reports that have been referred
to them and then they report to the
House. That is why we have
Committees. So, all the issues you
raised are issues that would be
considered by the Committee, to see
whether the Report complies with the
provisions that you have just drawn
our attention to. If not, the
recommendations of that Public
Accounts Committee (PAC), would
draw our attention for the right thing
to be done.
When a Report is referred to
Parliament, Parliament is not the
Clerk, neither is Parliament the
Speaker. Parliament is as constituted,
275 Members, presided over by a
Speaker. That is Parliament. So when
they say, “referred to Parliament”, it means referred to this body and the
only way it can be presented to this
body, is when this body is in plenary
and a Paper is presented as laid. That
is the procedure and that is what we
are complying with.
It cannot be done in any other way,
or else, a lot of things would happen
behind you without your knowledge.
That is why we insist that it be done.
It is Parliament that can now come
back and say for instance that, there
are some problems with
implementation of the law being
passed and we recommend ways of
improving it because you passed the
law, and it must go according to that
provision. So, if we find out that at the
end of the day, we are inundating
ourselves with so many Reports to the
point where it is even becoming
impossible for the House to handle
them, we would now legislate and get

other specialised bodies that could

partner the House to handle them.

This is because oversight of

governance is led by the Arm called

Parliament and no other Arm. We

decide who should assist us to do that

but we have the ultimate

responsibility. So, we have done

nothing wrong. We have done the

right thing, so let us go through them.

If at the end of the day we have

challenges; once there are challenges,

there would definitely be

opportunities and we would get the

opportunities to support us to do our

work.

I think that this is the right thing to

do, so let us use the specialised

Committee to handle specialised

Reports. It is not the annual Reports

of those Development Agencies but a

specific audit Report, so please, can

we go on?

Mr Edwin Nii Lantey

Vanderpuye: Mr Speaker, I am

grateful for this particular elucidation

that you have given us. The difficulty

I would have with the law as

presented by Hon Kpodo and the

directions that we are taking, is the

fact that, any cunning Government

could decide to hide so many of these

bodies under the Office of the

President. The law is however saying,

that those Reports must be referred to

the Office of the President. It then

becomes difficult for Ministries that

have direct relationship with this

House in terms of our oversight, to be

able to adequately deal with these

Reports.

So, Mr Speaker, I think that this

House should be looking at making

sure that in order to enhance our

oversight, there would be a sort of law

that would limit the number of such

agencies created under the Office of

the President. This is because, like the

Hon First Deputy Minority Whip said,

the Coastal Development Authority,

the Middle-Belt Development

Authority and others require huge

sums of money. Their budgetary

allocations are huge. The former

Ministry of Special Initiatives had a

huge budget, yet today, it has been

collapsed. So, how would we have the

opportunity to critically look at what

they did and how they did it?

So, in order for this House to help,

it should be critical about the number

of amorphous structures that are

created and budgets allocated for

them, to prevent the way people

would get out of our oversight and

supervisory role.

Mr Speaker, I submit.

Mr Speaker

It should not be a
problem at all. This is not the time for
a seminar or workshop for us to look
at these things. As a country, we are
used to some system of governance
and that is in our heads and not what
we have put in our Constitution. That
is not what we are practising in this
country and that is one of the
challenges. If you have an Executive
President, you do not have Cabinet
approval. In any case, in our
Constitution, there is nothing like
Cabinet approval. Under our laws,
Cabinet approves nothing because
Cabinet is advisory and it is very clear
in the Constitution. But everybody is
asking whether it has been approved
by Cabinet when you have an
Executive President.
While all the other Arms have
Councils or Commissions, in
Parliament, we have a Board called
the Parliamentary Service Board,
which is for the Parliamentary
Service. You are not part of the
Parliamentary Service but part of
Parliament but the Parliamentary
Service Board which is a public
service board is to oversee
Parliament. These are all wrong
concepts and would not work
anywhere.
You cannot implement that, but
that is what we are practicing and it is
not even in accordance with the
Constitution. We have to relook at all
these things. That is why some of us
put pressure that we should look at the
Constitutional Review Commission's Report to update and revise some
provisions of the Constitution to
current thinking and the new type of
governance that we have in the world;
smart governance not good
governance. We have gone beyond
good governance to smart
governance. That is where we are now
- there are a lot of things that we have to do. We are the law makers and
nobody else. Our responsibility is
huge and you toy with it because you
are controlled by political parties who
do not even fund your activities - you do them yourselves but because you
believe in one man, you allow
yourselves to be controlled and to sing
the praises of individuals to the
detriment of the country.
I sit here as the Rt Hon Speaker
and I would lead you for us to do what

we can and to update this Government

and strengthen this Parliament for us

to rectify the wrongs and get this

country move forward. If you would

not go with me, I would leave you

behind. Do you hear me?

