ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
Fellow Ghanaians, we all know that as regards corruption, many committees have been established and several reports have been written.
But what evidence exists to show that the state has benefited from such measures?
Negligible.
For, quite apart from what revelations that the Minority in Parliament has often done not too many people, with the possible exclusion of the former Attorney-General, Martin Amidu, have shown concen about the massive graft and corruption that has become the order of the day.
The difficulties that the nation is going through are due to many factors including especially massive corruption, wastage and maladministration, pure and simple, Whilst we are at this it is important to indicate that four motions have been filed pursuant to transparency and accountability in our governance: 1.
First is in respect of the arrest and detention of one person who was responsible for an aspect of security at our airport; 2.
The second relates to the fire outbreak at some markets and work places for which both the President, the NDC National Chairman and other NDC apologists had pointed accusing fingers at opposition elements; 3.
Third is in respect of the sale and purchase of Merchant Bank; 4.
Fourth is the termination of capitation grant in Ashanti Region and 5.
Fifth is the motion of rescission in respect of the Ridge Hospital upgrading.
These motions have not been articulated on the floor.
The only motion which has been somewhat heard is the Capitation one, but even that one had fo be dressed in borrowed robes before it was admitted to be debated.
These motions relate to providing sunshine or illumination at otherwise dark places.
Parliament must be afforded space in pursuit of any endeavour that opens up governance and society, otherwise, it may promote doubts, and rumour mongering.
The nation does not need to be cast back into the Acheamponic era of rumour mongering.
Those of us in the NPP Minority caucus arc purposed to delve into these matters especially the circumstances surrounding the sale and purchase of Merchant Bank and the unrealistic cost of the Ridge Hospital upgrading.
We will not rest until we have come to the bottom of these matters.
Already, we have hanging the matters relating to the purchase of the Bmbraer planes for the military in respect of which the late President Mills caused the setting up of an investigative committee.
President, what has happened to that Committee on the Embraer purchases!
And the loss incurred by the State in the matter of the STX housing scheme?
President you promised to retrieve whatever the nation lost.
Where are we on that?
LAW AND JUSTICE Article 34(2) obligates the President to use the medium of his Address to report to Parliament about steps he has taken to ensure the realization of basic human rights.
In that respect one would want to-know-the state-of human rights.
Again;-it is important to recount-what we stated last year in respect of matters that ave still outstanding: 1.
Five years ago Agbogloshie experienced bloodletting.
NDC supporters and sympathizers went on rampage and butchered persons suspected to be NPP supporters; several others had deep machete wounds.
The perpetrators are holding their chests and heads out at Agbogbloshie.
The police requested and were given the identities of the alleged offenders.
Not one person has been apprehended, five years after the incident.
Communal violence erupted at Gushiegu and some neighbouring communities following after the December 2008 elections.
The violence involved NDC and NPP supporters and, subsequently, suspects who belonged to the two political persuasions were arrested.
Less than one week after the arrest some of the suspects were released.
All who were released are all NDC supporters and the remaining who were detained and have been goaled are all NPP supporters.
In the bye electioneering campaign at Chereponi which ensued after the transition of Hon.
Doris Seidu, a seat-of-government operative shot five NPP supporters at point blank.
But for the presence of Prof.
Frimpong Boateng who performed surgery on them to remove the bullets from their bodies at Yendi Hospital, lives might have been lost.
The person who engaged in that heinous crime and who was caught on video in the act has not been arrested, four years after the incident.
4, In the conduct of outstanding lections in seven polling stations at Akwatia in 2009 NPP Members of Parliament and NPP supporters were attacked and brutalized.
Many NPP MPs including Hon.
Tsaac Osei, Elizabeth Agyeman and my humble sclf, without any provocation had their vehicles vandalized.
As we speak today, more than four years after the dastardly incidents, not a single arrest has been made.
Yet the incidents occurred in the presence of security personnel.
In the bye-elections at Atiwa a vehicle drove through a crowd many of whom, according to the Attorney-General, were innocent by standers on that day of elections.
