Debates of 8 Feb 2022

Hon Members, correction of Votes and Proceedings of Friday, 4th February, 2022.

Hon Members, we have the Official Report of Wednesday, 26th January, 2022 for consideration
Any corrections, please?

Item numbered 6, Questions.
Majority Chief Whip (Mr
Frank Annoh-Dompreh): Mr
Speaker, as was discussed, the
Hon Minister is in the Chamber
but he had earlier communicated
to Leadership through an official
correspondence so we have agreed
to postpone those sets of
Questions to Tuesday or to an
appropriate time. Mr Speaker,
with your leave, we may go on to
item numbered 7 instead.
Minority Leader (Mr
Haruna Iddrisu): Mr Speaker, to
be fair to the Hon Majority Chief
Whip, I have here a letter dated 7th
February, 2022, signed by Mrs
Magdalene Apenteng for the Hon
Minister which indicates that
Question referenced OPTQ/20631
dated 7th February be deferred.
Mr Speaker, accordingly, what
the Hon Majority Chief Whip
should be doing with the Hon
Minister is to give assurance to the
Hon Member for North Dayi, Ms
Jocelyne Tetteh as to when the
Question would be taken. The
communication is silent on that
per what he is saying. Yes, we
would defer today because the
Hon Minister, in this
communication said she is still
collating responses. So, when
would the Hon Minister be
available to respond to the

Question of the Hon Member for

North Dayi, Ms Jocelyne Tetteh

on when telephone network would

be accessible to communities such

as Tsrukpe, Botoku, and Tsoxor in

the North Dayi District? We just

need to know from the Hon

Minister and the Hon Majority

Chief Whip when the Question

would be taken so that the

Business Committee would

accordingly reschedule it for the

purpose. If we have that

assurance, we can move to the

next Business for today.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr
Speaker, not to drag this matter, I
can assure the Hon Minority
Leader - fact of the matter is that
if he asks when, it would be
difficult. I do not want to give a
date and be found wanting in
fulfilling the promise. The Hon
Minister has communicated to us
that they are collating the results
and as soon as possible - but what
he said which I find very essential
is for us to communicate to the
Hon Members involved and we
would do that accordingly.
So, Mr Speaker, without much
ado, I would seek your leave for us
to go to item numbered 7.

If I
recalled correctly, the Table
Office informed us that they have
actually informed the Hon
Members who were to ask the
Questions so I do not think there is
a lack of communication in that
respect.
We would go on to Statements.
There are three Statements
admitted to be read today. One is
a very urgent one by the Majority
Chief Whip - Black Monday at
Nsawam.

You are on the front bench and
Ranking Member of the
Committee, so I will give you the
last word.
Mr Alhassan Suhuyini Sayibu
(NDC - Tamale North): Mr Speaker, thank you for the
opportunity to contribute ably to the
Statement made by the Hon Member
of Parliament for Nsawam-
Adoagyiri. I wish to join him to
commiserate with the families of the
victims of that unfortunate accident.
Mr Speaker, I think as a nation,
we need to begin to pay attention
to the number of lives that are lost
to accidents. We are losing too
many lives to accidents. Although
we know that accidents are part of
nature, they can also be prevented
if we took into consideration
certain safety measures that are
usually ignored.
Mr Speaker, a couple of weeks
ago, we were speaking about an
explosion that led to the loss of

lives of about 17 or 18 people.

From December 24, 2021 to

January 1, 2022, records show that

within the spate of one week, 43

people died on our roads, and over

202 people got injured. Not even

the dreaded COVID-19 or malaria

could claim such number of lives.

Again, records show that in

February, 2021, on the same

Nsawam-Adoagyiri road that we

was speak of today, an accident

recorded which involved a tipper

truck loaded with bags of cement,

its brakes failed and it run into a

number of vehicles.

11. 48 a. m.

Fortunately, one of the buses

that was involved in that accident

had students on board, but none of

them got hurt. Even though some

passers-by got injured and were

rushed to the hospital.

Mr Speaker, if that accident was not investigated to lead some reforms in that area, on that road and how it is utilised, should it surprise any of us that a year on, we are having to discuss another accident on that road that has led to the loss of lives of productive Ghanaians? So, I think that it is not enough for us to every now and then make Statements on the

floor of the House when accidents claim lives, whether they are explosions or road crashes.

I think that we need to begin to pay more attention, investigate these causes, and take our emergency and safety procedures as a country more seriously. I think that would be a more meaningful way rather than the Statements being made on the Floor every now and then condoling with families that lose loved ones.

Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity, and I thank the Hon Member of Parliament for making this Statement. Once again, I wish to condole with the families of the victims, who lost loved ones in the course of this accident.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement ably made by the Hon Majority Chief Whip of Ghana's Parliament.
Mr Speaker, I would want to
express my heartfelt condolences
to the good people of Nsawam-
Adoagyiri, especially, to the
families of the five who have lost
their lives. Mr Speaker, it would

interest you to know that I have

been a victim of accident on that

stretch of road. In fact, I have had

two accidents on that road. I

would say that it has always been

as a result of indiscipline on the

side of drivers on that stretch.

Mr Speaker, that road is a

major highway, but we would

have taxi and trotro drivers

negotiating curves, in fact,

moving in directions that they

should not go, and sometimes we

have vehicles moving at a top

speed such that one would have to

slow down because of an

indiscipline on the part of a driver.

Therefore, if the Hon Member of

Parliament is calling for a probe to

arrest the rampant accidents that

happen on that stretch, I would

also urge that immediately, the

Ministry puts in place measures to

educate drivers who use that

stretch. Lives really matter, and it

is important that we protect lives

and properties of persons who use

that stretch.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I would want to

commiserate with the good people

of Nsawam-Adoagyiri. I thank

you very much.

Ms Mohammed Ibrahimah

Zuwera (NDC - Salaga South):

Mr Speaker, I would start by

commending my Hon Colleague,

the Hon Member of Parliament for

Nsawam-Adoagyiri for the quick

response to the tragedy over the

weekend, and would also want to

pay my condolences to the

affected families and victims.

Mr Speaker, it is heart-

warming to know that we can

make such Statements in a speedy

manner when some of these issues

occur. If for nothing at all, it

speaks to our sensitivity to some

of the otherwise avoidable issues

that we end up being encumbered

with.

However, as previous

contributors have said, I think that

we need to adopt a national

approach to these sort of accidents

and calamities. In June last year,

there was one such accident on the

Salaga-Tamale Road. It might not

be of the same magnitude, but it

was still an accident that caused

the loss of life of a 29-year old

nursing mother, who left behind

an 11 month old baby. As the Hon

Member of Parliament for the

area, I put together a Statement to

draw Government and the

necessary authorities' attention to

that calamity. However, as we

speak, that Statement although

admitted, has not been read by me.

So, as I sat here today listening to

my Hon Colleague Member of

Parliament for Nsawam-

Adoagyiri, I felt a sense of

renewal that maybe things are

going to change, such that when

such issues happen and we would

want to speak to our constituents,

to Government and to the people

on whose behalf we are here, we

would be allowed to do that.

Mr Speaker, the accidents on

the Salaga roads might not be as

the ones that we have recorded

elsewhere, and some of the issues

that I wanted to highlight on in

that Statement included the lack of

roads; the nature of the road from

Tamale to Salaga. There are even

portions of roads that have been

constructed, which do not have

road signs or markings, and they

are issues that the National Road

Safety Commission should be

interested in. In addition to that,

because of the nature of the roads,

the people are forced to travel on

rickety vehicles because no one is

willing to put a good vehicle on

that road. So, the essence of the

Statement was also to persuade

the Hon Minister for Roads and

Highways to understand what our

people go through in that part of

the country so that action would

be expedited on building the road

from Tamale to Salaga.

Mr Speaker, nevertheless, I

think that today offers an

opportunity for us as a House to

realise that some of these things

are critical, and the Statements

would not be made just for the

sake of making Statements. If this

is the only avenue for us to

articulate what our constituents go

through and what we go through

as representatives of the

constituents, then I think that we

should be allowed to do that in the

House.

Mr Speaker, I would want to

commend the Hon Member who

made the Statement one more

time, and would also want to send

my condolences to the families

and the victims, urging all; road

users and policy makers to begin

to pay attention to this area in the

economy of this country.

Mr Speaker, I thank you very

much.

Mr Kwame Governs

Agbodza (NDC -Adaklu): Mr Speaker, I thank you for the

opportunity to contribute to the

Statement made by my Hon

Colleague, the Hon Majority

Chief Whip, and to take the

opportunity to send my

condolences to the deceased and

wish those injured a speedy

recovery. Indeed, when I saw my

friend this morning in all black,

because he normally wears all

white, I knew something was

wrong, and he told us the sad

story.

Mr Speaker, just as my Hon

Colleague who just spoke said,

these things happen, we make

Statements, and it is as if that is

all, but we must remind ourselves

that vehicles do not kill by

themselves. People in charge of

vehicles and we the pedestrians

actually contribute to accidents.

Yes, it is not possible in our

current situation to make all roads

dual-carriages, motorways and

fly-overs, but I think that with

common sense we can all

understand what we can do to

minimise these accidents, even

though we cannot completely stop

them.

Mr Speaker, all of a sudden, I

have already started hearing that a

break failed. I do not know how

many people in this House

listening to us can say that they

have been driving and their

vehicles failed the so called

“breaks” before. How many times have any of us experienced our

cars failing breaks before? If we

all drive within the required speed

limits on the relevant roads,

chances are that if we encounter

something that is quick, we would

be able to manoeuvre and bring

the vehicle to a better stop.

However, with the particular

stretch that we are talking about, if

we were to go there this morning,

have we would realised that some

of our compatriots have basically

turned part of the public roads into

a market place; the drivers

themselves probably never

responded to the periodic

maintenance of their vehicles, and

obviously, the volume of traffic on

that road and the width of the road

is also an issue. Therefore, there

are four things that we must pay

attention to, but the two main ones

that affect these are: the person in

charge of the vehicle, and then the

pedestrian.

We can do better. Mr Speaker,

that is why you, as a member of

the Committee on Roads and

Transport in this House changed

the National Road Safety

Commission (NRSC) to National

Road Safety Authority (NRSA),

and gave them powers to establish

themselves in every District, and

in collaboration with the District

Assemblies, recruit people to

carry out continuous education on

road safety. However, since that

Act was passed, even the

Regulations to operationalise the

NRSA have not yet been passed.

Mr Speaker, how do we fund

NRSA? It is through the Road

Fund. Mr Speaker, on each day

that the Hon Minister for Roads

and Highways suspended the

Road Fund, do you know how

much we lose? We lose

GH₵220,000. That money would

have been enough for the NRSA -

Hon Member, the Hon Minister
for Roads and Highways has not
suspended the Road Fund. Road
toll is only of the contributors to
the Fund so the Fund is still there.

Thank you very
much, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, a chunk of the
meagre resource that comes from
the Road Fund to the NRSA,
which is about GH₵80 million, which we say is not enough, is
taken out today. Even if the
Government does not need the
GH₵220,000 a day, and it is given to the NRSA, that would have
given them the opportunity to
establish in every District
Assembly and do the things that
need to be done.
Mr Speaker, I encourage the
relevant authorities, the NRSA, to
quickly establish offices in every
district including that of my Hon
Friend so that they can improve on
their ability to educate the public.
It is not only education because
they can enforce some of the road
Regulations - not the MTTD. They are supposed to enforce
some of the road regulations.
As for the road, there was a
reason the bypass was
constructed. Therefore, unless that
heavy truck was taking the items
directly into that community, I do
not understand why it used the
town road. If its destination were
to be on the way to Kumasi, I see

no reason why that truck used the

town road instead of the bypass. If

we all adhere to road traffic

regulations, we might be able to

significantly reduce the carnage

on our roads, and keep a lot of our

compatriots alive and productive.

Thank you very much for the

opportunity.

Mr Speaker, I am
grateful to you for the opportunity
to comment on this very important
Statement ably made by the Hon
Majority Chief Whip. I would also
want to take the opportunity to
commiserate with the bereaved
families.
Mr Speaker, road accidents in
this country are becoming one too
many, and we need to consciously
put in the rightful interventions to
ensure that they are reduced to the
barest minimum, if not completely
eliminated. Mr Speaker, three
issues are critical to this very
worrying development.
One is the role that is supposed
to be played by the NRSA.
Regarding their role of educating
the population to ensure that we
do the right things to abate this
carnage on our roads, they need to
up their game, and ensure that
drivers and pedestrians
understand, for example, road
safety regulations so that we can
all protect ourselves. If they are up
and doing and do their work well,
I am optimistic that this carnage
would be reduced to the barest
minimum.
The second issue I would want
to talk about is personal
responsibility. As drivers, how do
we ensure that before we move
our vehicles - the brakes, oil and others - are working well? Mr Speaker, it would surprise you to
note that most drivers do not even
do that. They jump on their
vehicles and drive, and if we are
not careful, some of these things
would continue to happen. Drivers
must make sure that before they
move their vehicles every time,
they have to check that the
vehicles are in the right condition
of health. I am persuaded that if
we do this, we would have less of
these accidents occurring.
Mr Speaker, at times I drive
through Kaneshie and Odorkor,
and I see some vehicles and
become so sad. You can see that
the vehicles are rickety, but they
are still on the road. The police see

them, but the drivers are not even

apprehended or asked to do the

right thing. All these are

contributory factors to the

persistence of this carnage, and I

would want to plead with the

relevant authorities that we must

do our best to protect and save

lives.

Souls are precious, and it is so

sad that people lose their lives

untimely. Some of those who lose

their lives could have been leaders

or could have served useful roles

in this country. As much as I

commend my good Friend for this

Statement, all of us owe it a

responsibility and a burden to

ensure that this carnage is reduced

to the barest minimum. Mr

Speaker, last year, over 2,000

lives were lost through road

accidents. How long should we sit

down unconcerned for this to

continue?

On that note, I would want to

thank you once again for this

opportunity, and I continue to

commiserate with the bereaved

families. I pray that God gives

eternal rest to those who

unfortunately lost their lives

yesterday.

Dr Abdul-Rashid Hassan

Pelpuo (NDC - Wa Central): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the

opportunity to contribute to this

Statement ably presented by the

Hon Annoh-Dompreh on the

accident that occurred on the

Suhum road.

Mr Speaker, as I listened to his

speech, I went to the internet to

check on the kinds of accidents

that happen on that stretch. For

2020 and 2021, I saw “Suhum Road Accidents: 20 dead, several

others injured”; “Five persons reported dead after accident at

Obretema in Suhum”; “34 killed in accident on Ghana highway” and “38-year-old woman cut into two through fatal accident near

Suhum”. Mr Speaker, they are many. Last year, it contributed to

the fact that for every single day,

eight people were killed through

road accidents, and 43 were

injured. This was on daily basis.

Mr Speaker, when I listened to

the Hon Member who made the

Statement, it reminded me of what

happened to one of my very close

friends, Alhaji Ali Wowona,

whose son took a motorbike and

was riding to town, and was

crashed on the road by an Urvan

bus.

Mr Speaker, it tells about

several reasons that the roads

sometimes are not properly

constructed; the drivers do not

take their time when they are

driving; road regulations are not

properly followed, and it becomes

a major accident prone area at

every point in time when people

are on the road. Mr Speaker, it is

sad news that road accidents have

become a major problem in this

country.

I am happy the Hon Minister

for Roads and Highways is here.

