Demonstration is a constitutional right-Minority
Kwabena Adjei gets approval for
Parliamentary Affairs budget
Parliament approves budget for agric sector
Demonstration is a constitutional
right-Minority
Accra {Greater Accra} 29 March 2000.
The Minority group in Parliament on Tuesday stressed that the right to demonstrate is an essential ingredient of any multi-party democracy and should be well protected.
The group said the mishandling of demonstrators by the police and the negative way in which security agencies perceive demonstrations should be discouraged.
Expressing these concerns during a debate for the approval of the Ministry of the Interior's budget for the 2000 fiscal year, Nana Akufo Addo, Minority Spokesman on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said the failure of the police to apprehend people who harass demonstrators puts the peace officer in a bad picture.
He said victims of the Kume Preko demonstration were still being denied justice and fair play and promised to pursue it to its logical conclusion.
The ranking member abhorred the long prison remand duration, which, he said, has caused congestion in the country's prisons, adding that keeping suspects in remand for long periods is a subversion of the rule of law.
The Ministry, which supervises the Ghana Police Service, Prisons Service, and Ghana National Fire Service, among others, was allocated 203.6 billion cedis.
Mr Kwabena Adusa Okerchiri, NPP-Nkawkaw, described the police handling of students in the recent "Mmobrowa struggle" as brutish and sadistic.
The member alleged that the police went as far as fondling some vital parts of the female students amid beating and kicking.
On a point of order, Major Kwame Amponsah, NDC-Mpohor-Wassa East, challenged the member to substantiate his allegation.
Mr. Okerchiri said some of the female students who were harassed spoke to him while callers to several phone-in radio programmes spoke of similar experiences.
The Member criticised the government for consenting to the housing project at Dunkuna after scientific research had proven that the area emits poisonous gases.
On crime rates in the country, Alhaji Ahmed Musa, NDC-Asokwa East, opined that the breakdown of family values and links, but not economic decline per se, promotes crime.
Mrs. Grace Coleman, NPP-Effigya Asokore, on a point of order, asked whether a hungry man and a well-fed person are all equally motivated to steal food.
She said efforts should be directed at the social and family set-up if the country is to make any headway in the reduction of crime.
Nii Okaija Adamafio, Minister of the Interior, asked the Member for Nkawkaw to volunteer information on his allegation about the harassment of female students.
He said the police still see the unresolved serial murders in Accra as a big challenge and will do all they can to apprehend the culprits.
The Minister said all agencies under him would make sure that this year's general elections are not interrupted in any way.
He assured the House that conditions of the Police and Prison Services are being addressed but asked the judiciary to cut down on custodian sentences in order to halt congestion in the country's prisons.
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Kwabena Adjei gets approval for
Parliamentary Affairs budget
Accra {Greater Accra} 29 March 2000
Parliament on Tuesday approved 35.4 billion cedis and 91.3 billion cedis for the Judicial Service and Office of Parliament respectively as their budgets for the 2000 fiscal year.
Dr. Kwabena Adjei, Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, moved for the approval of the budgets of the two bodies.
Contributing to the debate for the Judicial Service, Mr Kobina Fosu, NDC-Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, said steps should be taken to stop the long delays in the administration of justice and called for the review of court rules and the monetary jurisdiction of the lower courts, which, he said, had resulted in the long queue of cases at the high courts.
He admitted that some of the problems facing the Judiciary emanates from inadequate resources but asked the sector to tackle problems that are self-inflicted.
Mr Edward Osei-Kwaku, NPP-Asokwa West, expressed concern about the states of law court buildings in the country and said they are a subject of ridicule for the Judiciary
He mentioned the Cocoa Affairs Court in Accra as one of the most deplorable buildings in the set-up and called for the extension of the Court of Appeals to the regions to speed up the handling of appeal cases.
Mr. Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, commented on the poor state of libraries in the law courts and called for their re-stocking.
On the Office of Parliament, members upheld the report presented by the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, which, among other things, called for a secure and autonomous funding for the body.
It said funds for the proposed rehabilitation of the main building of the State House for use by Members of Parliament should be released at the going equivalent rate of the cedi to the dollar.
Nana Akufo Addo, Minority Spokesman on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, called on members to promote the independence of the legislature.
He said the idea of creating a budget committee for Parliament should be pursued immediately.
The member reiterated the need to prevent the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs from duplicating the functions of the Office.
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Parliament approves budget for agric sector
Accra {Greater Accra Region} 29 March 2000
The Parliamentary Committee on Food, Agriculture and Cocoa Affairs on Tuesday requested that the agricultural sector be well resourced to help the country's effort to attain sustainable food production and ease her balance of payment problems.
The Committee viewed the allocation of 174.90 billion cedis for this year, constituting 3.6 per cent of the total national discretionary budget of 5.3 trillion cedis to the sector, as woefully inadequate.
It explained that its view was premised on the fact that agriculture is the backbone of the national economy and contributed immensely to total real output in 1999.
The view was contained in the Committee's report, which was presented to the House after the sector Minister, Mr. J.H. Owusu-Acheampong, had moved a motion, requesting Parliament to approve the 2000 budget estimates of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA).
The Committee noted that funds allocated to the Ministry in last year's budget were not released by the Ministry of Finance on time, saying some releases were made in November, 1999, after officials of the Ministry had been subjected to bureaucratic ordeals.
It expressed dissatisfaction with this arrangement of funds disbursement and drew attention to the fact that agriculture in this country is time-bound since fields and other preparations need to be done before the onset of the rains.
The report said late disbursement of funds, therefore, negates the realisation of the set goals of the Ministry.
It noted that delayed disbursement might encourage possible misapplication of funds by officials as they would prefer procuring unbudgeted for items to paying such funds back to chest at the end of the fiscal year as stipulated by financial regulations.
Again, it said, delays in the release of funds contribute to variation in the cost of items as a result of inflation.
In his motion, Mr. Owusu-Acheampong stated the policy objectives of the Ministry, saying it is the responsibility of the sector to create the enabling environment for private sector participation in agriculture for increased and sustainable growth and development.
To this end, he said the Ministry formulates and advises on sound policies and provides technical and extension services to ensure sustainable food security, increased export earnings through diversification, employment creation and the supply of raw materials to agro-industries.
The Ministry, in support of the Vision 2020 goal of making Ghana a middle-income country, will pursue its accelerated agricultural growth and development strategy aimed at increasing growth in the sector from the current two to three per cent to about six per cent in the medium-term.
On its development programmes, the minister said his Ministry intends to develop improved seed and other planting materials for use by farmers, promote about 70 non-traditional agricultural exports and to establish early warning systems to contain pests.
In their contribution to the debate on the motion, members supported the view expressed in the Committee's report that the sector needs to be provided with adequate funds to enable it to continue to serve as the backbone of the country's economy.
There was a suggestion that the Ministry should prioritise its activities, concentrating on those in which the country has comparative advantage.
Some were of the view that the sector had not performed as expected and asked the government to have the political will to address identified problems militating against agricultural growth.
A member called for the re-introduction of agricultural subsidy to assist farmers to cut down the cost of production and be competitive.
Another suggested that a law be enacted to make it a criminal offence for farmers, who default in the repayment of agricultural loans granted them, to serve as a deterrent to would-be loan defaulters.
The member noted that under the existing law, such loans could be recovered only through civil action, which, he said, had not always been effective.
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