The woman who caused that crime has not been apprehended and she has been rewarded with a public office.
On February 19, 2013 a mushroom group calling itself Coalition of Ghanaian Voters demonstrated against what they described as the disrespectful attitude of the Minotity in Parliament.
Earlier on January 8, 2013 the police had blocked an advertised demonstration by the Young Patriots.
The same police would not allow an indoor activity by the Let My Vote Count Alliance.
In many parts of the country foreigners have invaded and arc engaged in illegal mining activities.
The foreigners shoot and maim Ghanaians.
They deforest and degrade lands and pollute water bodies and poison the environment.
In many cases the security agencies protect the foreigners against the citizens.
This is the state of human rights, ladies and gentlemen.
; THE JUDICYARY The present state of the judiciary as compared with the year before remains as follows: i 1.
There is a lack of logistics to facilitate the dispensation of justice 2.
The tedious recording process even at the Supreme Court which the nation witnessed at the hearing of the Election Petition last year did not provide a good advertisement to the advancement of due process in the country.
The Commercial and Fast Track divisions of the High Court do not have ICT equipment to ensure the speedy disposal of cases and hence investor-confidence is dampened.
The budget of the Judiciaty is woefully inadequate and this has led to a situation where some basic allowances of Judicial Service Staff including judges are not paid on time.
The recent slash in the emolument of judges is a disincentive and may possibly lead to compromising the delivery of justice.
Judges have to put up with a state that is unwilling to prosecute criminals but the same state shows a speedily enthusiasm to apprehend perceived opposition “offenders” only to abandon them in the hands of the Gestapo-like security inslitutions.
Record keeping in the Courts, as became evident in the Election Petition case, has not benefited from modern technology.
Court houses in the districts are in a real state of disrepair.
24 8.
Court staff are not properly motivated, the workplaces are often not conducive, their basic working tools are lacking and their morale is low.
M. President, the nation is not giving proper and adequate attention to its Judiciary, the arm of government that is charged with the maintenance of law and order, protecting human rights and liberties of the populace.
In such a situation democracy and the rule of law could easily be compromised.
SAVE QUR SPORTS Regarding sports, Ghana is now running a Ministry of Football instead of Ministry of Youth and Sports.
The paltry sum of GHg¢3.3million allocated fo the thirty-three Associations under the National Sports Authority is not released to them for their activities.
The National Spotts Authority is dying due to lack of funds.
This is against the backdrop that this year we are expected to compete at the ECOWAS Games in La Cote d’Ivoire and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and to prepare for the Olympic Games in Brazil in 2016.
This is a sector riddled with scandals, over expenditure and empty promises.
As we speak, we are yet to be told of the full story of the Maputo Probe and associated scandals arising out of the All Africa Games in 2011 in Maputo, Mozambique.
We have used good money which could have been spent on sports to pay doubtful and dubious debts to Waterville Woyome, Isofoton, Construction Pioneers and contracts of doubtful relevance to the country.
The huge promises under the Mills-Mahama Administrations regarding sports have been empty promises.
In 2009, Prof.
Mills said the NDC government had come to meet the Sports Bill and would endeavour to bring it to Parliament.
We are still waiting for this Bill in 2014.
He said Cape Coast Stadium will be completed.
We are still at the foundation level.
The Mahama government is still in the process of acquiring land for the Ho Stadium while the four stadia built for the CAN 2008 are deteriorating because of lack of maintenance and funds.
In 2013, President Mahama said in his State of the Nation address that “we will roll out a number of policies to unearth and develop sporting talents {o feed our various National teams.
These will include: o Provision of incentives for MMDAs fo establish at least one well-resourced sports and athletics infrastructure in the districts.
e Re-invigoration of the traditional inter-schools and colleges sports competitions e Reserve some admissions to Senior High Schools for talented sports and other creative students among other interventions o Completion of the Cape Coast Stadinn as promised by our late President John Evans Atta Mills o Restructuring and re-orientation of the National Sports Authority to enbance its efficiency and effectiveness in the discharge of its mandate.
