Parliament needs special voting day - Leader
Reconciliation Bill to move to consideration
stage
Stop polygamy to stop AIDS - Asmah
Small-Scale business loans programme to be
reactivated
Parliament needs special voting day -
Leader
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 December 2001- Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader on Friday said the legislature should consider setting aside particular days of voting to speed up decision taking in the House.
He said by that it would be possible to mobilise members to vote so that the public would not be seeing Parliament as not working or was not taking its work seriously.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah was reacting to concerns expressed by some members of the House just before business began that the portrayal of lean attendance in the House by the media sometimes gave negative impression about the work of Parliament.
Mr Kofi Attor, NDC-Ho Central, Mr Seidu Adamu, NDC-Bibiani and Captain Nkrabea Effah-Dartey (rtd), NPP-Berekum and a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, shared the view that the greater part of parliamentary work was done at the committee level and the lean attendance in the chamber of the House did not mean that members were absent or were not taking their work seriously.
They said just as they were talking two committees were sitting and there was another committee that was on a fact finding tour of the country.
They said for the television camera and the press to be portraying the House as being empty and, therefore, did not form a quorum was not giving them a favourable public image.
Mr Attor said a visit to the British and German Parliaments showed that sometimes a small number as low as eleven members engaged in serious debate and in such a case the television camera only focussed on the one who was speaking.
Members at the backbench immediately shot up to say that they were always present in the House but the TV camera never captured them.
Mr Freddie Blay, the First Deputy Speaker, who was in the chair asked members not to be using committee meetings as alibi for not coming to the House. "Sometimes we are not able to take decisions because of lack of quorum. We must allow the media to do their work", he said.
The Parliamentary TV crew have been complaining that their position in the oval public gallery made it impossible for them to focus on some members. The Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey had promised doing something about the problem.
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Reconciliation Bill to move to
consideration stage
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 December 2001- Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Leader of the House, on Friday urged members of Parliament to propose their amendments to the National Reconciliation Bill, as early as possible, before it moves into its consideration stage on Wednesday.
Presenting the Business Statement for the eighth week, Papa Owusu-Ankomah said: "Those who have amendments to file on the National Reconciliation Commission Bill should do so as early as possible".
The Bill suffered a setback when the Minority last Friday walked out of the House as the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was summing up the debate during its second reading.
The Minority accused the Minister of using insulting language in his presentation. Papa Owusu-Ankomah said during the week a lot of motions and questions had to be put and urged members to attend sittings regularly and punctually.
He urged all committees with outstanding referrals to expedite action on them since there were only a few more days left for the third meeting of the third Parliament of the Fourth Republic to end.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah said the House would adopt a report on the Committee on Defence and the Interior on the Letter of Agreement between Ghana and the United States on Narcotics Control.
A report from the Finance Committee on the Concessional Loan Agreement between Ghana and the African Development Fund (ADF) for 19.47 million dollars for the implementation of the Inland Valleys Rice Development Project (IVRDP) would be laid.
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Stop polygamy to stop AIDS - Asmah
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 December 2001- African men should re-examined the culture of polygamy and sexual promiscuity as a way of combating the HIV/AIDS menace, Mrs Gladys Asmah, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs told Parliament on Friday.
She said: "If we are to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic and remove it from our society, then we have to be honest with ourselves and take a second look at our culture, which permits polygamy and allows sexual promiscuity particularly for men.
"We cannot continue to condone sexual promiscuity and simultaneously expect to offer a solution to AIDS. We cannot aim at stopping the spread of AIDS and at the same time continue to see women as vehicles for pleasure, that must be used to satisfy the desire of men".
Mrs Asmah, who was making a statement on world AIDS day, which falls on Saturday said, "there is evidence, that the sexual promiscuity of men endangers the lives of women, both young and old.
"In Kenya for example, according to the records, by 2000, 22 per cent of 19-year-old girls in the general population were infected with the HIV virus as against four per cent of boys of the same age."