Mr Speaker, we should look at

how we construct our roads. As a

growing country with increased

number of vehicles on the road,

we continue to use the same

narrow roads all over the nation.

12,08 p. m.

We would need to expand and

re-construct the roads, and make

sure they are fit for the purposes.

Other than that, we would

continue to have these accidents

occurring.

Mr Speaker, I would want to

propose to the Hon Member who

made the Statement, being the one on the spot who knows the place, not just to make this Statement, but to make strong proposals to the Hon Minister for Roads and Highways, and to all other people who are concerned so that they can work on that road. That road is the one that takes all of us who live beyond Suhums homes. So, we are concerned about the road, and this Statement is very important.

Mr Speaker, it is important that

we go beyond the Statement, make a proposal, get the Hon Minister to put in efforts whether it is about the road or the police to make sure the Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) is working very hard on that road. It is also important for us to do a lot of sensitisation about the way we use our roads - people overtake as and when they like; they do not understand the marks on the roads, and they do everything on the road as if it were normal for them to drive the way they want. And as they do so, the lives of people are put in danger.

Mr Speaker, it is important that

we take this Statement seriously, and I vote for anything that we could do to address this Suhum

problem and to all other major roads that are still not expanded or worked on.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Very well. The Hon Minister will
have the last word.

Mr Speaker, I
thank you for the opportunity to
contribute to the Statement ably
made by the Hon Frank Annoh-
Dompreh, the Majority Chief
Whip, on the Black Monday at
Nsawam, and to join him in
extending our condolences and
sympathies to those who lost their
family members and friends.
Mr Speaker, in contributing to
this Statement, I have two
observations: one, to encourage
the Hon Member who made the
Statement, knowing him, he has
reputation for Statements, so his
Statement must be rich. Next time,
we need information on the
accidents, even the vehicles
involved, what crashed into what,
because we are a House of record.
As at yesterday, the report from
the police was that even the driver
of the vehicle was on the run. So,
when he gives us those details and
Mr Speaker gives a consequential
directive, we could follow through
the Statement. So, next time, we
need better particulars to guide
our contribution to the Statement.
It is a brilliant Statement but we
need more information - which car crashed into what car; their
registration numbers, and others.
Mr Speaker, I say so because
knowing that you have even
worked at the Driver Vehicle
Licensing Authority (DVLA) — and then to raise another policy
issue. When today, Ghanaians do
not understand the relationship
among SIM card, National
Identification card, DVLA, they
should understand because the
DVLA is an institution which
holds critical data. If the police - and we have all respected what Dr
Busia and many others who have
come to DVLA are doing to
improve their performance —we should be able to know that this is
the driver of the vehicle, and then,
the police would have no
difficulty tracking him and
subjecting him to the full rigours
of the law. So, again, there should
be efforts towards building
institutions, including the DVLA.

Mr Speaker, it raises the issue

of linkages. What is the

relationship between DVLA and

the police, and what is the police

doing with information from the

DVLA in terms of data on drivers

and others? That is my second

observation.

Mr Speaker, more importantly,

in Ghana, I am sorry to say this,

we are yet as a country to accept

the reality of avoidable deaths.

Maybe, because of religion, when

it happens, we say, yɛmfa mma Nyame, to wit, “it has happened, let us give it to God. It is God.” Mr Speaker, when deaths occur, even

as Muslims, we would say, Inna

lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un, to

wit, “we came from God and to him we return”. We are not probing enough as a country and

we are not educating people

enough to appreciate the concept

of avoidable deaths; that some

deaths are avoidable.

Mr Speaker, if we take

statistics, maybe, I should use my

own Tamale. If we go to the

accident ward at the Tamale

Teaching Hospital and ask for the

source of the accident of all the

victims with broken limbs, legs,

and femur, they say motor, motor

king, or nahinahi. These are

avoidable accidents and avoidable

deaths.

Mr Speaker, again, when we

take a pick-up for instance, the

manufacturer of the pick-up

designed for users to put cargo in

the bucket; however, here in

Ghana, we do not put cargo, but

we put human beings in the bucket

of the pick-up. Even for the

purpose of our political rallies, we

endanger lives; we put people

inside the bucket instead of cargo.

But note, the manufacturer hardly

would put human beings in the

bucket.

Mr Speaker, I have with me

here - that is why I said you should accommodate me — the National Road Safety Authority,

2020, Annual Report. Mr Speaker,

I just want to quote for the record

in supporting the Hon Member

who made the Statement. Mr

Speaker, it reads:

“The year 2020 recorded an increase of 15.5 per cent in

crashes; 21.9 per cent in

fatalities, and 9.8 per cent in

serious injuries over the 2019

figures. The Traffic System

Rate Index (TSRI), that is

fatalities per 10,000 vehicles

increased from 7.17 fatalities

per 10,000 vehicles in 2019 to

8.15 fatalities per 10,000

vehicles in 2020.”

Mr Speaker, it has these

revealing numbers:

“The casualty statistics indicated that in 2020, the

Ashanti Region recorded the

highest number of fatalities,

totalling 556 deaths, represent

22 per cent; followed by 476

deaths which representing 18.8

per cent in the Greater Accra

Region; Eastern Region - 348 deaths, representing 13.8 per

cent; Central Region - 237 deaths, representing 9.4 per

cent; Western Region - 178 deaths; Bono East - 156 deaths; Volta Region - 121 deaths; Bono Region - 94 deaths; Savannah Region - 70 deaths.”

Mr Speaker, I would give the

graph to the Table Office. How we

can stop the carnage on the roads

must concern all of us.

Mr Speaker, now back to

legislation; the National Road

Safety Authority — I am

particularly happy that the Hon

Minister for Roads and Highways

is here. Under Act 993, National

Road Safety Authority, Act, 2019,

where is the governing board of

the Authority? It is not in place.

They have an Oversight

Committee functioning; must that

be the case? Act 993, National

Road Safety Act, 2019 — as I read from National Road Safety

Authority Report; I can refer to the

opening pages of the Report

which reads:

“Owing to the change in the status of the Commission to an

Authority by the NRSA Act,

the old governing board

constituted in 2017 was

formally dissolved.”

So, since its dissolution, show

me the new board which has so

been constituted in accordance

with this law. There is no

governing board. Then, the Hon

Minister appoints what is called in

this Report an Oversight

Committee. Where in this law do

we have Oversight Committee?

So, the very institution which

should be working with other

institutions, including the police,

the Ministry of Roads and

Highways, and the DVLA, to deal

with the carnage on our roads, we

have not done what is expected of

us in giving true meaning to the

law. Where is the governing board

for 2021?

Mr Speaker, so, in supporting

and commending the Hon

Member who made the Statement,

the President must take urgent

steps, as is required of him under

the law, to constitute a Board, and

we expect them to work more

assiduously to reduce the

accidents on our roads.

Mr Speaker, as I have said, in

Ghana, we have not accepted that

these are avoidable deaths. When

it happens, in the name of religion,

we say it is God but some deaths

are avoidable. That is why you

would not wake up and just take

dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane

(DDT) poison to drink because

you do not want to die early. As

was observed by previous

Members who contributed on the

issue of overloading, what is the

Police doing about it? Some

vehicles drive at night without

lights or sometimes with just one

headlight on. Then, there is

overtaking and speeding which we

all know.

To assure the Member who

made the Statement, we all

enjoyed the stopover at Nsawam.

As a rural boy from Tamale,

anytime we were returning from

the University, we saw the popular

Nsawam bread and tsofi thus

tarkey tail. It was a delight

travelling on that road. I hear the

Hon Member who made the

Statement saying that I now fly.

Sometimes when I have to, I fly.

Mr Speaker, our institutions

must work together. We expect

the Driver and Vehicle Licensing

Authority (DVLA) and the Police

to have a unified coordinated

relationship. What is the Police

doing with the data that DVLA is

holding? Then, they would

publish it to the public that the

driver is on the run. On the run to

where? That is why DVLA took

the driver's records. The Hon Minister for Transport should also

advise the President to constitute

the Road Safety Authority Board

and stop working through an

oversight committee which is not

known to the law.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Habib Iddrisu (NPP -

Tolon): Thank you, Mr Speaker,

for accommodating me to

contribute to the Statement ably

made by the Hon Majority Chief

Whip, who is also the Member of

Parliament (MP) for the affected

constituency.

Mr Speaker, looking at the

pictures and reading the story on

what happened yesterday, my

heart bleeds. I would want to

thank the Hon Member who made

the Statement for his swift

response to this accident. I cited

him on social media at the scene

of the accident and at the hospital

as he ascertained for himself what

had happened.

As much as I agree with the

Hon Minority Leader on

avoidable deaths on our roads, it is

good to note that on many

occasions, the safest way to even

travel on our roads is not to travel

at all. Preliminary reports on the

accident that happened yesterday

on the Nsawam road indicate that

it was as a result of brake failure.

Sometimes you would ask

yourself if the Road Safety

Commission and the Ghana

Highway Authority are doing

enough to help reduce such

deaths.

Mr Speaker, if you look at

DVLA, for instance, if you

register your car and you are given

a number plate, if it is in 2020,

many a time, you do not even

renew your number plate. That

needs to be looked at so that

vehicle owners are either licensed

for six months or one year. When

one goes back to renew one's license, the person's car would then be assessed to know whether

it is still roadworthy and should be

allowed to be on the road.

However, because we have the

number plate, we would just use it

and drive anyhow. Whether the

car is still roadworthy or not, such

things are not ascertained.

When we go to other

jurisdictions where they license

cars, one is either allowed to

license it for six months or one

year, and when the license

expires, the car is taken to a place

where it would be assessed to

know whether it is still

roadworthy before -

Hon Member, that is the law in
Ghana. Every six months, a
commercial vehicle is supposed to

go back to the licensing authority

for roadworthiness check. For a

private vehicle, it is every year.

Rather, the kind of check we make

is the challenge we must deal

with. That is just to bring you back

on track.

Thank
you, Mr Speaker, for the guidance.
A lot needs to be done in that
direction to ensure that vehicles
licensed after every six months or
one year are actually inspected to
ascertain whether they are still
roadworthy. The Nsawam road is
a very busy one where vehicles
travelling to Kumasi and Tamale
always use. If care is not taken, it
would become a very dangerous
road for people to use.
Mr Speaker, if you look at
accidents on our roads, they
increase by number and
percentage every year. This is
something that the Ministry -

Hon Member, hold on.
Yes, what has he said that is
unparliamentary?

On a point
of order.
Thank you very much, Mr
Speaker. As we speak, there is no
official police report as to the
cause of the accident, so that has
to be established. The Hon
Member indicated that the
accident was as a result of brake
failure but we do not know that for
a fact. There is no official report
on it.

Mr
Speaker, that is not exactly what I
said. I said that preliminary
information gathered; I did not
mention any official report.
Mr Speaker, to make progress,
in 2016, 2017, and 2018, road
accidents in Ghana increased
drastically and this is something
we ought to look at in trying to
maintain our roads. Also, as Hon
Agbodza said, many of the big
trucks pass through the bypass in
an attempt to avoid the cities and
this would prevent accidents on
our roads. Nsawam especially, is a
busy place and I think that the
town needs decongestion,
especially by the roadside, to be
able to clear the roads so that
people would be able to move.
Usually, one would see
hawkers every now and then on
the road, as well as taxis and

trotros parking anyhow. It would

be a good idea if the municipality

could actually look at

decongesting the place. Hon

Agbodza talked about suspension

of road tolls as a form of revenue

to the Road Fund. Yes, that is the

case that was presented in the

2022 Budget but there was an

option to that, which is the e-Levy

they refused to support. It was to

support the suspended road tolls

that we are talking about.

When the Hon Member wants

that to happen, he needs to

appreciate that the e-Levy needs

to be passed so that part of the

funds that he thinks we are losing

would be used to help. So, the e-

Levy would solve the problem he

mentioned.

Hon Minister, you have the last
word if you wish to say anything.
Minister for Roads and
Highways (Mr Kwasi Amoako-
Attah): I thank you, Mr Speaker.
I wish to associate myself with the
Statement timeously made by Hon
Annoh-Dompreh, MP for
Nsawam/Adoagyiri and Majority
Chief Whip.
Mr Speaker, on the unfortunate
incident that occurred on 7th
February, 2022, in Hon Annoh-
Dompreh's Constituency, I wish to commiserate with all the
affected families and the people of
that constituency for the loss of
lives and property. This is not the
first time such a Statement has
been made on road accidents in
our country, and I wish that we
would not experience this kind of
unfortunate development as we go
forward as a country.

Mr Speaker, inasmuch as

accidents may be unavoidable, it

must be reduced to the barest

minimum. There is one important

thing that all of us must bear in

mind. Scientific studies have

proven that if we take the causes

of accidents in totality and put

them together, almost 98 per cent

can be attributed to the human

factor: people drink and drive;

vehicle owners do not do regular

maintenance to check their

vehicles; drivers speed, they

overtake vehicles at wrong places,

and so on. These result in

fatalities, and it is unacceptable to

lose even a single soul on our

roads.

Mr Speaker, I do not want to

remind us of our past sorrows, but

in 2021, among the accidents that

the nation recorded, there were

two major fatal accidents. One

happened on the Kintampo road

that affected almost 50 people, of

which over 30 people died. The

second accident also happened on

the Cape Coast road which also

claimed over 40 lives. As a

country, it is unfortunate that as

the Government tries to improve

the quality of our roads,

regrettably, we experience an

increase in accidents. All of us are

anxious and desirous for good

roads and rightly so, if the

Government were to have all the

resources and the capabilities,

every single road in the country

must be worked on.

It has become clear on the steps

being taken by the Government

under the leadership of the

President of the Republic, Nana

Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for

roads to be improved in all the 16

regions, in all the 261 districts,

and in all the 275 constituencies in

the country. We must enjoy these

roads. As they are improved, they

should not be claiming lives. This

is the spirit behind the policy of

the Government now to attempt to

dualise all major trunk roads in the

country. At the moment, there are

as many as six trunk roads which

have been earmarked for

dualisation and there are

contractors on site at the moment

on four of them. It is the policy of

the Government to complete the

Accra - Kumasi dualisation within the second term of

President Nana Addo Dankwa

Akufo-Addo. This is a policy that

would be embarked upon by the

Government to make sure that

vehicles do not cross each other.

Some of these fatal accidents

usually occur through the collision

of vehicles, but this particular

accident occurred in town and the

vehicle ran off the road and caused

major damage and even destroyed

human lives.

Mr Speaker, I would want to

use this opportunity to advise

traders in this country who sell

their wares on the walkways in

towns and cities. The walkways

are made and paved for

pedestrians, but oftentimes in all

the major cities such as Accra,

Kumasi, Tamale, Takoradi,

Koforidua, Nkawkaw, Ho, et

cetera, traders have taken them

over, so any unfortunate accident

in town would always claim lives

and destroy property. As we move

forward, we must be careful and

drivers must take into

consideration the need to maintain

their vehicles.

It is being alleged that this

accident occurred as a result of

brake failure. If that was the cause,

then it depicts the practice that

drivers do not regularly attend to

their vehicles. Sometimes, it is

due to careless driving but the

easiest excuse for every driver

involved in an accident, whether

he or she was driving carelessly or

not, is to say that it was due to a

brake failure. This should not be

allowed.