¢ Development of the lesser known sporting disciplines among others”.
In 2014, the President is telling us that Goveriiment has “reviewed drawings of the Sports Arena and Sport Senior High School to be established in the District and Regional capitals, and actual construction work on a selected few is expected to begin as soon as all procurement formalities are completed”, We are tired of these sound bites and public relation gimmicks.
Sports is dying and our sports should be saved.
The government must as a matter of urgency release funds to the Associations for training, rehabilitation of our facilities and the National Sports Authority.
We need massive investment in sports to provide opportunities, avenues for excellence, career development and employment for our youth.
CONCLUSION There are some sectors that we have not covered.
We intend to strand the relevant issues pertaining to these areas out for address in the coming weeks.
We shall provide details about those matters in order to do justice to them.
As the President said in his conclusion “Ghana belongs to its people”.
When we in the Minority criticize, it is meant to reform and it is not out of “pettiness of politics and the small mindedness of doomsayers (or) a wish for the failure of any action or policy intended to lift Ghana up” as the President alluded tangentially.
President, we agree with you that “Ghana is bigger than any of us”.
Without doubt, your Excellency, you will also agree with us, nay, with the generality of the citizenry, that increasingly, there is a growing despondency and mistrust accentuated by cronyism, patronage, unbridled corruption, wastage and maladministration.
If this country belongs to all of us, as indeed it does, then all of us must be equally concerned to expose improprieties and malfeasance.
As we have acknowledged elsewhere, over 95% of our citizens believe in God.
God expecls pragmatism, works, not blind faith and phantasn.
Fellow Ghanaians, we feel a sense of responsibility to our nation when by owr conduct and diligent exposures we are able to ensure that the benefits of the enormous resources that God has blessed the Black Star of Africa with are enjoyed by all of her citizens but not only a few.
This is our patriotic duty and we will neither renege nor relent.
Thank you all very much for your attention and may God continue to help our resolve to contribute to building a prosperous country for ourselves, our children and our children’s children.
A WEAKENING CURRENCY AND AN OUTDATED RESPONSE — A STATEMENT BY THE NPP MINORITY CAUCUS.
14™ FEBRUARY, 2014 Ghana's economy is in real frouble.
Today, everybody is complaining about the rising cost of living, high unemployment, the total lack of confidence in our economy and the depreciating cedi.
It is clear that the government is bereft of workable ideas.
Unfortunately, there is nothing to suggest that this administration can fix the economy since, thus far, whatever ideas this government is capable of generating and, indeed, has put forth have proved incapable of fixing the economy.
The year 2013 saw the introduction of all manner of taxes, including an unorthodox increase in the VAT rate by 2.5 percent, the removal of petroleum and utility subsidies and the piling up of huge deficits and debts.
If Ghanaians thought we had seen the end of the economic quagmire, we were to receive a rude awakening when the Cedi started wobbling and staggering like a punch-drunk boxer and depreciating beyond anybody's wildest imagination.
As at the end of January 2014, the cedi had depreciated by 7.8 percent against the US Dollar compared to 0.2 percent in the corresponding period in 2013, What went wrong?
The government of President John Dramani Mahama would not listen to good counsel.
Even after all the credit rating agencies downgraded our credit rating as well as its outlook, the government failed to put its fiscal house in order.
Instead, President Mahama’s government and their apologists chose to engage in fruitless arguments with these rating agencies.
All the fiscal consolidation efforts outlined in the 2013 budget did not see the light of day.
And so we ended up with a budget deficit of about 11 percent of GDP in 2013 whilst the debt stock ballooned to $23 billion up from the $8 billion the NPP left behind at the end of the regime in 2008, The combined effect of uncontrolled borrowing, most of which were not supported by any proper due diligence, the irresponsible spending, including the unprecedented humongous over expenditure coupled with .
high inflation is the lamentable weakening of the cedi to the levels we are seeing now.
It is a matter of fiscal indiscipline and economic mismanagement.