Some Hon Members

Yes, Mr
Speaker.

Mr Speaker

If you would not go
with me, I would leave you behind
and some people would go with me. I
am very sure that by 2024, we would
have done some things to change the
face of politics in this country. If not,
you should forget what would happen
in 2024 - none of you would want to be alive. Yes, we have to rise - I would make statements for you to
listen and we would change the face
of politics in this country. [Hear
Hear] They elect Hon Members,
people of great respect and put you in
the mud to work for them. They
benefit from your sweat and they sit
outside to enjoy, condemn and
destroy you in the mud.
By the time you finish your term of
office, you just go to your grave - there is no way to live again. That is
what has happened to former Hon
Members of Parliament and former
Hon Ministers of State. They are
destroyed to the extent that they have
no value in the society. Meanwhile,
all that you do goes to other people
and not yourselves. You all know it.
How many of you work and keep the
money in your pockets? It is just a
few who might have owned their
businesses but majority of the Hon
Members sweat to satisfy the hopes,
aspirations and needs of their
constituents. At the end of the day,
after you struggle to win primaries
and you lose, you have no pesewa in
your pockets and the same people
would insult you every day in the
constituency - and we cannot correct or tell the people this?
Please, we would lead and
legislate in this country. In the next
politics, you have to disclose the
source of your money and account for
how you spent it. Yes, that is how
democracies are run. They just do not
allow you to go for any money
anywhere and spend it anyhow and
then you say you run a corrupt free
government. How can that happen
when you came in with corruption?
How can a product of corruption fight
corruption? Please, let us not pretend.
Let us stop these things.
Could we take item numbered 6 - Papers?

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, I
seek your leave for the Hon Minister
for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs
to lay the Papers on behalf of the Hon
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs.

Mr Speaker

Hon Minister for
Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs,
you could lay the Papers for and on
behalf of the Hon Minister for
Parliamentary Affairs.

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker,
with respect, yesterday, we had a
problem with the Clerks-at-the-Table.
She should read aloud - we must hear her. When she is outside of this
Chamber we hear her aloud and we
know that she is not a timid lady.
[Laughter] She is behaving like
somebody you have ruled against so
she cannot even talk but there has not
been any ruling against her. She
should read aloud.

Mr Speaker

Hon Deputy
Majority Leader, I do not even know
who read it because I cannot see the
Clerks-at-the-Table, who sit below
me. Please, just allow her. She is one
of our procedural clerks who is very
good at her work.
Please, could you repeat what you
just read?
(i) Annual Statement by the Audit Committee of the
Coastal Development
Authority for the Year
2020.

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker,
your orders were not complied with.
It is not the same person who repeated
it -somebody else took over. Edith was the one who read it initially.
Papers

Mr Speaker

Clerk to Parliament,
you are in charge of the Table Office.
Please, could you take control?
(i) Annual Statement by the Audit Committee of the
Coastal Development
Authority for the Year
2020.
(ii) Annual Statement by the Audit Committee of the
Zongo Development
Fund for the Year 2020.
(i) Annual Statement by the Audit Committee of the
Public Procurement
Authority for the Year
2020.
(iv) Annual Statement by
the Audit Committee
of the National Service
Scheme for the Year
2020.
(v) Annual Statement by
the Audit Committee
of the Judicial Service
for the Year 2020.
Referred to the Public Accounts
Committee

Mr Speaker

Item numbered 5 (b)
on the Order Paper.

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker,
with your leave, if the Hon Minister
for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs
could lay the Paper on behalf of the
Hon Minister for Roads and
Highways?

Mr Speaker

Yes, Hon Minister,
you may do so.
By the Minister for Chieftaincy
and Religious Affairs (Mr Kofi
Dzamesi) on behalf of the Minister for
Roads and Highways) -
Annual Statement by the Audit
Committee of the Ministry of Roads
and Highways for the year 2020.
Referred to the Committee on
Public Accounts.