Mr Speaker, again, regrettably,

accidents occur on very good

roads even where road furniture

has been provided. The accidents

on the Kintampo and the Cape

Coast roads that I referred to

occurred at spots and places which

represent the best stretch of roads

with road line markings, crash

barriers, safety measures, and all

road signs but irrespective of that,

these fatal accidents occurred. So,

it is not all the time that accidents

occur because there is lack of road

furniture. Even on roads where

they are provided, we experience

a lot of these road accidents.

Mr Speaker, every Ghanaian

must also be watchful. I would

also want to advise our unpatriotic

drivers in most cases, who steal

some of these road furniture, cut

and sell them as scraps. This is a

major problem facing the Ministry

of Roads and Highways. We

install all kinds of road furniture,

but hardly do they last for a week

because they are all stolen by

people who live amongst us. At

times, we see these people and we

know them, but as typical of us as

Ghanaians, we fail to report them

to the Police.

Mr Speaker, I would want to

urge the Police to occasionally

and randomly visit some of these

scrap dealers and, perhaps, my

Ministry should lead in this

exercise so that wherever we find

any of these road furniture pieces

among the scraps being sold by

the dealers, we should arrest them

so that all the road furniture

provided with the tax payers'

money would be left to serve their

purposes on the trunk roads.

My Ministry and the

Government of President Akufo-

Addo would continue to improve

the roads and we would continue

to do whatever it takes to make the

roads safer for our people, but the

ultimate safety is in the hands of

drivers, pedestrians, and all of us.

It is our prayer that this fatal

accident would never be repeated

in our country. [Hear! Hear!].

Hon Members, I would like to
make a small observation. In all
this discussion, we failed to place
the emphasis on where the real
challenge is - our refusal to respect every rule that matters on
the road. Of course, we can always
blame somebody else — the Police not enforcing the law or a
driver driving while drunk.
However, we must also admit that
permitting markets on all the
roads, whether it is a highway or
an urban road, it is a major risk
factor. Every location where there
is a speed ramp, we see that a
market develops there. Indeed, to
the extent that when the Hon
Minister for Roads and Highways
stopped the collection of road
tolls, some people said that their
ability to market their products
have been taken away from them,
so they were going to
demonstrate.
Hon Majority Chief Whip, the
market is right behind where the
accident happened. Am I right?

Mr
Speaker, yes, and indeed, that is a
concern.

Yes, they have spilled over from
the market and they prefer to be by
the roadside. I think that if we
choose to permit markets by the
roadside, we should build
embankments such that in the
event of a careless driver going off
the road due to break failure, the
embankment would hold the
vehicle from crossing over to
where the markets are. I recalled
that when the Accra-Kumasi road
was being rebuilt, particularly the
Konongo-Ejisu stretch, it was part
of the design that we know that the
market women sell plantain and
other foodstuffs there, so there
was to be the creation of an
embankment such that people
could stop there and be behind the
embankment. If we intend to
continue selling by the roadside,

let us build the protections into the

road; or let us have the courage to

move the traders from off the

road; otherwise, we would

continue to lament and these

challenges would be with us for a

long time.

Thank you, Hon Majority

Chief Whip and Colleagues, for

your contributions.

Now, we would move to the

next Statement which stands in the

name of the Hon Member for

Nadowli/Kaleo.

Yes, Hon Majority Chief

Whip?

Mr
Speaker, with your leave, and
based on the extensive
engagement with my Hon
Colleagues and the understanding
we have reached, we decided to
hold on to Statements and go on to
Public Business at page 13, the
item numbered 21 which is
Motions. After this, we would
come back to the other
Statements.
Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak
Muntaka: Mr Speaker,
unfortunately, I was not there, but
I have been briefed on what was
agreed on and we cannot renege
on what was agreed on. So, we can
go ahead and come back to the
Statements after this.

Very well.
So, we would vary the order of
Business on the Order Paper and
go to Public Business - Sorry, Hon Member, what was the
number of the Motion?

Mr
Speaker, page 13, the item
numbered 21.

Hon Members, item numbered 21
- Motion by the Hon Chairman of the Committee on Roads and
Transport.

Mr Speaker,
with your leave, I would like to
effect some corrections to reflect
the information from the Ministry.
The project name should read:
“Afram River”, but not Volta
Lake.

Hon Member, please, on what
page of the Report is this?

Mr Speaker, at
page 3, line 4 of item numbered
4.0 - “Objective of the Project”.

Very well.

Mr Speaker, in
doing so, I urge that this
correction should take effect on
the consequential Resolution.

Please, Hon Chairman, let us
finish with the Motion before we
come to the Resolution.

Mr Speaker, all
right.
6.0 Observations and
Recommendations
i. Cost of Project
The Committee noted that the total
cost for the construction of the
104km road project is
€150,000,000.00. The breakdown
is shown in table 1 below.

Table 1: Project Budget Summary

i. Project Duration

The project would be

completed in three (3) years from

the commencement date.

iii. Advance Payment and Advance Payment Guarantee

The Committee noted that

provision has been made for an

Advance Payment of 15 per cent of the Accepted Contract Amount. This amount is to be paid when the Contractor submits an Advance Payment Guarantee in form and substance acceptable to the Employer.

iv. Performance Security

The Committee observed that

as part of the safeguard measures

to ensure the timely performance

of the Contractor and to deliver

in line with specifications, the

Contractor is required to provide

a Performance Security of 10 per

cent of the Accepted Contract

Amount in the form of a Bank

Guarantee from a Bank

acceptable to the Employer or a

Bond of 30 per cent of the

Accepted Contract Amount by

an insurance entity registered or

licensed to do business in the

Country.

v. Retention

The Committee noted that the

limit of Retention Money is 5% of

the Accepted Contract Amount. In

lieu of deduction of retention, the

contractor is expected to submit a

valid Retention Money Bank

Guarantee amounting to 5% of the

accepted contract amount in form

and substance acceptable to the

Employer. Percentage of

Retention is 5% of the value of

every Interim Payment Certificate

until the limit is reached.

vi. Variation of Works

The Committee observed that

even though the project is a design

and build one, the Contractor is

bound by each variation, unless

the Contractor promptly gives

notice to the Engineer, stating

with supporting documents that

the Contractor cannot readily

obtain the goods required for the

variation, and that not varying,

will reduce the safety or suitability

of the Works and also have an

adverse impact on the

achievement of the Schedule of

Guarantees. Again, if the variation

will result in the cumulative

reduction in the Accepted

Contract Amount by more than

15%, or triggers a substantial

change in the type, sequence or

progress of the works, the

Engineer must approve a variation

before it can be accepted.

vii. Defects Liability Period

The Committee noted that the

Contract provides for Defects

Notification Period of 365 days for

this project, to be calculated from

the date of the Taking over

Certificate for the road.

viii. Right of Access to the Site

The Committee noted that, the

Employer is required to give the

Contractor right of access to, and

possession of the site seven (7)

days prior to the Commencement

Date and after approval of the

Performance Security.

ix. Bills of Quantities (BoQ)

The Committee took cognisance

of the fact that, a detailed BoQ

was not attached to the Contract

because the final design for the

project was yet to be completed.

x. Value for Money Report

The Committee noted with

concern that, even though Value

for Money (VFM) Audit was a

condition precedent for the

Contract to come into full force and

effect, a VFM Report was not

submitted for the consideration of

the Committee.

The Committee was informed

that the VFM Report is being

carried out by the Institute of

Engineers and would be made

available upon completion.

xi. Insurance for the Project

The Committee observed that,

the minimum amount of third

party insurance is €85,000.00 per occurrence with the number of

occurrence unlimited. Again, the

period for submission of evidence

of insurance and relevant policies

is fourteen (14) days and twenty-

eight (28) days respectively after

the Commencement Date.

xii. Local Content

The Committee noted with

interest that 30% of works are to

be reserved for Ghanaian

contractors and other skilled

workers in the road construction

industry. This local content

provision would create job

opportunities for the people and

foster economic growth and

development.

xiii. Site Camp

The Committee was informed

that project contractors have been

encouraged to erect site camps

within their project vicinity. There is

the expectation that upon

completion of the project, these site

camps would be rehabilitated to

serve other purposes such as

police stations, clinics and

schools, which would be

beneficial to the Communities.

xiv Financial Impact

The Committee observed that

the commercial contract price for

this project will be fully paid from

the proceeds of the loan to be

contracted by the Ministry of

Finance on behalf of the Republic

of Ghana. The Committee noted

that, this project was factored in

the assessment which informed

the Government's Medium-Term

Debt Strategy (MTDS) and

consequently determined

government's borrowing plan for

the medium term. It is informative

to note that this is captured as

Appendix 10c of the 2021 Budget

Statement and Economic Policy

of the Government of Ghana. The

Committee was informed that the

fiscal impact of the project was

incorporated in the 2021 Budget

Statement and Economic Policy

of the Government of Ghana.

xv. Project Benefit

The Coimtiittee observed that

upon completion of the road

project, transport safety and speed

will improve, translating into

several benefits which include:

• Creation of job opportunities.

• Enhancing transportation of Agriculture inputs.

• Minimising post-harvest losses.

• Expansion of settlements and communities along the

road,

xvi. Stakeholder Consultation

The Committee was informed

that, broad inter-ministerial

stakeholder consultations were

held among various Ministries

from the project preparation

through negotiation of the terms

and conditions of the contract to

the arrangements for

implementation. These Ministries

comprised:

i. Ministry of Finance;

ii. Ministry of Justice and the Attorney- Generals

Department;

iii. Ministry of Local

Government, Decentralisation

and Rural Development

(MLGRD);

iv. Ministry of Food and

Agriculture (MOFA);

v. Ministry of Chieftaincy;

vi. Ministry of Works and

Housing (MWH) through

the Hydrological Service

and Water Resources

Commission (WRC);

vii. Ministry of Transport

through the Volta Lake

Company Limited;

viii. Ministry of Lands and

Natural Resources through

the Forestry Commission,

Lands Valuation Division

and Forest Services

Division;

ix. The Ministry of Environment

through Environmental

Protection Agency;

x. Ministry of Roads and

Highways; and

The Implementing Agency,

Ghana Highway Authority;

The Committee was further

assured that stakeholder

consultations will subsequently

be broadened to include

Assemblies, opinion leaders and

project affected persons.

7.0 Conclusion

The Committee having

carefully examined the

Commercial Agreement and

satisfied itself that the project

would significantly improve the

well-being of the inhabitants

within the Afram Plains, and also

enhance the quality of life and

safety of all road users,

unanimously recommends to the

House to adopt its report and

approve the Commercial Contract

Agreement between the

Government of the Republic of

Ghana (acting through the

Ministry of Roads and Highways

and represented by the Ghana

Highways Authority) and

Contracta Construction UK

Limited for an amount of one

hundred and fifty million Euros

(€150,000,000.00) for the

construction of Bunso Adawso

Road and Specified Approach

Roads to the Adawso Bridge

Project.

Respectfully submitted

Mr Kwame Governs Agbodza

(NDC -Adaklu): Mr Speaker, I

beg to second the Motion.

The first part of the Motion is

to approve a sum of

€150,000,000.00 for a 104kms

approach roads. This is a standard

procedure in the House. The only

comment I would make is that I

noticed in the contract that there

was an introduction of a line item

of €500,000 called - Employers

Dispute Adjudication.

Mr Speaker, yes, it does

happen that in the execution of

projects, the parties may have

disputes, but when we begin to

borrow money at these rates and

pay interest in anticipation of

dispute, then that cannot be a

prudent way of spending money.

We should rather put in mitigating

factors that can minimise that.

Mr Speaker, I also noticed the

amount that would be used to put

up the site compound for the

contractor. This project is a one

project per se and the only issue is

the approach of handling the road

component separately from the

bridge component, but we have

two different allocations for the

site compound for the contractor

although the developer is the

same. Mr Speaker, so I would

want to know why we have to do

this at a time that we are crying for

moneys. This does not sit well

with me.

Thirdly, on both projects and

including the cost of project, we

are paying almost €50 million as the cost of borrowing €350 million for this project yet, in the

commercial agreement, there is an

amount of €4.3 million for the contractor's performance and insurance for the works. Mr

Speaker, I know this has been

repeated in most of the contracts

that we have dealt with but if I take

responsibility -

Mr Speaker, when a Ghanaian

contractor bids for a job, does the

State buy the performance bond

and so on for him? Mr Speaker,

no. The Ghanaian contractor buys

it himself, so why are we paying

millions to foreigners to buy

insurance by which reason they

would insure themselves against

us? These are not things that we

should deal with, and as I keep

saying, I believe those who put

these contracts together are

Ghanaians, so they must begin to

consider these things as though the

repayments are from their own

pockets to appreciate the situation

better.

Fourthly, I know that we have

spoken about Value-for-Money

(VfM) audit for some time. Mr

Speaker, because this is a Turnkey

EPC Contract, we do not even

know the design and so on; we are

now giving the Hon Minister and

his agency the opportunity to go

and do the design, the VfM audit

and so on, yet the same Hon

Minister would select or handpick

the entity to do the VfM audit

without any competitive process.

It is just like a person selecting

his own examiner and paying the

said examiner to examine him.

Who does that? Mr Speaker, how

would he ensure value for money

when he is the same person who

would conduct the value-for-

money audit? Mr Speaker, no

wonder the cost of projects in this

country is very expensive and they

hardly come to this House to tell

us how much the value-for-money

audit costs.

Mr Speaker, if we want to do a

better job for this country, then the

selection of VfM auditing firms

must be done in the way ordinary

auditing firms do it in this country;

nobody handpicks them but rather

they go through competitive

bidding. Mr Speaker, so the value-

for-money auditors must be

selected properly and not through

the whims and caprices of just the

Hon Minister for Finance and the

Hon Minister for Roads and

Highways. We never know who

actually does those things.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, it is difficult to tell whether

this project is giving better value

for money because we are

approving €150 million but nobody knows if it would actually

cost this amount, and we will

never know. Of course, the money

would result in the construction of

a road somewhere in the country

that our people would benefit from

but nobody would know if it

actually cost €150 million. So how can we say we are doing a better

job in this House with regard to

protecting the public purse? We

can do better. The Hon Minister

for Roads and Highways, the Hon

Minister for Works and Housing

and the Hon Minister for Finance

must have a way to provide

guidance on the licensing and

selection of value-for-money

auditing firms. In this regard, they

would be independent of the Hon

Minister for Roads and Highways

as well as the Hon Minister for

Finance. It is currently not good

enough.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I thank the Hon Minister

because at least, a part of this

country would benefit from the

improvement of 104 kilometres of

road. This is good, but the issue is

about value for money and what

we do for foreign contractors

being way and above what is done

for Ghanaian contractors. Today,

this would be done for a foreign

contractor; however, the Ghanaian

contractor who got a Government

of Ghana (GoG) assignment and

has worked -

Mr K. N. Osei — rose —

Hon Member, kindly hold on.
Hon Chairman, I would give
you the chance to reply after the
contributions so kindly hold on.

Mr Speaker, in
conclusion, if I read commercial
agreements that come to this
House which are 99 per cent
executed by foreign developers
and put that against ordinary
contracts given by the Ministry of
Roads and Highways to Ghanaian
contractors, it is as if we are
creating contracts that work
against us. The Ghanaian road
contractors have absolutely no
remedy in terms of dispute;
Government can owe them for
even four years. But when we
default a foreign contractor, there
is a provision of quick dispute
settlement and we actually borrow
and set aside money for the
settlement of these disputes.
Mr Speaker, let us be more
patriotic than we are now towards
the Ghanaian contractor for this
country to develop better.
Mr Speaker, with these few
words, I support the Motion.