It is not because of dwarfs, high rise buildings, or redenomination.
Dollarization has always been something the economy has lived with since the 1970s.
This phenomenon comes alive during periods of economic mismanagement and fiscal indiscipline as we are currently seeing.
The depreciation of the cedi is attributable, among other other things to the injection of an excess amount of cedis into the economy relative to production.
We are paying the price for Woyome, Waterville, Isofoton and other so-called judgment debts, SADA, SUBAH, GYEEDA.
Dealing with corruption is therefore key to restoring sanity in public finance.
Central Bank’s response Not only did the Bank of Ghana delay in its policy response to slowdown the fast depreciating currency, the bank has also outlined measures, some of which are OUTDATED and BUSINESS UNFRIENDLY.
Additionally, the Monetary Policy Committee has raised the policy rate by 200 basis points to induce demand in Cedi-denominated assets.
What prevented the Bank from holding the emergency Monetary Policy Committee meeting earlier when the crisis was unfolding?
Why didn’t the bank pump more reserves into the ailing economy in time?
What has happened to the “unprecedented level of foreign exchange reserves” the government clains to have built up?
Clearly, there has been a REGULATORY FAILURE on the part of BoG and the NDC government.
The directive that all transactions be conducted in Cedis is not new.
If it has not been enforced in the past, the BoG must take full responsibility and stop passing the buck.
‘Again, it is known that Foreign Currency Accounts (FCA) and Foreign * Exchange Accounts (FEA) do not earn interest.
Yet individuals open these accounts and submit their Forex to the banking system in good faith.
As per the new directives, no cheques or cheque bocks shall be issued on FCA and FEA.
Simply put, even though customers do not earn interest on such accounts, they cannot also withdraw money or issue cheques if they so wished.
The BoG, by this directive, may force foreign currency holders to bank their Forex in their homes.
This directive might not only be illegal, it also has the potential of discouraging savings in a country where the culture of savings with the banks is still very low and less than than 50 percent of all business transactions pass through the banks.
To add insult to injury, the BoG has further directed that cash withdrawals shall be permitted only for travel purposes (not exceeding $10,000) and other documented official transactions.
This is reminiscent of EXCHANGE CONTROLS.
It must be noted that official restrictions on forex transactions have never been a viable alternative.
Little wonder that Ambassador- designate, Dr.
Tony Aiddoo, himself the immediate past Director in charge of government's policy Monitoring and Evaluation has called these measures ‘panicky’.
As stated earlier, these measures create disincentives for people to save.
Additionally, the measures have the potential of reinforcing parallel currency operations.
In other words, the parallel (black) marketers may become the big gainers here.
Furthermore, the BoG indicated that Forex for imports shall be in a margin account managed by the Bank for thirty days only.
Is the bank suggesting that all importation must necessarily be completed within thirty days?
And what happens in the case where importers buy from several vendors?
This will increase the cost of doing business for the private sector, which is already too high.
There is also the aspect about no Forex loans being granted in the country.
If Forex markets operate efficiently there is no obligation for the Bank of Ghana to intervene.
Clearly, the BoG is in panic mood after the spiritual interventions in the economy.
However, they must first accept their own regulatory failures.
* That said, they should also stop focusing on the wrong things that they cannot enforce, and desist from reintroducing exchange controls.
Exchange controls have never worked in Ghana and will never work.
The BoG should know better.
What policy authorities must do The problem is not just the Bank of Ghana's to fix since it is not merely a monetary conundrum.
As the central bank has asserted, it is required of the Minister of Finance to cut back on the huge deficits.
The BoG needs a lot of help from the Ministry of Finance.
We have to get our macro fundamentals back on track by reducing the huge budget deficit, lowering inflation and above all, avoid over expenditure.
Fiscal and monetary policy have to be prudently implemented to achieve these goals.
Over the past three years government has been making capital of the high reserve accumulation.
If Ghana's foreign exchange reserves are available, why have they not been used to defend the cedi?
Reserves accumulation is unnecessary in the present circumstance, unless there is something the central bank is not telling us.
