GRi In Parliament 26-03-99

Parliament approves Estimates for Govt Obligations

Proposals on deconfiscation of assets for Cabinet

Accra (Greater Accra) 26 March 

Parliament yesterday approved 1,338.335 billion cedis for the services of Other Government Obligations (OGO) for the 1999 Financial Year. Mr Victor Selormey, Deputy Minister of Finance who moved the motion, said under OGO, funds will be required by the government to discharge its obligations in respect of Pensions, Gratuities, Interest on Repayment of Domestic Debts, Interest on Repayment of External Debts and the District Assemblies Common Fund.

Mr Selormey stated that out of this amount, as much as 737 billion cedis will be required to cover Interest on Repayment of Domestic Debts, while Gratuities take 60 billion cedis.

He said his ministry, with a debt sustainability profile, has now developed a policy not to borrow on short-term basis any longer.

Commodore Steve G. Obimpeh (rtd), Chairman of the Finance Committee, said a total of 93,616 persons of various categories will be due for pension this year, and that 105.335 billion cedis has been earmarked for their pension.

Commodore Obimpeh said the amount represents about 32.4 per cent over last year's provisional actual pension of 79,538 billion cedis.

Mr Agyare Koi-Larbi, NPP-Akropong, stressed the need for government to build productive capacities in order to move the nation forward.

Mr Charles Omar Nyanor, NPP-Upper Denkyira, traced borrowing in the country to the colonial era and urged government to avoid its piece-meal approach to borrowing.

Mr Austin Akufo Gamey, NDC-North Tongu and Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, said government deserves commendation for its sustained economic profile.

Mr Francis Kwasi Buor, NPP-Offinso South, appealed to the government to streamline the procedure for the payment of pensions.

Mr Buor was optimistic that with the bottlenecks removed, pensioners will be saved the ordeal they always go through at the regional capitals to collect their pensions.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, NPP-Asante-Akim North, urged the ministry and allied institutions to introduce mechanisms to check the fictitious payment of pensions.

Winding up, Mr Selormey thanked members for their constructive criticisms and assured them of his ministry's determination to improve data on the presentation of budgets to parliament.

Accra (Greater Accra) 26 March 

Dr Obed Asamoah, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, told Parliament on Thursday that the ministry will submit proposals to Cabinet for guidelines to speed up the process of deconfiscation of assets of individuals and organisations.

The sector ministry is concerned about the issue of confiscation and everything is being done to ensure that action is expedited on assets to be returned to their owners.

Dr Asamoah, who was moving a motion requesting Parliament to approve 11.592 billion cedis for the operations of the ministry for the 1999 financial year, was reacting to calls from some members of the Minority side, urging the government to consider returning assets seized by various governments to their owners.

On criminal libel, Dr Asamoah said: "The law will remain in the statute books as long as I am the Attorney-General", adding, "nobody has the fundamental right to libel anybody and get away with it."

Dr Asamoah was responding to an appeal by a ranking member of the Minority that the criminal libel law should be repealed. The Attorney-General urged journalists to be sufficiently responsible and "not to libel responsible citizens of the country".

The Minister hinted that he would submit to the House, proposals which seek to expedite the administration of justice. Dr Asamoah bemoaned the inadequacy of resources and the precarious staffing position of the Ministry and organisations under it and expressed the hope that the sector would be well-funded to effectively carry out its mission.

He said the Ministry is to ensure the delivery of fair, efficient and effective system for the administration of the justice. To do this, he said, the Ministry will formulate policies, and monitor and evaluate their impact. It will also uphold the rule of law and keep all laws up to date, according to changing needs of the country, and to provide the public information about the state of the law on a regular basis, among other actions.

In its report the Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, observed that the major problem that runs through all the departments of the Ministry is the gradual reduction in the staff strength which, it said, hampers the efficient delivery of justice. The report said the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is the most affected, considering that it has just been established and that it lacks personnel to put its operations into full perspective.

It said since the government's centralised budget for employment is still in place, funds should be released for the filling of vital positions in the various departments under the Ministry, particularly the Serious Fraud Office.

The report expressed concern about what it described as "unattractive allowances" paid to lawyers of the Legal Aid Board, saying this has effectively reduced the output of the Board, and hoped the next budget will revise the allowances upwards.

It advised the Ministry to liaise with the National Service Secretariat for all lawyer-Service Personnel to be posted to the Ministry to ease the adverse effects of vacancies in the various departments.

The Committee noted that the School of Law is not adequately resourced to speedily work on the on-going library complex, saying the 40 million cedis earmarked for the project "is rather on the low side.

"We view the effective delivery of justice to be vital in the country's democratic dispensation, and it is in this view that we recommend the full resourcing of the Ministry and its departments", the Committee said.

Of the estimates, 3.944 billion cedis will be taken up by personnel emoluments, and 1.47 billion cedis by administrative expenses. Service will also attract 1.264 billion cedis, while investment gets 4.912 billion cedis.

Nana Akufo Addo, Minority Spokesman on Constitutional and Legal Matters, stressed the importance of the Ministry's work in the constitutional order of the country.

He, however, expressed concern about what he described as "the rising number of remand population in the prisons", and called the situation an aberration of the principle that a person is innocent until proved otherwise.

Nana Akufo Addo therefore called on the Ministry to expedite action on the committee it intends to set up to address the issue of the mounting remand population in the prisons.

The Minority ranking member appealed to the Attorney-General to review laws on libel and have the criminal libel law repealed, since in his view, it "stifles press freedom".

He said he would present before Parliament an appropriate legislation to have the criminal libel law repealed.

Mr Francis Agbotse, NDC-Ho West, commended the Serious Fraud Office "for the good work it is doing", saying but for the intervention of the Office, serious economic crimes would have escalated and billions of money would have gone into private pockets.

He said when the SFO idea was conceived by the government, there were serious doubts in the minds of many Ghanaians as to the intentions of the Executive.

"Some thought it would be used to witch-hunt the opposition", Mr Agbotse said.The House approved the estimates.