Hon Djornobuah?

Mr Alex T. Djornobuah

(NPP - Sefwi Akontombra): Mr

Speaker, I beg to support the

Motion on the floor of the House.

Mr Speaker, today, I am happy

that the Hon Ranking Member is

complaining about the high cost of

borrowing which is why the

Government is proposing that we

should accept the e-Levy so that

we do not borrow moneys and so

on. [Hear! Hear!] Mr Speaker, so

I am happy that the Hon Ranking

Member is now complaining.

Mr Speaker, roads form an

integral part of people. Today, the

people of Afram Plains and the

other areas would appreciate the

Government led by Nana Akufo-

Addo for constructing a 104

kilometre road. The Committee

met with the Hon Minister for

Roads and Highways and his

agencies and the details of the

work has been explained to the

Committee. So I believe that the

Hon Ranking Member and other

Hon Members who are from the

areas that have been mentioned

would support this agreement so

that the Ministry can carry out the

work to improve the road?

Mr Speaker, the benefit of this

particular project would be the

creation of job opportunities; it

would enhance the transportation

of agricultural produce from the

Afram Plains since the area is a

food basket - this road needs to be constructed. Mr Speaker, it would

minimise post-harvest losses and

also expand the settlement of the

communities along this particular

road.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I support the Motion.

Hon Member for Mpraeso?

Mr Speaker, I thank
you for the opportunity to
contribute to the Motion on the
floor of the House.
Mr Speaker, as an Hon
Member from the greater Kwahu
enclave, this project is of immense
importance to the good people of
Kwahu. We have always
maintained that Afram Plains is
the food basket of Ghana, but
there has been a lot of challenges,
especially to the farmers. Mr
Speaker, it would interest you to
note that vegetables grow very

well within the greater Kwahu

enclave, especially Afram Plains,

Adawso and the Asubone

enclaves, but the major challenge

has been how the produce are

transported to the major markets

in Ghana. Mr Speaker, because of

the lack of a bridge and farmers

sometimes wait on the banks of

the Adawso River to just transport

their produce, the farmers find it

difficult and it is a great

disincentive to the good people of

the area.

Mr Speaker, the project which

includes a 104 kilometre stretch of

road; a 3 kilometre stretch of

bridge, which I am told would be

the 5th longest bridge in Africa and

this would greatly impact the

economic activities of the people

within the Greater Kwawu

enclave.

Mr Speaker, the soil in Afram

Plains alone is good for vegetable

production. Ghana imports about

120 million worth of vegetables

each year and if we are to redirect

the investment to our area, I am

sure we are going to end this

importation of vegetables to our

place.

Mr Speaker, these areas also

have very unique tourism values.

In fact, if you are to come to

Adawso, Asubone, Afram Plains

and its environs, one would see

what we call stones marrying

stones - one stone lying on another and the beauty of it is

being denied simply because

Ghanaians do not have access to

good roads to these areas. So, I

believe that if the House approves

this Agreement, tourism would be

improved, farming would largely

be improved, and the economic

lives of our people would also be

affected.

Mr Speaker, on this note, I call

on the House to approve this

facility so that the good people of

Kwawu would benefit from this

Government.

Mr Speaker, to end, I would say

that this investment putting

together the road, the bridge and

the others would sum up to about

€394 million, which is close to about 2.7 billion cedis. It is the

largest investment any

government has done within the

Greater Kwawu enclave and we

are grateful to His Excellency the

President and the House.

Hon Member, you have finish
contributing. What is it again?

Mr Speaker, just
for the records because this is
Parliament - my Hon Colleague said that this is the longest bridge
in Africa. [Interruption] Though
we are not even taking the bridge,
just to guide him - 3 kilometres is nowhere the longest bridge in
Africa. He can do that research for
himself.

Mr Speaker,
what I said was that when
constructed, this very bridge
would be the 5th longest in Africa,
and it is a fact.

Very well.
Mr Isaac Adjei Mensah
(NDC - Wassa East): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to the Motion on the Floor regarding the loan agreement for the construction of roads and a bridge in that corridor. There is no doubt that this bridge would provide the needed value for the area in terms of employment and boosting agricultural production.
Mr Speaker, one major missing link is the neglect of the rural roads in that area. For the roads, we can only see highways and that area is predominantly rural and therefore, if we are able to cart the foodstuffs and everything through the bridge to the main land, we need to prioritise the rural roads. What is missing here is the rural roads. We only have the highways and the urban roads and I think that it is deficient, and I am not sure how much is in there for contingency. If there is any contingency, I think that they should prioritise or emphasise more on the rural roads.
Feeder roads are key because most of our predominantly rural areas would obviously use the feeder roads and therefore pumping so much money into this area without prioritising the ordinary rural folks is deficient. And I think that in reviewing the contract or if there is any room where we can give some attention to the feeder roads, that would be useful.
Mr Speaker, with these few words, I also support the approval of the loan.

Mr Speaker, let me quickly commend

the Committee for a good job done. If there is anybody in this House who knows that enclave - In my other world, I worked as one of the lead consultants to the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), the first compact. So for places like Miaso, Nketepa, Awisasu, Oribon, one actually has to go there to tell the story for himself. In my view, we need to commend Government for this audacious and massive investment, especially in the area of agriculture, which is going to boost and open up the agricultural sector of that economy and its adjoining constituencies.

Mr Speaker, what in my view

should be looked at if possible, is

the local content. When I read the

Report, we are told of 30 per cent

local content. If it is possible for a

review for us to increase this 30

per cent, I think it would do a lot

of good. But the thinking and the

mindset is impressive. Then, as an

environmentalist, I looked

through to see if I can find

concerns about impact

assessment. I do not know if the

other aspect of the agreement or

the detailed agreement has

concerns about environmental

impact assessment. Otherwise, it

is a concern that should be taken

on board. Knowing who the Hon

Minister is, I am sure it would not

be lost on him.

That notwithstanding, I think

this is important. For a long time,

complaints have come which

crystallised the focus on our urban

centres - building of bridges and roads in our urban centres. We

have often regretted our

countryside link-roads and

bridges to very important

agricultural centres where food is

produced. It comes as a big irony

that all these places where a lot of

foodstuffs are produced, we do not

focus on the road network. So I

want to commend the Government

for a clear conscious effort to

build on this road infrastructure in

that part of the Eastern Region. It

is massive and the least all of us

can do is to support the Motion.

Mr Speaker, let me conclude by

also saying that if anybody who is

a member of this Committee for

one reason or the other believes

that we appear to be undermining

our oversight in terms of an

appreciation of this Report, we

have a responsibility as a

Committee because it does not end

today. Even after approval, we

would still be playing the

oversight role so the Hon Ranking

Member should hold his fire; keep

an eagle eye on this project; and

play the oversight role to ensure

that we get the real value for

money as is being espoused. But I

can assure him that this

Government is clear in its mind,

especially on this project, to

expand and add on to facilities that

would support the agricultural

sector.

Governments that have come

and gone have often paid lip

service to the concerns of our

brothers and sisters in Afram

Plains. There is a huge potential

over there - we have always paid

lip service - correct me if I am

wrong. This is the first time we are

having such a massive investment

devoted to the area. Put politics

aside - it is the first time we are

getting such a massive project

devoted to the Afram area and I

think if we are to jettison our

partisan minds and positions, we

would all have to support this

project and also play our oversight

role as a Committee in Parliament

to ensure that eventually, value for

money is achieved as being

espoused by the Ranking

Member.

Mr Speaker, I think my day has

been made for this project and all

of us have to pray and ensure that

indeed, this project sees the light

of day.

Mr Speaker, with these words,

I want to thank you for the

opportunity.

Yes, Chairman, your concluding
remarks?

Mr Speaker, I
would want to make two
corrections quickly. The first one
is to correct my Ranking Member.
He made some interventions
which I think I have to correct. He
said that Government had gone for
a bond to pay for the insurance of
the facility - [Interruption] - He
mentioned €4 million. I do not
know where he got the figure
from.

This is because I have in my

hand both documents: the report

from the Finance Committee and

the Commercial Agreement. I

have not seen anywhere in cost

component that €4,000,000.00

- Yes, but the Hon Member said

that the Government has gone for

bond. I would want to correct that.

Secondly, on paragraph 6,

Roman numeral (x), again, the

Hon Ranking Member made an

impression that Government

would just spend money to build

that road without knowing how

much it would cost.

Mr Speaker, for the purpose of emphasis, this project is design- build; it means that the contractor will now do the design and construct the project as well. At the Committee level, they presented some initial designs of the project, which the Hon Ranking Member is aware of. So, we were made to - just like any other contract that we do here - value for money audit is a condition precedent. And the project will not go on if the value- for-money assessment is not done. So, I am surprised that my Hon Colleague raised that issue. It is something that has been settled at the Committee level, that before the project can proceed, there should be value-for-money Audit, which we would all look at as a House. So, I am surprised he has mentioned.

Hon Member, I understand the
Hon Ranking Member to be
saying that when that audit is
done, this House must see and
approve it. Is that something that
can be done before the project
proceeds?

Mr Speaker, at
the committee level, we have
agreed that the Ministry will
furnish the Committee after they
have done the Report. So, I am lost
when my Hon Colleague -

Very well.
Hon Members, let us proceed.
This argument happened at the
Committee Room.

[Inaudible] - Hon Minister, if you go to the
bridge in the contract, we have
here: Performance security, €2.4 million - [Interruption] - If we
come to the one on road, we have
€945,000.00 and then €1.285 million. If all of them are put
together, it is more than the €4 million that we are borrowing to
give to the contractor to take an
insurance against ourselves. Who

Mr
Speaker, with your leave, we will
continue to item numbered 22.

We have not taken a decision on
this one.
Question put and Motion
agreed to.
Resolved Accordingly.

Hon Members, item numbered 22
- Resolution, to be moved by the
Hon Minister.

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

Mr
Speaker, with your leave, we
would go on to page 15, item 23.

Mr Speaker,
I beg to move that this honourable
House adopts the Report of the
Committee on Roads and
Transport on the Design-Build
Contract Agreement between the
Government of the Republic of
Ghana (acting through the
Ministry of Roads and Highways
and represented by the Ghana

Highways Authority) and BNIP-

Janson-Adowso Consortium of

Netherlands for an amount of two

hundred million euros

(€200,000,000.00) for the Construction of a Bridge over the

Volta River at Adawso-Ekyi

Amanfrom.

Mr Speaker, in so doing, I

would like to present the

Committee's Report.

1.0 Introduction

The Commercial Contract

Agreement between the

Government of the Republic of

Ghana (acting through the

Ministry of Roads and Highways

and represented by the Ghana

Highway Authority) and BNIP-

Janson-Adowso Consortium of

Netherlands for an amount of Two

Hundred Million Euros

(€200,000,000.00) for the Construction of a Bridge over the

Afram River at Adawso-Ekyi

Amanfrom was laid in Parliament

on Monday, 20th December, 2022

by the Hon. Minister for Roads and

Highways, Mr. Kwasi Amoako-

Attah. Subsequently, the Contract

Agreement was referred to the

Committee on Roads and

Transport for consideration and

report in accordance with Article

103 of the 1992 Constitution of the

Republic of Ghana and Order 189

of the Standing Orders of

Parliament.

The Committee met the Minister

for Roads and Highways, Hon

Kwasi Amoako-Attah and Officials

from the Ministry on Monday,

10th January,2022 and considered

the referral. The Committee is

grateful to the Hon. Minister and

officials of the Ministry for

assisting the Committee in its

deliberations.

1.0 Reference Documents

i. The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana.

ii. The Standing Orders of Parliament.

iii. The Commercial Contract

Agreement between the

Government of the Republic

of Ghana (acting through the

Ministry of Roads and

Highways and represented by

the Ghana Highways

Authority) and BNIP-Janson-

Adowso Consortium of

Netherlands for an amount of

two hundred million Euros

(€200,000,000.00) for the

Construction of a Bridge over

the Afram River at Adawso -

Ekyi Amanfrom.

3.0 Background

The Government of the

Republic of Ghana recognises the

important role that accessibility

to road infrastructure plays in

poverty reduction, fostering

regional integration and

enhancing economic

development through income

generation activities that are

linked to agriculture and other

sectors of the economy.

Agriculture accounts for one-

fifth of the country's Gross

Domestic Products (GDP). It

employs half of the workforce

and serves as the main source of

livelihood for the majority of its

citizens. The transport sector is

also essential to agriculture due to

the central role it plays in the

provision of services and the

development of road links for the

transportation of farm produce to

market centres and for export

markets.

The Afram Plains District has

tremendous potential to

contribute significantly to the

improvement of the well-being of

its inhabitants and to the food

security of Ashanti Region and

the Greater Accra area. Afram

Plains Districts supplies much of

Ghana's crop yields to Ghana‘s largest markets. Presently, the

inhabitants of the Districts are

virtually cut off from the rest of

the country due to limited

transportation options to access

the corridor. The District is

virtually a peninsula being cut off

on three sides by the Volta Lake

and on the fourth by lack of

connecting roads to the outside

world. The only means of

transport is by ferry.

The project intervention

consist of the construction of Adawso bridge (approximately 3.0km the long) linking the Afram Plains with the commercial, administrative, health and educational centres in the region. This will boost agriculture in the Afram Plains, improve the well-being of its inhabitants and also foster internal and regional integration. The project is estimated to serve a beneficiary population of about 442,349 people.

The project areas include Kwahu

Afram Plains North, South, and

Kwahu South Districts of the

Eastern Region and Sekyere

Afram Plains in the Ashanti region

of Ghana. These areas contribute

significantly to the food security in

Ghana since the project areas

supply most of the crop yields to

the big markets in Ghana.

4.0 Objective of the Project

The main objective of the project

is to enhance productivity in the

Agriculture sector of the Afram

Plains. The project is aimed at

constructing the Adawso Bridge

over the Afram River to promote

agriculture in the Afram Basin

along with promoting internal and

regional integration.

5.0 Scope of the Project

The project involves the

construction of a bridge. The bridge

project consists of the design and

construction of approximately 3.0

km (subject to the topographical

survey) of a 2-lane bridge,

including service lanes and walk

way on one side to connect Adawso

and Ekyi Amanfrom in the Eastern

Region by BNIP-Janson-Adowso

Consortium. The bridge project

includes the construction of a new

toll plaza.

The. scope of services of the

bridge shall include;

• Construction of approximately 3.0 kms length of a two lane

bridge, including service lanes

and walk way on one side

• Site clearance

• Earth works

• Construction of various pavement layers inclusive

of natural gravel layers,

asphalt surfacing and double

bituminous surfacing

• Relocation and/or protection of existing services within

the road reserve

• Construction of various drainage structures and

infrastructure to adequately

manage storm-water

drainage along the route

• Provision of road furniture, including street lights,

signage, crash barriers,

fences and line marking

along the road, as specified

in the contract drawings.

6.0 Observations and Recommendations

i. Cost of Project

The Committee noted that the

total cost for the construction of a

bridge over the Afram River is

€200,000,000.00. The breakdown is shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Bridge Project

Budget Summary

Mr Speaker, I
rise to second the Motion and I
would speak in support of the
Motion.
Mr Speaker, the justification of
this project is quite clear. We need
many of this in different parts of
the country. By the way, it is not
only the two areas mentioned that
need roads, but it is good to have
this at one of the entry points from
the Eastern Region.
Mr Speaker, my Hon Friend,
the Hon Member from one side of
the bridge indicated earlier that if
this bridge is built, would be the
fifth longest. That is not true. I can
read out the first five longest
bridges, but that is not what we are
doing.