Finally, we must promote real investment in the economy, increase our export base and become producers of the goods we consume.
If Ghana should indeed be the “Gateway to West Africa” we should not lose our competitive edge in investment.
We should sanitise the investment environment to attract more purposeful investment and hence attract more hard currency into the system Unfortunately, there is nothing in the measures announced by government that would support increased output.
The NDC government has to learn that propaganda has its limits and bad economic management has adverse consequences for the economy.
COMMISSIONING OF TOWER BLOCK (JOB 600) ANNEX BY H.E.
THE PRESIDENT REMARKS BY HON.
MINORITY LEADER, HARUNA IDDRISU Your Excellency President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; Rt.
Speaker, Prof.
Aaron Mike Oquaye Hon.
Majority Leader; First and Second Deputy Speakers; Other Members of the Leadership of the House; Ministers of State; Colleague MPs; The Clerk to Parfiament; The Media; Ladies and Gentle; | wish to extend my heartfelt appreciation and that of the Minority Caucus to H.E.
The President, for finding time to be with us on this auspicious occasion to commission this edifice which was constructed under the able feadership of the Speaker, Prof.
Mike Oquaye, with the express and active support of H.E.
The President.
| must also commend Hon.
Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Member of the Parliamentary Service Board, for his tireless service in seeing to the completion of the Project.
This edifice has been completed in record fime with funding primarily from GoG sources.
it is often unusual to have a big project such as the Job 600 Annex, funded primarily from GoG, to be completed on schedule.
| am informed that the Project has about 100 offices for MPs, Staff and Research Assistants; 150-seater multi-purpose hall; and Archival Centre; drivers centre and visitors cenfre; among others.
This was made possible because of the commitment of the President in ensuring funds are made available upon request.
It was Mr.
President's objective to ensure that each Member of Parliament has a decent office from where to operate from.
| believe Mr.
President's commitment was bome out of his own frustrations as a Member of this House in the late 90s and early 2000s where he had to operate as an MP from the boot of his car.
As you are aware, Your Excellency, the renovation of the main Job 600 Building franscended four (4) different administrations.
It was started under former President Rawlings and completed during the tenure of former President Mahama.
The Job 600 Renovation Project initially started with the provision of at least 200 offices and meeting rooms for the then 200-Member House.
The Membership of the House was however increased to 230 compelling the Engineers to remodel the Project and increase the number of offices to 250.
Unfortunately, before the Project could be completed, the Membership of the House was increased to 275.
The work on the Project had, at the fime, advanced to the extent that the Engineers could no longer re-configure the Project to accommodate the additional numbers.
Your Excellency, | have decided to recount this short history of the Job 600 Project, which you are already aware of, to reiterate the point which ¢ number of experts and opinion leaders have already canvassed, that we need to place a cap on the size of the legislature; that we cannot continue to expand the membership of the House in perpetuity.
The continuous expansion has implications on the public purse and the Leaders of the Political Parties, particularly my Party and the NPP, must come to a consensus on the ideal size of the Legistature for a country such as Ghana.
It is my prayer that, Your Excellency Mr.
President, will lead and influence such a debate, Your Excellency, one other key issue being pursued by the Parliamentary Service Board and which is very dear to the heart of the Rt.
Speaker, is the effort to secure the Parliamentary Enclave.
| am sure this issue will be part of Mr.
Speaker remarks but suffice it to say that the need for Parliament to maintain effective occupation and control of the enclave is long overdue, Itis not best practice for the parliamentary grounds or part therefore, to be in the hands and control of other Agencies or Bodies.
In some of the democracies which we seek to emulate, the Legislature occupies a distinct estate, under its confrol and administration.
| am aware that Your Excellency has given his blessings for the acquisition of the Parliamentary Enclave but unfortunately the process is progressing at a slow pace.
it was our expectation that the process would be completed within your tenure.
President, in a little over a month, we shall be going to the polls for presidential and parliamentary elections for the eight time under the present 4th Republican Constitution.