GRi in Parliament
Ghana 15 – 03 - 2001
Budget falls short on education - Kedem
Avoid emotions on economic issues – Chambas
Vetting of deputy ministers postponed
Budget falls short on education - Kedem
Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 March 2001
Mr Kosi
Kedem, NDC MP for Hohoe South on Wednesday said the 2001 budget did not provide
adequate resources for education.
The budget
did not cater for the development of the University for Development Studies
[UDS], Sunyani and Koforidua Polytechnics, which, he said, are new institutions
grappling with problems.
Mr Kedem
was contributing to the debate on the financial policy of the government
presented to the House on March 9.
The budget
also completely ignored distance- education, non-formal education and
improvement of library facilities in the country.
He said
nothing has been said as to how to fund the educational sector, take care of
the 1.6 million adult illiterates and was silent on new ideas to create the
positive change Ghanaians have been made to believe in.
Mr Stephen
Balado Manu, MP Ahafo-Ano South on point of order said the budget really
addressed the problems facing the UDS and that there is the need for members to
really read the budget statement in full before misleading the House.
Mr Kedem,
however, countered that more emphasis and adequate provisions should have been
given to the UDS since the 100 million cedis provided for in the budget is
inadequate to meet the needs of the university.
He said the
budget has been described by many as a "neo-colonialist budget" and
it is over loaded with measures against the interest of workers, drivers and
the self-employed.
"Is
this the reward to Ghanaians for voting the NPP into power? The unbearable
taxes are clear for all to see".
Mr Kedem
said the greatest damage to the country is the NPP government's decision to
join the Highly Indebted Poor Countries [HIPC] initiative.
"It is
not too late for the government to do a favour to the country by rejecting it
since it is clear that Ghanaians would not derive any benefits from joining
it."
Mr Edward
Salia, NDC Jirapa, said it was due to the inexperience of the NPP government
that resulted in the issue of an interim budget which was poorly done.
Following
interruptions from the Majority side, the Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey told
members that there should be tolerance of opinions, adding, "whilst we
have our rights to intervene, we must try to be objective and not waste time
with point of orders. Point of orders should be made only when it is necessary
and relevant".
Mr Salia
described the budget as without vision, shallow and not addressing the
aspirations of Ghanaians, saying, "Ghanaians will regret the choice they
made for electing the NPP into power".
Mr Salia
called on the NPP government to acknowledge and recognise what the NDC
government had done over the past years.
GRi…/
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Avoid emotions on economic issues – Chambas
Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 March 2001
Dr Mohamed
Ibn Chambas, NDC MP for Bimbilla on Wednesday urged Ghanaians to be
dispassionate when dealing with the economic situation of the country because
it is the fundamental issue for survival and development.
"The
grave socio-economic challenges facing this nation should not be unduly
politicised nor simplified in a syndrome of us versus them," he told
Parliament when he was contributing to the debate on the budget.
Dr Chambas,
former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later of Education used
diplomatic tact and rhetoric to stun the House to silence with each member
listening with rapt attention and the hitherto heckling and interruptions were
mostly absent.
"We
need a concerted nationalistic approach to confront and deal decisively with
our basic and fundamental problem of being an underdeveloped, neo-colonial
economy extensively vulnerable to the pressures of the world economy.
"The
peculiar nature of our dependency dating back to the colonial economy we
inherited at Independence must now be dealt with squarely and the necessary
measures put in place to make us a nation of producers not consumers as we are
today.
"Ghana
should become a nation of exporters and not importers of every and any
imaginable good on this planet".
Dr Chambas
said this year's budget statement was not different from any budget the country
has ever got.
There
should be increase in production in agriculture, diversification of the economy
and aggressive pursuit of advertising the country's tourism potential.
"We
cannot carry on this way in this country.
I, for one, I can accept that our failure as a government was largely on
the economic front".
He said the
people, therefore, deserved the change that was promised them by the NPP and it
was sad to observe that it has also introduced an interim budget, "which
will not get us out of state of dependency".
Dr Chambas
said the indebtedness of the country should not bog Ghanaians down to adopt
insensitive measures that will worsen situations.
"The
US still has to deal with endemic poverty in some of its rural communities and
urban ghettos and its first debt which occurred in 1835 is still not
paid".
He said
with this in view Ghana's adoption of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)
initiative was uncalled for and that the issue needed to be debated extensively
for a consensus to be achieved.
Both the
government and the opposition have agreed that the private sector is the engine
of growth and must be encouraged to grow but that HIPC is totally silent on it,
he said.
At this
juncture Papa Owusu-Ankomah, Deputy Majority Leader on a point of clarification
asked Dr Chambas what he would have suggested in the in the place of HIPC.
Dr Chambas
answered that Ghana's development partners should have been asked what
particular role they could play to help in bringing up the indigenous
entrepreneurs and stimulating the sector to raise the level of producers and
exporters.
He described
the foreign and educational policies of the government as pragmatic
continuation of the essentially solid policy objectives of the previous
government.
"There
is much basis in these two areas for building national consensus that our
country's educational reforms are consolidated and that we continue to pursue
those policies".
GRi…/
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Vetting of deputy ministers postponed
Accra
(Greater Accra) 15 March 2001
Vetting of
the President's nominees for deputy ministerial positions has been postponed.
A statement
from the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Wednesday said new sitting
dates for the vetting would be announced in due course.
The vetting
should have commenced on Thursday.
GRi…/
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