I am saying this because there

might be a student listening, who

might say that he heard it in

Parliament that the bridge would

be the 5th longest, which is

factually incorrect. So, we can try

to take credit for everything, but

we should take credit for facts. To

take credit for what is untrue does

not make us land at the right place.

Mr Speaker, like I said, the

issues that I have with this

Agreement are the same as what I

had with the approach roads. It is

difficult to tell whether this bridge

would actually cost an amount of

GH₵200 million, but it is being built across quite a challenging

section of the Pra River. So, we all

look forward to see how it would

be done. However, this is not the

first time that we have approved

loans for bridges that are yet to be

constructed. Therefore, I would

just encourage the Hon Minister

for Roads and Highways to work

hard on this. We are told that this

would take 42 months to be

completed. Well, they are now

going to do a Value For Money

(VFM) audit, and in my own view,

I suspect that the VFM and the

others would take us close to the

end of the year if they would want

to do a good job. So, 42 months

from there, unless the contractor

speeds up work, it would take

some time.

Mr Speaker, very interesting in

this Agreement is the line item

that says that we would have to

borrow money to do this Project.

We all variously heard the Hon

Minister speak to the media on

Friday, talking about the decision

the Chair took some time ago to

query the decision of the Hon

Minister for Roads and Highways

for taking a unilateral decision to

order the cessation of the

collection of tolls. In his response,

the Hon Minister told this country

that he is not henceforth asking

that tolls should not be collected

on roads in the country again, but

it was just a so called “operational decision” taken. However, last week -

Hon Member, are you speaking to
the Report?

Mr Speaker, I
am coming to the Report, but I
am —

No, you should finish with the
Report, then after that you can
come with your commentary.

Mr Speaker, I
am building my point and I am
pleading with you —

Hon Member, please, there is a
Report that your Committee has
brought before us.

Mr Speaker,
with the document that formed the
basis of the very limited space in
the Report, the Hon Minister last
week said that he is at the
advanced stage of converting all
toll booths into public toilets, but
he has no such powers. In any
case, the toll booths are in the
middle of the roads, so, how
would he convert them into
toilets? Mr Speaker, I am saying
this because this Hon Minister is
about to borrow an amount of
€558,000, which is close to an amount of GH₵4 million to build new toll booths. He seeks to
convert existing toll booths to
toilets, yet, he seeks to borrow an
amount of GH₵4 million to build new toll booth. It is in this
document, and he can read it for
himself. We should not allow
Ministers to think that when they
come here and we give them
approval, they can go and do
whatever they like.

Hon Minister, would you like to
say something?

Mr Speaker,
my Hon Colleague is talking out of
complete ignorance! He is very
ignorant about what he is talking
about. He is quoting from the
Daily Graphic or the daily
reportage. It was an interview, and

it is just a small portion that has

been cut out. He has not had the

opportunity to listen to the whole

interview.

Mr Speaker, I was speaking to

the press. They wanted to know

the future of all the toll booths,

and amongst others, I said that the

Ministry and the Government

have a lot of plans, and that we are

thinking of what to do with the toll

booths. Amongst them, I said that

even with the current toll booths,

we have about 38 of them at

various vantage points in the

country, and as part of it, we are

even going to improve the sanitary

situation in all those places.

[Interruption] - For instance, we see it all the time how vehicles

stop for passengers to get down to

urinate indiscriminately. It is so

indecent, so, if amongst other

things we use this period to

improve the sanitary situation at

these toll booths, then we could

even allow drivers to stop at those

vantage places for passengers to

use those facilities. Therefore, it

was not a statement that I made

anywhere, but it was an interview

where that portion was picked out.

However, the Hon Member is not

privy to the entire interview, so, as

an Hon Member of Parliament,

why should he pick only this

information out? This is complete

ignorance!

Hon Minister, kindly put out your
microphone.
Hon Ranking Member, you
have succeeded in undermining
the discussion of your own
Committee's Report by
introducing matters which are not
reported on by your Committee. I
think that it is fair that we return to
the Committee's Report. You have the opportunity to discuss
any other matter either by a
Statement or outside of the
Report, but I think that this is not
the occasion to discuss toll booth
conversion to public toilets or
whatever. This is a discussion of
your Report, so, let us proceed
with the Committee's Report.
Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak
Muntaka: Mr Speaker, the Hon
Minister for Roads and Highways,
as he knows, is one of the Hon
Colleagues in this Chamber that I
have great respect for, but his use
of the word “ignorant” on an Hon Colleague offends Standing Order
93(2), and Mr Speaker, with your
permission I read. It says:

“It shall be out of order to use offensive, abusive, insulting,

blasphemous or unbecoming

words or to impute improper

motives to any other Member

or to make personal

allusions.”

Mr Speaker, with the greatest

of respect, the Hon Minister may

disagree with the Hon Colleague

in whatever form, but to describe

what he says as being “ignorant” and that he is speaking out of

“ignorance” is improper in our Standing Orders as I have quoted.

So, I would urge the Hon Minister

to do what is right by withdrawing

that word.

Mr Speaker, as you said, the

Report of the Committee is a very

important one that we need to

concentrate on. But if in this

Report we are seeking an approval

of over €500,000 to build other toll booths, then obviously, it ties

in with how we are using the

current ones. Therefore, I would

want to urge the Hon Minister to

be tolerant and listen to other

views because even when he got

up to object, I did not hear him say

that he never said that it was going

to be used for the purpose for

which our Hon Colleague

mentioned. He said that “amongst

other things it could be used for

toilets and urinals”. He himself just said it, so, it means that the

“amongst other things” implies that he made that statement

amongst other things. Therefore,

our Hon Colleague is drawing his

attention to the fact that toll booths

are in the middle of roads and not

by the side of the roads. Urinals

and toilets are used when they are

on the side of the roads. We all

travel abroad and we see how it is.

How can we use structures right in

the middle of the roads for urinals

or for toilets? I think that the most

significant thing here is the

referral to the Hon Colleague that

he is “ignorant” or is speaking out of “ignorance”. I thought that he could use other words that may be

acceptable by our Standing

Orders. I just would want to draw

the attention of the Hon Minister

to this.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Mr
Speaker, in my view, if I used the
word “ignorance”, it is not an insult. Somebody may be
ignorant, and all of us could be
ignorant of the facts of an issue.
So, I was trying to draw my Hon
Colleague's attention that he is ignorant of the facts of the issue

because he was not privy to all that

I said. So, it does not insult or

abuse him. I was referring to the

fact that he was talking about a

subject that he did not have the full

facts on.

He was ignorant of what

happened and it was not an insult.

Hon Minister, in this House, we
have ruled a couple of times that
the use of the word “ignorance” is offensive. I so rule and urge you to
withdraw. You may substitute that
that he was misinformed or
something, but “ignorance” has been ruled to be offensive in the
House.

Mr
Speaker, I take a cue from you,
and withdraw that statement.

Can we finish with the Report?

Mr
Speaker, it must be put on record
that if an Hon Member is
misleading the House and
attributes a statement to somebody
who has not made that statement - the Hon Member said the Hon
Minister had said that he would
convert the toll booths to toilets
and the Hon Minister said that he
did not say so. By trying to
mislead the House that the Hon
Minister had said so, the Hon
Minister needed to let him know
that what the Hon Member said
was not accurate and that was
ignorance.

Hon Members, I have ruled and I
insist that we return to the Report.
I will not allow any more
comments on a matter which is
said to have been reported
elsewhere. Let us speak to the
Report; I will overrule anything
outside the Report.

Mr Speaker,
with regard to the Report, as I said,
my concerns about the link roads
are similar to what we have in the
bridge component. We also see
figures here which suggest that we
would borrow money for the use
of the developer to take both risk
and performance insurance
against us. The standard practice
that we have seen in many
contracts, especially those
executed by Ghanaians is that,
they buy these insurance as a risk
- taken mitigation against risk from their own sources, but in this
contract - this is not the first one.

I am just saying that we should

pay attention to it. Maybe, even

contracts that predate this

particular Administration, we

have given money to developers to

take up insurance against us, and I

do not think any businessman does

that, and since we are a State, we

need to raise these issues that we

can deal with it.

Mr Speaker, I agree with

the Hon Minister that if you take

the contract document that was

given to us which was the basis of

the Report, page 8, item 1.1.3,

provision of employers dispute

adjudication board fee. If we

would borrow €500,000 and pay interest on it, in anticipation that

we would have a dispute, and

there would be a board sitting

which would take this money - yes, somebody would say it is a

prudent decision that we set aside

money, but when we borrow this

money and pay interest on it, is it

the right thing to do? Mr Speaker,

I do not think it is the right thing

to do.

Mr Speaker, my last point is on

item 5.6 on page 12 of the contract

document itself. My Hon

Chairman has already alluded to it

- an amount of €532,793 to build

a toll plaza. I agree with the Hon

Minister. If I have my way, I

would say let us begin to collect

the tolls tomorrow because we

have the potential of realising at

least, GH₵220,000 every day

which would be useful to the

Ministry.

Mr Speaker, this is a very

good project, and as long as we

can derive good Value for Money

(VFM), taking into consideration

- we have been making this

comment all along. I am happy the

Hon Majority Leader is here.

Maybe, if Government is not

forthcoming with the way

forward, should Parliament not

take the charge by determining

that we find out which Ministry

would be responsible for writing a

legislation to identify how we get

VFM auditors licensed so that

when we approve this agreement,

there might be professionals out

there who would vie to be VFM

auditors instead of a single person

at the Ministry of Finance

deciding by himself who would do

the VFM?

Mr Speaker, in most cases, it is

even difficult to tell whether those

people who benefit for being VFM

auditors even pay the right taxes

because when you say that you

gave this to the Ghana Institute of

Surveyors and they select one of

their own, where is the - you are

doing VFM audit, you are

supposed to do the right thing, and

the process of selecting the VFM

auditor itself is shrouded in a very

opaque order, and then the person

paying is the one you are auditing.

Mr Speaker, paying your

examiner to mark your script

cannot be a nice way of

determining your competence in

that particular examination.

Therefore, what we are doing is

not proper; let Parliament take

control of this and find out how we

can get a better way of selecting

VFM auditors.

Hon Member, do we not pay the
examiners through our
examination fee?

Mr Speaker, I
have not selected any of my
examiners before.

However it happens, we pay them
through the examination fee.

Mr Speaker, it is
a service; they are professionals,
and they ought to be paid, but
when one person who is being
audited selects and pays them, we
can do better, and it would open
up another avenue for certain
professionals. Lawyers and
quantity surveyors can put
themselves together as VFM
auditing firms. I am sure we can
create very sustainable jobs out of
this.
Mr Speaker, with these few
words, I thank the Ministry for
this, but I have noticed something.
All these new huge projects
appear to be very remote from
certain parts of the country. When
it comes to loans that we are
taking to build hospitals, schools
and roads, it appears only certain
sections of the country benefit. Let
us be more democratic in
spreading out these projects. That
is another debate we can have on
another day.
Mr Alex Tetteh Djornobuah
(NPP - Sefwi Akontombra): Thank you very much, Mr
Speaker, for the opportunity to
contribute to the Report before the
House, and in doing so, I would
want to urge my Friends on the
other Side to wholeheartedly

support this particular loan

agreement.

Mr Speaker, we all know in

political circle that this particular

loan would benefit our Friends

from the other Side since the

Afram Plains and other areas

belong to the National Democratic

Congress (NDC). President Nana

Akufo-Addo would make history

in this country by constructing this

particular bridge over the Afram

River.

Mr Speaker, we all know since

independence that the Afram

Plains have been cut off from this

particular section of this country,

especially in assessing roads to

Accra and other areas. It is

therefore a welcome news that the

President, through the Minister for

Roads and Highways, has thought

of the people of Afram Plains, and

as the Hon Ranking Member said,

this is not the fifth largest bridge

in Africa.

Mr Speaker, the largest bridge

in West Africa, the Ibrahim

Babanginda Bridge in Nigeria, is

11.8 kilometres, and for Africa,

the longest bridge is 20.5

kilometres, and it is in Cairo,

Egypt. It took about 30 years for

this particular bridge in Cairo to

be completed.

Mr Speaker, as I said earlier,

President Nana Akufo-Addo

would make history. Whether it is

the fifth largest bridge in Africa,

we are talking about Ghana. The

Government of Nana Addo

Dankwa Akufo-Addo, through the

Ministry of Roads and Highways,

would construct this particular

bridge. Therefore, I would urge

my Friends on the other Side to

support this wholeheartedly since

in political circle, as I said earlier,

it would benefit all.

With these few words, I

support the Report before the

House.

Mr Rockson-Nelson

Dafeamekpor (NDC - South

Dayi): Mr Speaker, thank you for

the opportunity to add my voice in

support of the Motion on the

Floor.

Mr Speaker, I am in support of

the request to approve this facility

to ensure that the bridge is

constructed across the Afram

Plains.

Mr Speaker, the point is that

the Afram Plains is described as

the bread basket of this country.

Indeed, if you experience the

difficulties that our sisters,

brothers and cousins go through in

transporting to the lake front, and

waiting for the pontoon just to

cross over and transport the goods

further to Accra and Nkawkaw, I

believe when this bridge is

constructed, it would totally

eradicate that mode of

transportation. This is because

sometimes, the ferry would break

down and if it takes three days or

a week for it to be repaired, that is

how long it takes them to stay

along the lakeshore and wait for

transportation. So, I am totally in

support.

Mr Speaker, it would also open

up the Afram Plains area to further

encourage other young people to

go into farming and plantation,

planting for food and export; it

would also help my people to

transport goods and services and

other wares across the lake from

say, Agordeke, Ekyi, Amanfrom,

Donkorkrom to Dzemeni. And it

would also reduce travel time. For

instance, if you are from

Donkorkrom and you want to

travel to Mpraeso or Nkawkaw

and further to Accra, you do not

have to get to shoreline and wait

for the pontoon however long it

takes.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I support the Motion that

this Report be approved and the

Facility be approved for the

construction of the bridge.

I thank you for the opportunity.

Yes, Hon Minister for Defense?
Minister for Defense (Mr
Dominic B. A. Nitiwul) [MP]:
Mr Speaker, thank you very much
for the opportunity. I am glad that
the Committee recommended to
the House to adopt the Report and
approve the Commercial Contract.
Mr Speaker, in all the
arguments that I have heard from
the floor, particularly, from the
Hon Ranking Member, and all the
issues that have been pointed out,
what has gladdened my heart is
that the Committee has made the
recommendation that we should
approve of it. I think the House
should join the Committee to
make sure that this landmark
project is approved.

Mr Speaker, over the last one

and half years, the Ministry has

brought two monumental projects

that I think we should pay

attention to. This is one of them;

the other is Volivo Bridge project.

If the Hon Minister would

remember, he brought the Volivo

Bridge project, which was also

close to €200 million and was also approved by this House. So, Mr

Speaker, I believe that we all

accept that there are prompt

projects that make history for us,

and this is one of them. We used

to say every time that the Afram

Plains was over-seized but after

this project, we would have what

we call the bread basket of Ghana,

an area that could be turned into a

huge commercial enterprise for

this nation now having direct

access to the main land. There is

nothing better than that. In fact,

we can actually turn Afram Plains

into an area that could feed the

entire sub-West African region,

particularly, the Saharan region.