Mr Speaker

Item numbered 6 (c)
by the Minister for Finance.
Papers

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, I
seek your leave for the same Hon
Minister for Chieftaincy and
Religious Affairs --

Mr Speaker

Yes, Hon Deputy
Minority Whip?

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim

Mr
Speaker, we just started Sitting
yesterday and you gave caution that
Ministers of State must be present in
the Chamber to do business in the
House. The first Minister, the
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs,
sought permission from you. So, we
agreed with our Hon Colleagues on
the other Side to seek permission for
the Minister for Chieftaincy and
Religious Affairs to lay the Papers on
his behalf. With the Second Minister,
the Minister for Roads and Highways,
they sought permission even though
we do not know his whereabouts. If
the Minister for Roads and Highways
is not here, he has abled deputies. We
agreed that he sought permission for
him. We now come to the third
Minister, the Minister for Finance.
You added yesterday that this is a
budget Meeting. The Minister for
Finance must take interest in the
Business of this House especially for
this Budget Meeting. He has two or
three deputies and even has a Minister
of State in that Ministry.
Mr Speaker, if matters of finance
are relegated to other sector Ministers
without all the four Hon Ministers
being present in the House just to lay
this Paper, who are they taking us for?
On this note, I may not have any
difficult challenge but to add to the
caution that you gave yesterday. We
would agree for the Minister for
Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs to
lay the Paper, but going forward, the
Hon Ministers must take your word
very seriously.
Mr Speaker, we agree to the
Minister laying the Paper.

Mr Speaker

Hon Majority
Leadership, are you all right with the
submission or there is any response?

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker,
he ended on a good note of
cooperation. We have therefore taken
a cue but you may well be aware that
the Ministers have always taken this
House seriously.

Mr Speaker

What did you say?
Papers

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr
Speaker, I said that he ended on a note
of cooperation. However, on the
substantive matter he raised, I know
for a fact that Ministers of State under
this Government take this House
seriously.

Mr Speaker

It is not true.

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr
Speaker, you may disagree --

Mr Speaker

There is ample
evidence to show that the Ministers do
not take this House seriously and I am
telling you that from this Meeting, we
would make them take this House
seriously. I would allow the Hon
Minister for Chieftaincy and
Religious Affairs to lay this Report.
After that, I am adjourning the House
and I would want the appropriate
Ministers to appear before the House
to lay the Reports.
Are you with me?

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr
Speaker, you know you are the head
of this institution. Who am I to
challenge your position on the matter?

Mr Speaker, I know that some

people may misquote you and take

you out of context but I understand

you to mean that even if the Ministers

scored 98 per cent, you expect them to

Mr Speaker, we want to enrich

parliamentary oversight, so, they

should take us more seriously.

Mr Speaker

Hon Member of
Effutu?

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker,
your own base, Effutu, yes.

Mr Speaker

Hon Member for
Effutu and the Deputy Majority
Leader who is my son, definitely
cannot challenge me. So, my directive
stands.
Hon Minister, lay this Report and
I will proceed to adjourn the House.
They would come as Ministers to do
their work and we would give them
the opportunity as we work together.
Papers

Mr Speaker

Hon Members, as I
have just indicated, my intention is for
us to call it a day and since it is not yet

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker, I
would just want to draw your
attention that the Minister for
Education is part of the delegation the
Hon Majority Leader sought your
permission to attend the NPP
Regional Delegates' Conference in the Ashanti Region. So, with your
leave, could the Minister for
Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs lay
the Report on his behalf?

Mr Speaker

Hon Member, I am
sure you were not listening to me. If
you were, this interruption would not
come in. Please, Leaders, let me hear
from you.

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim

Mr
Speaker, I do not know whether you
would want an indication sought.
Considering your caution, if there is
any Minister who respects you and
this House and takes the House
seriously, it is the Minister for
Education. I thought that was the
angle my Hon Colleague would come
from. He is the most punctual
Minister just as his deputies, the Hon
Adutwum and Hon Ntim Fordjour.
[Interruption] - But he did not come on that premise. He said he sought
permission. If he could seek
permission from you judging from the
conduct of the Minister for Education,
then he lays that Paper and indicate
that we adjourn. That is what Mr
Speaker is saying.
Mr Speaker, honestly speaking,
the Hon Minister for Education is
always in this House. Until we
adjourn, he does not go; same
applies to his two deputies. But he is
one of the Ashanti Regional MPs who
have sought permission from you. So,
we have no problem with that. Where
we had problem was the Minister for
Finance who was not present to lay
his own Ministry's Audit Report - the

Annual Statement by the Audit

Committee of the Ministry of Finance

for the Year 2020. If nobody would be

here at all, he must be here himself to

lay it.