She said such a disparity in infection rates was just one indicator that women might be unable to escape the sexual coercion and intimidation by men, who were often older than the women.
Mrs Asmah said the theme for the day: "Men make a difference, I care ... do you?" was appropriate in the context of Africa's social and cultural beliefs, in which norms and practices were shrouded in myth with strong gender imbalance. She said the culture that allowed men to have sex anywhere, anytime and with any women needed examination.
Mrs Asmah said the idea that the men had the right or need to pursue sex wherever it was available must be rejected and to restore the idea that abstinence before marriage and fidelity in marriage gave dignity, strength and security to the family and society.
Mr Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, in supporting the statement said that prostitution should be legalised and controlled as it was being done in some developed countries.
He said those in the business could be monitored, provided with medical care and condoms and for them to pay tax so that wayward husbands would not infest their wives.
Mr Kedem said the prostitutes could form their own associations and to have regulation on the use of brothels and that those who failed to comply with the laws could have their licences withdrawn.
He the HIV/AIDS pandemic posed a great threat to the survival of the African continent and there should be inter-state approach to combat it, saying "we either tackle the issue head on or leave it and perish altogether".
Mr Joseph Darko-Mensah, NPP-Okaikwei North, asked that the police should be empowered to arrest and prosecute prostitutes and men who hide in corners with girls.
Mr Kwasi Kyeremateng, NPP-Afigya Sekyere East, said although the education on the disease was widespread yet there was the need for it to be preached daily in buses, churches and homes so that the message would sink.
He said those suffering from AIDS should not be stigmatised by society because if that happened those with the virus who were not yet patients would go underground, which would be more dangerous for society since they would spread the disease the more.
Mr Kyeremateng called for voluntary testing of all to ensure that those infested with the disease could be advised on how to comport themselves to live a little longer.
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Small-Scale business loans programme to be
reactivated
Accra (Greater Accra) 01 December 2001- The Minister for Private Sector Development, Mr Kwamena Bartels on Friday announced plans for the establishment of a Small Scale Business Loan Programme similar to what pertained in the Busia administration to support artisans in the country.
He said it was the intention of the ministry to assist the auto-mechanics at Odawna in Accra and Suame Magazine in Kumasi as well as other organized artisans, who constituted a very important segment of the informal sector financially to improve on their operations under the programme.
Mr Bartels said this in an answer to a question posed by Nii Adu-Daku Mante, NPP-Klottey-Korle, as what plans his ministry had to encourage auto-mechanics at Odawna in Accra and Suame Magazine in Kumasi to move from mere repair works into producing less sophisticated plant and machinery.
He said the ministry appreciated the contribution of small-scale industries to the national economic development effort. He said with some financial assistance, the auto-mechanics that were highly skilled, could acquire basic tools and equipment to enable tem to engage in the manufacture of simple plant and machinery.
Mr Mante asked how soon the programme would take off for artisans to take advantage of and the minister said it would be operational by the end of March 2002.
When Mr Joseph Darko-Mensah, NPP-Okaikoi North asked whether the scheme was meant only for artisans in Accra and Kumasi, Mr Bartels said the scheme was for all artisans as well as those in other areas.
Prince Oduro-Mensah, NPP-Techiman South said the scheme should be comprehensive since some of the artisans might not necessarily require financial support but in-service training and seminars to update and improve their skills.
Mr Samuel Adu-Yeboah, NDC-Agona East, asked the extent of involvement and assistance of the Gratis-ITTU programmes that were in the all the regions to the training programmes of the scheme and the minister said the ministry in conjunction with the Ministries of Trade and Industry and Food and Agriculture would help co-ordinate the scheme.
Godfried Ako-Nai, NPP-Dade Kotopon, asked the modalities for selecting the artisans, who were to access the scheme, and Mr Bartels said the details would come out when a draft of the scheme was released.
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