Mr Speaker, the environmental

degradation which is coming is

hitting West Africa badly

including some security

challenges that West Africa would

face. And it would mean that the

southern States would have to

start planning to see how they

would be —

Hon Minister, kindly hold on.
Yes, Hon Ranking Member?

Mr Speaker, my
respected senior Colleague made a
comment about the Minister for
Roads and Highways bringing a
loan here for the Volivo Bridge.
Mr Speaker, as you are aware, the
loan agreement for the Volivo
Bridge was approved in this
House in November 2016 but the
Japanese said we should build the
approaches. That concept did not
conclude before 2017, and the
Minister for Roads and Highways
rightly brought the agreement for
the approach to the bridge. So,
when we are talking about the
Volivo Bridge, the loan had been
sealed before 2017, and that must
reflect in the records of this
House. That is all I would like to
tell my Hon Colleague.

Mr Speaker, as I
said, these are fundamental

projects that the Government of

Ghana is working on. I was a

member of the Finance

Committee that worked on the

Volivo Bridge so I recollect

correctly some of these things but

like I said, they are fundamental

projects. And the other one that I

do know that the Minister for

Roads and Highways is working

on is the one that links the Oti to

the Dambai area. They are

projects that whatever it should

take, as a Government, we should

squeeze and look for funds and do

these projects for all of us.

Mr Speaker, that is why I said

that I am glad that whatever the

difficulties, whatever the

concerns, the end result is that the

Committee has recommended that

we should approve this project. It

would benefit Ghana and West

Africa, and although we may not

see it, it would be one of the

projects that technically, would

solve some of the security

challenges that we would face in

the future. All the migration that is

happening, places like the Afram

Plains are areas that we could use,

either for cattle ranch, housing or

for agricultural purposes to be able

to feed a lot of people who are

within the Saharan region. For that

particular reason alone, I would

urge the entire House to support it

and make sure they urge the

Minister to speed up work on this

bridge so that over the next two or

three years, we can get this bridge

done and done properly.

Yes, Hon Member for Afram
Plains North?
Ms Betty Nana Efua Krosbi
(NDC - Afram Plains North): Thank you very much, Mr
Speaker. I rise to add my voice
that this honourable House
approves the sum of €200 million for the construction of a bridge
over the Afram Plains River that is
connecting Adawso to Ekyi
Amanfrom.
Mr Speaker, indeed, since the
construction of the Akosombo
Dam, the Afram Plains has been
cut off from the larger country.
With the intervention of the
Former President, His Excellency,
Jerry John Rawlings who
continuously showed interest in
the Afram Plains, and by laying
electricity through the Afram
River so that the people of the
Afram Plains could be hooked
onto the national grid, that brought

some light to the people of the

Afram Plains.

Again, in 2016, His

Excellency, John Dramani

Mahama, then arranged for a ferry

to be built on the Agordeke-

Kpando Volta Lake so that the

people of Afram Plains could be

linked to the larger country.

Mr Speaker, Afram Plains

happens to connect the Eastern

Region with the Volta Region.

And as many members have

already said, Afram Plains

happens to be the bread basket of

the country. The Afram Plains is

endowed with fertile land, water,

and indeed, labour that could help

promote our agricultural system.

Indeed, when in 2021, a Question

was filed to the Minister for Roads

and Highways by myself

concerning the road network, the

highway and the bridge of Afram

Plains, the Minister, in his good

words, assured the House that

between 2022 and 2023, he was

going to ensure that the Afram

Plains roads and the bridge were

constructed.

Mr Speaker, indeed, I am humbled and I am happy again, to witness this day that we have all

been called here to approve the sum of €200 million for the construction of the bridge on the Adawso-Ekyi River.

Mr Speaker, I also observed that in the various Reports that have been presented, through the good work of the previous Administration, Adawso, Mpraeso and the Kwahu enclave was connected through good roads constructed by former President Mahama where he rehabilitated the Kwahu mountainous roads to ensure that people could easily access the Kwahu area.

Mr Speaker, I realised that a lot of focus has been put on Begoro- Kwahu Road and the Mpraeso- Tafo Road. However, when we talk of the Afram Plains, the Afram Plains North, with Donkorkrom as the capital has been the oldest, yet the most deprived district within the Kwahu zone. You can see here that the Hon Minister has said that the road construction would end somewhere in Donkorkrom.

Mr Speaker, I want to appeal to the Minister for Roads and Highways through your good office, that the Afram Plains road

construction does not end in Donkorkrom. The last time the Hon Minister responded to my Question, the 103 kilometres road construction in the Afram Plains was said to end in Agodeke before you cross the Volta Lake to Kpando in the Volta Region. So, I would plead with the Hon Minister that this construction should not end here and we should focus more on linking Donkorkrom, Appiabra and Amankwah to Agodeke.

Mr Speaker, the smoked volta

fish that we all enjoy so much

come from Adabraka. So, if we

limit the construction to

Donkorkrom, we would not get

the actual benefits of Afram Plains

as the food basket of the country.

Again, I want to say a very big

thank you to the Hon Minister

because -

Hon Member, kindly conclude.

Mr Speaker,
continuity is very important and as
the previous National Democratic
Congress (NDC) Administration
stated in the 2016 Manifesto that
they would construct this bridge,
the current Administration did not
leave it there but saw it right to
continue this humble project. We

However, I would plead -

Hon Member, I thought you had
concluded.

Mr Speaker,
yes, in conclusion, had it not been
for the good work of the NDC, the
Afram Plains would be cut off.
When the Hon Minister for
Defence was speaking, he
mentioned that this project would
be a huge eye opener. I want him
to know that we are already open.
Thank you very much and we
appreciate this project.

So,
you do not need the project, do
you? I thought you were thanking
them for the project but you said

Mr Speaker,
inasmuch as this bridge comes as
an incentive infrastructure to the
good people, the demanding
request of the people of the Afram
Plains is the highway connecting
Agodeke to Ekyi-Amanfrom. We
are counting on them. [Hear!

The Hon Majority Leader, before
the Hon Minister comes in.
Majority Leader (Mr Osei
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu): Mr
Speaker, thank you very much. It
looks like we are dealing with a
commercial contract agreement.
That being the case, we really
should be speaking about the
amount being contracted. As I met
the Hon Ranking Member for the
Committee on Roads and
Highways speak, at this stage, the
concern should be the value for
money that we are getting. We are
not talking about the loan contract.
If it were the loan contract, we
would be talking about the worth
of the project but we have moved
away from there.
I think that often, we mix up the
two and because many people
have spoken about that, I may join
them in doing what is not right and
comment on popular demand on
its worth.
Mr Speaker, the Constitution
provides in Article 36, clause 2
(d), that:
“2) The State shall, in particular, take all necessary steps to
establish a sound and
healthy economy whose
underlying principles shall
include:
(d) undertaking even and
balanced development of all
regions and every part of
each region of Ghana, and,
in particular, improving the
conditions of life in the rural
areas, and generally,
redressing any imbalance in
development between the
rural and the urban areas.”
Mr Speaker, this indeed is at
the heart of this project and that is
why when I heard Hon Agbodza
talk about the fact that this in a
remote setting, my heart was full
of joy, except that he jumped to
another area to say that there
should be even development. Yes,
indeed, we should as a House
ensure even development and the
Constitution provides for the
President of the Republic to come
before Parliament as imposed by
Article 36(5), and I beg to quote:
“5) For the purposes of the foregoing clauses of this
article, within two years
after assuming office, the
President shall present to
Parliament a co-ordinated
programme of economic

and social development

policies, including

agricultural and industrial

programmes at all levels

and in all the regions of

Ghana.”

When these documents are

brought to us, we need to go

through them and measure what

they are required to contain to

ensure that each Region and

district is adequately covered and

served. However, we take the

documents and put them on

shelves and that is where the

matter Hon Agbodza raised

should be addressed. We should

look at the document and critique

it that maybe, this Region has been

left out or this district is not

adequately served or does not

have its fair share of the national

cake. That is how to interrogate

that document.

Mr Speaker, unfortunately, as I

have said, oftentimes, we do not

even look in that direction. Having

said so, I agree with Hon Agbodza

that as a House, we should really

look at the cost of projects. In this

year's Budget, I think that we set

aside about GH¢5 million for this

purpose, that the Committees are

supposed to tap into to engage

professionals to interrogate these

contracts that come before the

House.

Mr Speaker, internally, ever

since we started doing that more

than 10 years ago, absolutely no

Committee has tapped into that

resource. So, every year, it goes

back to chest, yet this is what it is

supposed to do. I would want the

Chairman of the Committee on

Roads and Highways and the

Ranking Member who is himself a

technical person in that field to

come together so that when

referrals are made and they think

that it is beyond them, they could

make the requisite application to

engage experts on their own. That

would enrich the quality of debate.

As I said, in the short time that I

have been here, I have heard

people talk about the loan

agreement and not the commercial

contract.

Mr Speaker, yesterday, I was

driving from Kumasi to Accra, I

passed by about 15 tankers from

Mali and Burkina Faso. They were

driving in a convoy, coming to

load bitumen from Ghana to

Burkina Faso. They ferried them

from here to Burkina Faso on our

roads.

They come for aggregates from

northern Ghana and yet often

times, some of the roads are

cheaper than the roads in Ghana.

This is what we should

interrogate. For commercial

contracts, this should be our

concern. That was why I said that

we should look at what it is that

we should look at.

Mr Speaker, the Ghana

Institute of Surveyors and the

Ghana Institute of Engineers have

a role to play. Internally, we could

rely on them to offer some advice

to us as to whether or not what we

are doing is right and I believe that

the Committee on Roads and

Transport would fall so much on

them.

Mr Speaker, we want equitable

development of all the regions and

of all the districts. If the private

sector should move into those

areas, we should place at their

disposal the very basic

development essentials like

electricity, water and road

network. Without these it would

be difficult to serve them. That is

why I commend the Hon Minister

for bringing this. What we should

ensure as I said at the very outset,

would have been to interrogate it

to say whether - this is because I see itemised in the Report,

engineering design including

consultancy and soil investigation

as €10 million. That is what we should speak about now. What

have the experts told us about it?

Is it adequate or is it an overcome.

Mobilisation and site preparation

including camps is €6.5 million. Construction of Substructure

including foundation and pile cap

is €103 million. What is the extent of it? I am told it is about 3kms.

How many piles would be there

and what is the cost of driving

each pile? That is what at this

stage we should talk about. We do

not even know the depth - that is what Parliament should talk

about.

Mr Speaker, whiles I express

appreciation to the Hon Minister,

Parliament itself should wake up

in order to do what is right. That is

what is required of us.

Mr Speaker, I thank you very

much.

Does the Hon Minister wish to
conclude?

Mr
Speaker, Order 91 says that
debates may be interrupted on
about four different grounds and I
would want to come by this Order
to further elucidate on the
tollbooth issue which my Hon
Colleague raised and to offer some
explanations.

Hon Minister, I would listen to
you but the Order 91 is in - so just proceed.

Mr
Speaker, I understood from the
reaction and comments by some -

Hon Minister, before you proceed
—
Hon Members, having regard
to the state of the business of the
House, I direct that the House sits
outside the regular Sitting hours.

Mr
Speaker, after the explanation I
offered on the question about the
tollbooth and the washroom issue
as was raised by my Hon
Colleague on the other Side and
the Hon Ranking Member for
Committee on Roads and
Transport - I heard my Hon Colleagues murmuring at the
other Side that the tollbooths are
in the middle of the roads and this
has given me the impression of
perhaps, the erroneous impression
some people might have out of the
reportage.
Mr Speaker, anybody who
listened to the interview - we say it all the time and it is a question
of either misinformation or
misunderstanding. We always talk
about 38 tollbooths around the
country and anytime we say so, we
refer to the sites from our
perspective and not the tollbooths
per say. If we were to refer to
“tollbooths”, there are over 100 in the country. I would want to even
draw my Hon Colleague's attention to only Tema and Accra
plazas which we are all familiar
with. Both of them have almost 10
tollbooths. If we count all the
tollbooths across the country, they
may be close to 100 but whenever
we say that there are 38 across the
country, it refers to the sites we
have.
Mr Speaker, some of the
modern tollbooths we have put up
have well established wash rooms.
That is why in our programme we

said that going forward, we would

want to refurbish the tollbooths at

the centres and where there are

offices attached we would,

improve the washrooms so that the

centres could be modernised. One

of the primary aim and object for

doing that would be to advice even

road users and commercial drivers

that if passengers decide to use the

washroom, some of which even

already exist, we would make

them available so that instead of

people easing themselves by the

roadsides which we all know is an

eyesore, they could resort to the

refurbished washrooms to be

used, which is a laudable idea. So,

when we refer to “tollbooths”, we are not referring to the booths in

the middle of the roads but rather

we are referring to “toll centres'' of which some of them even have

washrooms.

Mr Speaker, I thank you.

Question put and Motion

agreed to.

Resolved Accordingly

Hon Members, item numbered 24
- Resolution

Mr Speaker, thank you
and I also thank the Hon Member
who made the Statement.
Indeed, it is an open secret in
most hospitals in the country and
when government institutions are
involved in a “criminal” activity, sometimes, it is difficult for it to
come out, so the Hon Member
who made the Statement has done
very well to highlight this issue.
Mr Speaker, working in the
hospital is considered a team
work; it is not limited to only
doctors and nurses. However, we
would mostly hear that there has
been a financial clearance for
either doctors or nurses and that
would be the end although it is a
complex organisation including
cleaners, orderlies - indeed, if a person visits a hospital without
enough orderlies, I think the
person would not be happy to even
look at the environment. The
person would see blood, pieces of
placenta, and other things on the
environment and nobody would
be happy to see such things. Mr
Speaker, there are also drivers and
security men, and there are times
when people are carried to
hospitals after being involved in
accidents, but for security men
and others, I believe that the
doctors and nurses cannot do any
work because after accidents,
relatives of victims would be
agitated and would want to do
anything.
Mr Speaker, there are the
typists who type documents for
the hospitals to run. The hospitals
also need human resources
officers and accountants who
ensure that people would be paid
at the right time else they would
not work. So, all these officers are
very important staff that the
hospital needs, but we have a
situation where most of them,
especially the security officers,
drivers, and so on, have been
working for many years and some
over 10 or 20 years. Mr Speaker,
they are paid from the internally
generated funds of the hospital but
these funds are very small.
Mr Speaker, in the era of the
National Health Insurance
Scheme, these hospitals are not
able to pay these workers very
well and some of them do not even

pay SSNIT contributions for

them, so when they retire, they do

not have anything to rely on. Mr

Speaker, these workers do not

have any form of career

development activities because if

one was employed as a labourer or

a driver, the person would not

receive any form of career

development. So, by the time the

person would be going on

pension, that person is rendered a

nobody.

Mr Speaker, as was said earlier,

even when the opportunity arrives

for the recruitment of a driver,

they would sometimes employ a

driver from outside and not from

within the health institution. If one

questions this, the answer would

be that the order is from above. Mr

Speaker, I believe that it is high

time the Government understood

that hospitals and health facilities

require more than the clinical or

paramedical staff because we need

all other service providers to assist

to deliver quality health care and

to ensure that we achieve the

universal health coverage that we

all anticipate.