Mr Speaker, bear with us to allow

the Minister for Chieftaincy and

Religious Affairs to lay the Papers on

behalf of the Minister for Education

who has already sought permission

from you. After that the Majority

bench could give an indication and we

would comply.

Mr Speaker

What I was doing
was applying Standing Order 42 (2);
consulting the House for fixing the
time whether the Sitting of the House
should be adjourned sine die, or to a
particular day or to an hour or part of
the same day. As leaders, you are
trying to compel me to do your wish.
I am aware of the performance of
the Minister for Education. I insist
that we take an adjournment. If you
are not prepared to do that, I have the
authority and power to adjourn the
House.

I will adjourn the House. [Hear!

Hon Chairman of the Finance

Committee, you were up.

Debates of 27 Oct 2021

PRAYERS 11:15 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:15 a.m.

Mr Iddrisu Habib 11:15 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:15 a.m.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu 11:15 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:15 a.m.

Mr H. Iddrisu 11:15 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:15 a.m.

Mr H. Iddrisu 11:15 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:15 a.m.

Mr H. Iddrisu 11:25 a.m.

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 11:25 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 11:25 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:25 a.m.

Mr A. Ibrahim 11:25 a.m.

Mr Speaker 11:35 p.m.

Mr Francis-Xavier K. Sosu 11:35 p.m.

Mr Speaker 11:35 p.m.

Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin 11:35 p.m.

Mr Speaker 11:35 p.m.

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 11:35 p.m.

Mr Haruna Iddrisu 11:35 p.m.

Mr Afenyo-Markin 11:35 p.m.

Mr Habib Iddrisu 11:35 p.m.

Mr Speaker 11:45 a.m.

STATEMENTS 11:45 a.m.

Mr Speaker 12:05 p.m.

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng 12:05 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:05 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.

Mr Avedzi 12:15 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.

Mr Avedzi 12:15 p.m.

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu 12:15 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.

Mr A. Ibrahim 12:15 p.m.

Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza 12:15 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.

Mr Agbodza 12:15 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:15 p.m.

An Hon Member 12:15 p.m.

Mr Agbodza 12:15 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:25 p.m.

Mr Ibrahim 12:25 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:25 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:25 p.m.

Mr Alhassan Suhuyini Sayibu 12:25 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:25 p.m.

Mr Sayibu 12:25 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:25 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:35 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:35 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.

Some Hon Members 12:45 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.

Mr Habib Iddrisu 12:45 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.

PAPERS 12:45 p.m.

Mr Afenyo-Markin 12:45 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.

Mr Afenyo-Markin 12:45 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:45 p.m.

Mr Habib Iddrisu 12:45 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.

Mr Habib Iddrisu 12:55 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim 12:55 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.

Mr Afenyo-Markin 12:55 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.

Mr Afenyo-Markin 12:55 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.

Mr Afenyo-Markin 12:55 p.m.

Mr Speaker 12:55 p.m.

PRAYERS

Mr Speaker

Mr Iddrisu Habib

Mr Speaker

Mr Haruna Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

Mr H. Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

Mr H. Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

Mr H. Iddrisu

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT

Mr Speaker

Mr A. Ibrahim

Mr Speaker

Mr Francis-Xavier K. Sosu

Mr Speaker

Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim

Mr Haruna Iddrisu

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

STATEMENTS

Mr Speaker

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Kwarteng

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Avedzi

Mr Speaker

Mr Avedzi

Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu

Mr Speaker

Mr A. Ibrahim

Mr Governs Kwame Agbodza

Mr Speaker

Mr Agbodza

Mr Speaker

An Hon Member

Mr Agbodza

Mr Speaker

Mr Ibrahim

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Alhassan Suhuyini Sayibu

Mr Speaker

Mr Sayibu

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Some Hon Members

Mr Speaker

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

PAPERS

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

Mr Speaker

Mr Habib Iddrisu

Mr Speaker

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim

Mr Speaker

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker

Mr Afenyo-Markin

Mr Speaker

Mr Afenyo-Markin