Mr Speaker, thank you.

Ms Dzifa A. Gomashie (NDC

- Ketu South): Mr Speaker, thank you very much. I would want to

commend my Hon Colleague for a

well-researched Statement that

seeks to bring to the fore the

treatment of those who are down

the ladder.

Mr Speaker, this is a major

issue that affects the health sector

of this country, and the situation

can be found in the education

sector and other sectors in the

working field as well as some

colleagues in the media with same

concerns.

Mr Speaker, referring to the

Statement that has been raised, the

services that these people provide

are crucial, and in my language it

is said that ne efa na koklovia nafa

na axako, to wit, “if we are crying for those up the ladder, then we

should cry for those below the

ladder as well”. I know that in recent times, doctors and lab

technicians have laid down their

tools, but when we solve the

problems for just them, we leave

those who assist in the

management of the facility.

Mr Speaker, all of us at one

point or the other have gone to a

State institution to seek our

wellbeing and we know what

happens in these places. There are

many washrooms that we cannot

even step in, but can we blame

them when we pay them as low as

GH₵180? Mr Speaker, as Dr

Nawaane said, these people are

not even assured of SSNIT

payments when they retire. I think

that it will do all of us a lot of good

if as a people we reconsider the

way we treat each other. As we

climb higher, we forget where we

came from and forget the struggles

of the ordinary persons on the

street and ordinary people in our

institutions. How can anybody

take into consideration its

management force and not look at

the wellbeing across board?

Mr Speaker, the Ministry of

Health cannot say that they are not

aware that these institutions are

not able to employ some of these

people. Mr Speaker, if a facility is

established, it is not reinventing

the wheel, but a matter of cause

There is management and Service

Providers, so why can we not have

a holistic look at the institutions

and provide people with salaries

that they can really take home?

Mr Speaker, I think it would do

all of us good if this Statement,

through your kind Office, is given

to the Committee on Health to

take a look at it and report to the

House their suggestions to the

Hon Minister for Health so that

facilities that we have put up - Can you imagine the Ridge

Hospital, for example, that has

been renovated and rebuilt by the

erstwhile John Mahama

Administration not having the

requisite manpower to man that

facility? It would deteriorate.

Mr Speaker, we cannot go on

like this as a country.

Respectfully, I would urge you

and plead with you to get the

Committee on Health to look at

this document and come back to

us.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the

opportunity and I applaud my Hon

Colleague for the Statement.

Mr Joseph Kwame Kumah

(NDC - Kintampo North): Thank you, Mr Speaker, for

permitting me to contribute to this

very important Statement.

Mr Speaker, just as my Hon

Colleagues have all indicated, I

am proud to be associated with

this Statement and to add that

apart from the various health

facilities, as a nation, this is a very

important topic that our Hon

Brother has researched on. The

metropolitan and municipal

assemblies' workers equally face

same challenges.

Mr Speaker, we have been

talking of internal revenue

generation not being sufficient in

this country. We have been talking

of health facilities not getting the

requisite revenue from their

places. These are some of the

problems that are draining the

internally generated revenues. For

example, the metropolitan and

district assemblies have a lot of

casual workers who are into the

revenue outfit. They go to the

markets. Some of the casual

workers of the health sector are

put at the revenue section and

believe it or not, Mr Speaker, in

my Constituency, Kintampo

North, I lost my own sister and

upon investigation, we realised

that the bill they gave me had been

doubled by one of such casual

workers. When we found out and

asked what happened, the

complaint was that they are not

well paid. So if we relate it to

those who are casual workers in

the various metropolitan and

district assemblies, many are there

as casual workers for about 15 or

16 years and they must feed their

families. How are they going to

feed them with this meagre

amount that we give them, which

is even below the required

minimum wage? That is a very

good Statement we must relook at

as my sister, Ms Dzifa Gomashie,

said.

Mr Speaker, if we can refer it to

many Committees, we have to

work on it. The casual workers in

this nation are being treated

unfairly.

Thank you for the opportunity,

Mr Speaker.

Mr Rockson-Nelson E. K.

Dafeamekpor (NDC - South Dayi): Mr Speaker, I am

extremely grateful.

Mr Speaker, may I anchor my

contribution on article 24(1) of the

Constitution and, with your leave,

I read:

“Every person has the right to work under satisfactory, safe

and healthy conditions, and

shall receive equal pay for

equal work without distinction

of any kind.”

Mr Speaker, this is what the

Constitution says, that every

person who works in the public

sector ought to receive equal pay

for equal work done. But this very

important Statement by the Hon

Member is drawing our attention

to the clear discrimination that is

being visited on this category of

workers within our health

subsector.

Mr Speaker, it is important to

point out that casual workers, as

they are labelled, constitute a key

component of health workers in

this country.

Mr Speaker, in my

Constituency, South Dayi, I have

one hospital, which is the Peki

Government Hospital at Peki

Tsame. I have health facilities and

clinics in Tsiinu, Sanga, Kpeve,

Tsopokofe, Tsate, Kayira, Duga,

Tsanakpe, Gemeni, Dugah, Peki

Wudome, Peki Dzake, Adzorkoe,

and Todome. The point I am

driving at is that all these other

small health facilities that

contribute in the absence of the

district hospitals are mainly

manned by these casual workers.

They do the cleaning and carrying

of patients when they come. So, it

is important that we pay attention

to these staff. My Hon Colleague

mentioned the security men and

the mortuary staff. In Peki

Government Hospital, for

instance, when patients

unfortunately pass away and are

supposed to be transferred to the

mortuary, it is the casual staff who

do that. Mr Speaker, how would

we handle some of these things

without them?

Mr Speaker, I consider this

Statement as a very important one.

It would be worthy enough for you

to, perhaps, refer this to the

Committee on Health and maybe,

a joint referral to the Committee

on Health and Labour and

Employment for them to look into

this matter further and make a

report to the House. It is a very

critical matter in this country and,

indeed, our Labour Law, which is

the parent Act on labour and

industrial relations in this country,

also frowns on this. So, it is

important that we offer equal

wages for the equal work done by

these people without distinction.

Mr Speaker, with these words,

I want to urge that you make a

referral to the Committee on

Health to look into this matter

further and bring a Report for our

further engagement.

Mr Speaker, I thank you for the

opportunity.

Thank you, Mr Speaker,
for giving me the opportunity to
make few comments on this
Statement.
Mr Speaker, the Hon Member
who made the Statement has
brought the attention of this House
to a very important issue.
Mr Speaker, what the Hon
Member seeks to do has been a
long standing problem and I
believe that once it has come to the
attention of this House, remedial
measures would be taken to
remedy the situation.
Mr Speaker, as a country, the
population of Ghana now is about
31 million. We normally complain
about personnel of the health
facilities. Those days, there used
to be shortage of doctors, nurses,
midwives - to the point that those of us from the rural areas were
making use of even traditional
birth attendants in the absence of
the midwives. For circumcision,
we used to engage the services of
“wanzam”- Mr Speaker, when we say “wanzam”, it is known to those of us from the hinterlands
and the peripheries. My brothers
in Korle Bu would not know what
“wanzam” is. Those in Bekwai roundabout would not even know
what “wanzam” is. It is local
circumcision.
Mr Speaker, not even too long
ago, when I came here in 2009,
there were only few universities
even though we were crying about
the non-availability of doctors.

It was only in Korle Bu

Teaching Hospital and KNUST

Hospital; meanwhile, we have a

lot of science students who qualify

to attend medical school to come

out as doctors. It was on that note

that the Mills-Mahama

Administration realised that there

was the need to expand the

training facilities for medical

doctors, midwives, and general

nurses. Tamale Teaching Hospital

and Cape Coast Teaching Hospital

were then upgraded to train

doctors. Even Ho Teaching

Hospital was upgraded to train

doctors. So, from two teaching

hospitals, it was increased to five

(5).

Mr Speaker, that is why most

of our health institutions are now

making use of medical doctors

because the institutions which

train medical doctors have been

expanded. At the same time, we

increased the number of

midwifery institutions from about

14 or 15 in the country to 31. That

is why when the Hon Member

who made the Statement said that

the temporary staff - It was worse than this. When I came to

Parliament in 2009, there were

only 16 midwifery training

schools. The Mills-Mahama

Administration said that there was

the need to expand the training

facilities. In Brong Ahafo alone,

we had 17 institutions. So now, we

are not crying because of the lack

of professional staff; they are

there.

Mr Speaker, in general nursing

training institutions, there were

only 25 institutions in the whole

country, but the Mills-Mahama

Administration added 70

institutions making it 95

institutions. So, after expanding

the training facilities for a number

of years, in five years, there was a

backlog of trained health

professionals who could not be

absorbed, so they started

expanding the facilities.

Mr Speaker, there was then a

change - new king new law.

Today, we are here lamenting

about security personnel who are

not being engaged. If doctors,

midwives, and nurses could be

trained and engaged, why are the

facilities still crying because of the

lack of non-professionals? The

end of the matter is that the claims

the NHIA is supposed to pay to

these health facilities to form part

of their IGF to enable them to pay

the people that engage locally are

not being paid. Do we need to be

told? Does somebody need to put

his finger in our eyes before we

know why this is happening? The

money from the NHIA has not

been paid. The District

Assemblies Common Fund

(DACF), which the local

authorities will use to pay people

they engage to weed and clean

part of the health facilities and

sensitive parts of the districts, are

also not being paid. For the whole

of January 2021 to December

2021, there was no single release

to the district assemblies. Mr

Speaker, how would the health

facilities pay these temporary staff

that they engage? They cannot.

So, it is not the fault of the

facilities, but that of the

Government.

Mr Speaker, while this has

come to the attention of the House,

it would be referred to the

Committee on Health because it is

on livelihood, and we represent

these same people. I know that is

the reason why the Hon Member

for Nadowli-Kaleo brought this

matter to the attention of the

House.

Mr Speaker, you may refer this

Statement to the Committee on

Health and ensure that when it

comes to health, we cannot

compromise. Why are these

people not paid? Why are

professionals who have been

trained also not being engaged?

The end of the matter is that all is

not well with our health

institutions. So, the earlier we took

serious and drastic measures to

address this issue, the better.

Very well. The Statement is
hereby referred to the Committee
on Health. Please, look into the
matter and report by close of this
month.
Hon Members, we would move
to - Hon Deputy Majority Whip,
would you allow me to read my
Statement? Is there another
Statement? - Very well. We will
take the third Statement in the
name of Hon Akwasi Owusu
Afrifa-Mensah, Member of
Parliament for Amasaman.
2. 48 p.m.

Yes, let me invite the Hon Minister for Lands and Natural Resources.
Hon Deputy Minister for
Finance, you will be the last speaker on that so please hold on.
But please, let us be a bit
snappy; a lot of people want to contribute so let us be brief so that we can give the opportunity to other Hon Members to also contribute.
Yes, Hon Minister?
Minister for Lands and
Natural Resources (Mr Samuel
Abdulai Jinapor)(MP): Thank you, Mr Speaker for the opportunity to contribute to this Statement which I find very important and consequential on
the developmental aspirations of our country.
Mr Speaker, the Statement
made bothers on matters of
accountability and the protection
of the public purse of our country.
I think that the Hon Member who
made the Statement has thrown
out a lot of thought-provoking
issues which we all have to pay
attention to. And for me, the
fundamental point which this
Statement puts before, us as a
House is, how do we protect the
public purse? How do we protect
the resources of the people? And
Mr Speaker, if you would allow
me, as the celebrated Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom
(UK) Margaret Thatcher said that
there is really nothing like public
funds, it is all your taxes; it is your
moneys. And so, the composite
concept of public funds, in her
view, does not exist; it is the
taxpayers' money, and therefore, the matters that Auditor-General
superintends over and works to
protect, relates to the taxes of the
people; the money of the
Ghanaian people. That is very
important.

Mr Speaker, I think one of the

key things we all have to pay

attention to is, what kind of system

do we have to protect the

taxpayers' money? Is it robust enough; is it fullproof? Is it

capable of identifying leakages,

lapses, embezzlements,

misapplications, misappropriation

of funds? Is it capable as it stands

today? The Auditor-General's Department and allied agencies,

are they capable of protecting the

public purse? I think it is a

fundamental issue we have to pay

attention to.

Mr Speaker, in many cases, the

attention is always paid to political

actors and what they do or what

they do not do. But I would like to

insist that we must look at these

matters from a broader

perspective. Ghana Education

Service at the local level; Ghana

Health Service at the local level;

the various public agencies and

entities we have in our country

from the unit to the district, to the

regional and to the national level;

how are financial transactions

conducted? Is it, for instance,

possible for a director of a

Government department to pile up

the payroll with say, ten or twenty

people, and on a monthly basis,

the pay that is paid from the

Consolidated Fund gets into his

private pocket?

So, the capacity of the Auditor-

General, wherewithal of the

Auditor-General to be able to

audit public funds is, for me, the

most important and we have to

pay particular attention to that:

does it meet international best

practices for instance? Why is it

the case that in some jurisdictions

if you attempt to embezzle public

funds you would be found out and

found out so easily but in our

country, it is not so the case?

Mr Speaker, and then, also, the

case of enforcement. And the Hon

Member who made the Statement

highlighted that, and I think that

my senior Hon Colleague from the

other Side has also spoken to that;

the issue of enforcement. And I

believe that every day, citizens are

becoming frustrated and

nauseated by the situation of

Public Accounts Committee,

conducting hearings and all them

- hearing about these billions of dollars siphoned and yet, at the

end of the day, people are not held

accountable, and moneys are not

retrieved. I would like to suggest

that it gets back to the system that

we have in place. And we have to

interrogate the system.

Mr Speaker, I would like to

make the final point, and I think of

all the points I have made, that

final point for me, is more

fundamental; which is that as - in all respect and with all modesty, as

a student of the Fourth Republican

dispensation and politics, I have

seen it too many times almost

without exception. These matters

are always looked at from the

political lenses. And so, when they

say so much has been embezzled,

what unfortunately, and with

respect, many of us in this House

would begin to ask is, when did it

happen? We are more interested in

when it happened than how it was

embezzled; how come it was

embezzled; what can we do to deal

with it.

Mr Speaker, the question of

when it happened, with the

greatest of respect, is totally

inconsequential. If it happened

under the First Administration of

the Fourth Republic, it is an

embezzlement; if it happened in

the Second Republic, it is an

embezzlement; if it happens

today, it is an embezzlement. And

I would want to submit to the

House that arising out of this

Statement, we probably should

begin to interrogate and examine

the situation we have today and

develop a framework which is

colour-blind to the time of the

occurrence of embezzlement or

malfeasance and deal with

embezzlement as it is regardless of

when it took place.

Mr Speaker, I would like to

conclude by saying that this

Statement is very important and

profound because at the end of the

day, all the matters we talk about

as a country, and our

developmental aspirations and the

goals we set for ourselves would

not be realised if we do not get full

proof, water-tight systems which

would check embezzlement,

malfeasance, misappropriation,

misapplication of public funds.

And I think we should do that

across the board devoid of

partisanship.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I thank you for the

opportunity to contribute to the

Statement.

Mr Suhuyini A. Sayibu (NDC

- Tamale North): Thank you

very much, Mr Speaker, for the

opportunity to contribute to a very

well written Statement. Despite

some few disagreements, I

actually agree with most of the

issues that have been captured by

the Hon Member who made the

Statement. I also wish to associate

with earlier contributions on how

improving internal audit can help

fight corruption.

Mr Speaker, since the Internal

Audit Agency Act, 2003 (Act 658)

was passed, many have called for

its review and in some cases, a

total overhaul to ensure that it

serves the purpose of doing a pre-

corruption investigation of

preventing corruption instead of

doing a post-analysis of corrupt

activities that occur. This is

because clearly, what it seems to

do now is to close the stables after

the horses have bolted and that is

why it is important that we look at

how much we have gained since

the passage of this Act and its

implementation.

I have seen a number of

research reports that have shown

that the impact of the Agency so

far has largely been in the area of

financial discipline and public

sector accountability improvement.

So, we have been able to ensure that

there is some level of financial

discipline in the public sector

because of the existence of the

Internal Audit Agency. Again, it

has also improved upon

accountability by way of letting us

know how much we misapply.

Mr Speaker, but should that be

our focus? Should our focus not be

on how to prevent the

misapplication and the

malfeasance that are reported

year-in-year-out? That is why I

agree with those who are calling

for an overhaul of the Agency.

That would make it possible for it

not to just do post-corruption

analysis but would also engage in

preventing corrupt practices.

Mr Speaker, it is clear that an

independent and competent

Internal Auditor who has integrity

can help reduce corruption. This

can also be achieved when you

have a political system that makes

it possible for people who have the

knowhow to be independent and

to so act without fear, and to also

show the integrity they have

without the fear of political witch-

hunting. I hate to use the current

example that is readily available

where an Auditor who was termed

to be courageous, independent and

demonstrated integrity, had to be

forced to proceed on leave even

though he did not deserve to go.

Mr Speaker, no matter how

much I agree that we need to

overhaul our existing Act to make

these Internal Auditors

independent, show integrity and

demonstrate competence, if the

political environment does not

promote such virtues, we are not

going to achieve much from that

undertaking.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I would like to once again

commend the Hon Member who

made the Statement and associate

with calls to overhaul Act 658 of

the Internal Audit Agency to make

it more relevant to prevent

corruption instead of the post-

rationalisation approach that it has

adopted over the years.

Thank you.

Mr Mohammed H. Tuferu

(NPP - Nanton): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the

opportunity. I would also want to

associate myself with earlier

contributors to the Statement ably

made by the Hon Member for

Amasaman on the auditing

function.

If you look at the structure and

arrangement of the role of auditing

in Ghana in our financial

management system, everything

has been done so well that we have

the external auditors to do external

auditing and the Internal Audit

Agency Act, setting up auditing

functions in all Government

establishments. Functionally,

internal auditors are supposed to

report to the Audit Committees of

the various institutions but

administratively, they report to the

head of the entity.

Mr Speaker, if you peruse the

Audit Reports that come before

the Public Accounts Committee

(PAC), one wonders why with all

these arrangements, we still have

infractions bordering on cash, tax,

contracts and stores management

even though we have these

structures in place to check that.

Yesterday for example, at the

PAC sitting on the 2020 Audit

Report, there was a report of tax

irregularity and the Ministry of

Finance was supposed to provide

a response to it. Normally, when

they conduct the external audit,

auditees are given one month to

respond to the initial observations

made by the Auditors. If within

the one month, the auditee is not

able to provide the information - Even though sometimes the

information is available but the

fact that the auditee is unable to

report to the Auditors within the

30 days, however relevant the

information is to inform whatever

report the Auditors are supposed

to make, they would go ahead and

publish their report.

So, at the PAC, they come with

a very good response which if it

was available before the Auditors

put their reports together, they

would not have included such in

their reports. For example, the

Ministry of Finance was charged

that they failed to pay tax to the

tune of GH¢2.3 billion, included

in the cash irregularity report by

the Auditor, only for us to be

given a very good explanation that

it was additional oil entitlement.

They were supposed to provide

this information to the Auditors

before they finalised their reports

but they did not. Yesterday

however, it appeared that it was

not actually a tax irregularity.

So, the point I am trying to

make is that most of the issues that

are reported as tax and cash

irregularities and other

irregularities are just basic things

that they needed to provide to the

Auditors before they finalised

their reports but they were not able

to do so. Maybe, a cashier was

supposed to take receipts upon the

issuance of cheques but failed to

do so. So, it falls under cash

irregularities and it is all over the

place as cash and stores

embezzlement when in actual fact,

an officer failed to perform his

duty to enable the Auditor

conclude his report as he should.

Mr Speaker, basically, most of

the things that are reported to us as

cash, tax or payroll irregularities

are actually failure on the part of

officers to perform their duties as

they should. So, the institutions

are really doing well and need to

be encouraged. There should be

more training for officers

performing duties in the area of

finance so that they would be able

to minimise most of the

weaknesses we have in the

system.

Thank you very much, Mr

Speaker, for the opportunity.

Mr Samuel O. Ablakwa

(NDC - North Tongu): Mr

Speaker, I am grateful for the

opportunity to contribute to this

Statement. In doing so, kindly

permit me to commend the Hon

Member who made that Statement

for drawing attention to this all-

important issue.

Mr Speaker, the point has been

emphasised about the need to

work on our auditing systems; the

need to ensure that our auditing

agencies are independent and

empowered to carry out their

work.

Mr Speaker, when we put the

challenge of corruption in context

on our continent, we would come

to terms with how important this

Statement is. According to the

African Union, Africa loses

US$140 billion annually to

corruption. When this is put in

further context that is the Gross

Domestic Product (GDP) of

virtually all African countries.

Only five African countries have

GDPs that exceed US$140 billion.

That is scary. I have also read

reports from the Ghana Integrity

Initiative that puts the financial

lost to corruption in Ghana to an

average of US$3 billion annually.

That amount far exceeds what the

Government of Ghana intends to

raise from the vexed and much

talked about E-Levy.

Mr Speaker, the matter we are

discussing is a very important one.

If our Continent would break free

from the shackles of

underdevelopment, unemployment,

deprivation and excruciating

economic hardships that our people

have to contend with, that forces

that youth of our country to embark

on that dangerous, perilous and

tortuous journey across the Sahara

Desert and travel with those

dangerous dingiest on the

Mediterranean Sea just in search

of greener pastures, then we need

to take the matter of plucking the

loopholes to fight corruption more

seriously than we have.

Mr Speaker, in our part of the

world, the fight against corruption

has become “fighting my opponent's corruption” and it appears that successive

governments are all guilty. Since

the return to multiparty

democracy, perhaps, we could

single out two former presidents;

President John Agyekum Kufuor,

who had the courage to prosecute

a Cabinet Minister, the Hon

Mallam Issah who was eventually

jailed. Then President John

Dramani Mahama, who

prosecuted a former Hon Minister

and a former Hon Member, Mr

Abuga Pele, who was pardoned

only recently by the current

President.

Mr Speaker, apart from these

two former presidents, no other

president has taken on their own

appointees, prosecuted, sent them

to the court and ensured that they

accounted for publicised

corruption. We wait for a new

government to come to power and

then the government then looks

back at what transpired before

they came to power. So, the fight

against corruption is not really

about what has happened now and

the no nonsense attitude and

intolerant posture against the

canker so that this US$140 billion

which the African Union said that

we have lost would be addressed.

Mr Speaker, we must be regime

blind. We must be nonpartisan

when it comes to the fight against

corruption. If what happens today

is wrong, it should be considered

as wrong and must be dealt with

immediately and timeously. It

should not be about corruption

becoming a tool to beat one's political opponent but because we

want to uproot the canker and we

want to deal with it.

Mr Speaker, we also know that

in addition to empowering the

audit agencies, there are a number

of legal reforms that we must be

bold to confront. Our assets

declaration regime is not the best.

Elsewhere, all politically exposed

persons associated with political

office holders are also made to

declare assets and it is done

publicly. Our assets declaration

regime is one that has proven to be

most ineffective when it comes to

the fight against corruption. First

of all, it is not public and secondly,

spouses and associate close allies

are not covered. The best practice

is to make it public and it is to rope

in as many allies, close associates

and spouses as much as possible.

Mr Speaker, we also need to

confront the matter to do with

conflict of interest. We cannot

succeed in a corruption fight if a

person is an Hon Minister and in

the person's sector companies that he or she has shares in and he or

she is a director in, could do

business and profit and yet we say

that that is allowed and accepted.

That is a big joke and a sham.

We cannot fight corruption if

we do not have very stringent

conflict of interest laws that

outlaws the practice where a

person could be a public official

and have companies that he or she

is associated with and still do

business in that sector. It does not

matter if the company is so

reputable or has all the credentials

but once the person would be the

one to award the contract and is

associated to the company, that

company must be disqualified or

that person must leave that public

office.

Mr Speaker, we must raise

these matters and call for high

standards. As a country, we must

be concerned about how we are

faring on the corruption

perception index. All of these

weak systems of poor assets

declaration regime and abysmal

conflict of interest environment -

this ecosystem that seem to

facilitate corruption feeds into the

corruption perception index. With

the latest one released by

Transparency International,

Ghana scored only 43 out of 100.

Out of the 49 countries that we

assessed, only five countries

crossed 50 out of a score of 100.

So, Africa is stagnated.

If we know how countries such

as Seychelles, Cape Verde and

Mauritania have done it to be able

to cross 50, we could also do it

because it is about the personal

integrity of leadership. Seychelles

actually scored 70. Do we really

mean what we say when we say

we would protect the public purse

and that we would fight

corruption? Do we really mean it

or we just meant that we would

use it to beat political opponents?

Mr Speaker, it comes back to

personal integrity and sincerity of

leadership. We could have all the

laws and carry out all the reforms

but if those who would man these

institutions do not have high

personal integrity, we would not

make the impact that we must

make and we would mark time

and stagnate as we have done on

the CPI currently, which must be

of concern to all of us.

Mr Speaker, finally, this House

also has a role to play when it

comes to strengthening the

auditing systems. There is a

provision in our Constitution

which we have not as at now,

applied ourselves to.

Mr Speaker, with your

permission, I quote article 187(6)

of the 1992 Constitution, which is

a provision under the Auditor-

General:

“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, since the inception

of the Fourth Republic, this House

has not implemented this

provision. So, as we discuss audit

reforms and strengthening the

Audit Service, as an institution,

we must also carry out an

introspection and see how we can

elevate our role and help fight this

canker which has robbed this

continent and the youth in

particular, the opportunities and

economic transformation that

continues to elude us.

It took only 30 years for the

Asian Tigers to transform their

societies and they are as

developed as they are. This is the

30th year since we promulgated the

1992 Constitution. We cannot

keep marking time; we must be

bold and sincere about the

corruption fight, and once we are

sincere and we are prepared to

bring to bear with high personal

integrity, we shall succeed.

Mr Speaker, I would like to

commend the Hon Member who

made this Statement for bringing

this very important Statement to

our attention.

Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-

Mensah (NPP - Takoradi): Mr

Speaker, thank you for giving me

the opportunity to add my voice to

the Statement ably made by Hon

Afrifa on “Enhancing Audit

Function towards Reducing

Irregularities, Infractions and

Corruption in Public Institutions”.

Mr Speaker, I believe that this

is apt and is in order, especially in

the times that we are in. I have had

the special privilege of discussing

these issues with the Accountant-

General because I believe that that

is where the infractions start. To

the extent of asking him that for

those of us with the Local

Government and Rural

Development, the Assemblies

should be enabled to recruit their

own accounting staff so that when

they make these infractions or

create problems, they can be

properly sanctioned at that level.

In a situation where everything,

including appointments are done

in Accra, people come to the

Districts, do the wrong things and

then they are transferred to other

Districts to go and create the same

problems there. Therefore, it

becomes very difficult and

embarrassing when Hon

Ministers, spending officers, chief

directors are summoned in Accra

and asked questions that

sometimes precede them, and in

oftentimes too, they even find it

difficult to defend.

Mr Speaker, I believe that it is

time that as a country, we start

doing things differently, and we

cannot do things differently if we

do not take bold decisions. In

Ghana and Africa, we are aware of

some of the transfer pricing issues

that occurs making us lose huge

sums of money.

In our own country, asset

declaration, as everybody is aware

of, is not very effective. It is not

effective because we do not want

to make it effective. People give

excuses that when one's nephews, nieces and friends or even the

public know how much you own,

they might come and kill you.

Mr Speaker, I believe that we

can enhance it no matter how it is.

For that purpose, I do believe that

it is time every Ghanaian declared

his or her assets so that this

business of assets moving from a

public figure to an unknown

person can always be correlated

and the situation where people

transfer assets to their far away

friends can be checked. In a

situation where we are all

behaving and believing that it is

only about thousand public

servants or figures who are in that

bracket, that would not solve any

problem.

In this country and elsewhere,

we have people who make so

much money and are supposed to

pay so much taxes but they decide

not to pay those taxes. As far as

they keep those taxes with them

which are considered government

money.

And it is for that reason we

should be able to ensure that every

Ghanaian declares their assets so

that when we are connecting the

dots, we can do so well, so that all

the moneys due the State come to

the State. In so doing when we are

doing audits, we can even add

lifestyle audit to make sure that

people who are not expected to

own a certain type of property or

asset, either liquid or physical or

tangible or intangible, we would

be able to connect the dots

together, and when they know that

we are connecting the dots

together, we would be able to

claim for the country what belongs

to it.

Mr Speaker, there is a very

beautiful Table on page 7 of the Statement, which relates to the Report of the Auditor-General on

the Public Accounts of Ghana, Ministries, Departments and other Agencies for the year ended 31st December, 2020.

It is very instructive to note that

when we look at 2016 - I am looking at ‘Cash Irregularities' - ‘for 2016, the cash irregularities is about GH¢2 billion. If we go to 2017, it reduced from GH¢2 billion to GH¢190 million and then it goes further to 2020 to about GH¢34 million. So, clearly, it shows that for public institutions, cash irregularities - which is one of the major problems I have, there seems to be an improvement in the way it is managed.

Mr Speaker, when we take tax

irregularities, I believe that these are statements in the Report that basically show that some of the public institutions are not paying either the withholding taxes to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and so on.

If we also take loans, debts and

advances, these are basically moneys that have accrued to staff of these agencies and I believe that if we also take, for instance, payroll, there seems to be some kind of management that is going

on but I was shocked when it came to stores, procurement and contracts. If we look at the figures compared to what we are seeing with the cash irregularities, one would clearly see that the problem is not really at the procurement area but rather at the lower levels where little cash irregularities are taking place.

Mr Speaker, I see cash

irregularities as stolen money and

I would like to use this

opportunity to request Mr Speaker

to give a directive so that when the

Public Accounts Committee

(PAC) looks at this Report, we can

actually go after those who have

actually stolen moneys from our

institutions back to Government

chest. This is because if we look at

the other ones, they are basically

not stolen but this is real cash that

has been stolen and I believe that

we should be able to do so.

One of the other issues; the

Hon Member who made the

Statement clearly said which I

would like to bring to your

attention is that of prevention. I

believe that prevention is always

better than cure and so, what can

we do to enable or enhance the

work of the internal auditor to

prevent the rot before the external

auditors come in to pick their

report?

Mr Speaker, I believe that it is

time we gave them a certain level

of empowerment that they can use

in preventing certain transactions

from taking place in the

Assemblies or in Government

institutions even before they

become a problem for the external

auditors or the Auditor-General's

Department to come and do

investigations.

Mr Speaker, with these few

words, I believe that this

Statement is apt and it is very

important that we support them

going forward.