Parliament approves 2001 Budget
Parliament to follow tight programme next
week
Parliament pays tribute to Kojo Botsio
Parliament approves 2001 Budget
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 March 2001
Parliament on Friday approved the maiden budget of the NPP government and rejected by 101 votes to 81 the amendment proposal of the Minority.
Moving for the approval, the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo said the 2001 budget was the best ever presented to take the country out of its economic woes.
He said the budget would plug the holes that characterized the budgets of the previous NDC government that have led to perennial deficit financing.
The Minister said the budget would take effect from the day it is approved and that provisions in it will not take any retroactive effect as expressed by the Minority leading them to propose an amendment to it.
He asked that the amendment proposal should be rejected because the fear being expressed by the opposite side of the House was a delusion.
The Minority proposed that the introduction, imposition and charging of the National Reconstruction Levy, which they thought would be implemented with retroactive effect should be deleted because the Constitution objects to the passing of laws with retrospective effect.
The amendment, which stood in the name of NDC members including Mr Alban Bagbin, Mr Doe Adjaho, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, Mr Johnson Nketia and Mr Amos Buertey, also objected to Ghana joining the Highly Indebted Poor Countries' (HIPC) initiative.
It also said the description of the Budget as "interim" was illegal because the Constitution did not allow for an interim budget to be presented to Parliament.
Although Alhaji Mummuni and Mr Bagbin put up strong and lucid arguments their amendment was rejected by a headcount when the Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey put
the question into vote.
This was after Mr J. H. Mensah, the Majority Leader and Minister of Government Business had punched holes into the Minority's line of argument.
The question of the approval of the budget, which was the second to be put was carried by a voice vote and the "Is" had it,
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Parliament to follow tight programme next
week
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 March 2001
Parliament will have morning and afternoon sessions from Monday to Friday this week to consider and approve the budget estimates for the various ministries.
Twenty-seven financial reports including the appropriation bill will be moved while the Civil Service (Amendment) Bill will receive the third reading.
Papa Owusu-Ankomah, the Deputy Majority Leader, presenting the Business Statement for the week urged all chairpersons of committees to liaise with their sector ministers and officials to consider their estimates expeditiously and submmit their reports to the House.
Judging from the heavy schedule, the Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey said the committees should look for other places to hold their meetings since the accommodation facilities in Parliament are inadequate.
He said the government should make funds available to the committees to undertake the important national assignment with despatch.
Members expressed their co-operation and readiness to sit into the night to conclude the business for the week.
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Parliament pays tribute to Kojo Botsio
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 March 2001
Mr Freddie Blay, First Deputy Speaker on Friday paid tribute to the late Mr Robert Baiden-Powell Kojo Botsio saying he was a stalwart in the liberation struggle of Ghana and Africa.
"His teaming up with Dr Kwame Nkrumah to execute the Pan African de-colonisation process was a natural follow up which kindled his patriotism."
Mr Botsio as the first General Secretary of the Convention Peoples' Party (CPP) and as secretary to the Central Committee, he became the centre planner and executor of the policies and programmes that led Ghana to independence.
Mr Blay, who is CPP Member of Parliament for Ellembele, described the Mr Botsio as a man of pleasant disposition, polite and a good citizen. He was generous, intelligent, good family man and was a champion of the course of the poor and underprivileged.
"As a political gentleman, he had a good sense of humour and was a giant, who stood high above various conditions".
Mr. Blay said Mr Botsio is best remembered as Minister of Education in the CPP government, where he championed and executed the accelerated development programme for education and helped in launching the Ghana Education Trust, which
introduced the CPP's fee-free education.
"He is a patriot, a nationalist and fiercely committed to the unity of all Ghanaians irrespective of ethnic, regional or social background."
Mr Blay said the late Mr Botsio is by all standards a hero, who should have a place in the history of this country and in paying tribute to him he urged all to learn lessons from the ups and downs of the country's political history.
He bequeathed to Ghanaians the legacy "to be more tolerant, eschew considering politics as a life and death matter and to resolve to build Ghana into a free, peaceful, great and united country, where tolerance, freedom and justice and functional democracy shall in reality be the motto."
Mr James Victor Gbeho, Ind. Anlo, said Mr Botsio was respected by all well minded socialists, who must excuse him for his understanding of the philosophy.
He said Mr Botsio was one of the most formidable and articulate collaborators of Dr Nkrumah, who espoused the virtues of the Pan-Africanism and the Pan African Movement.
Nana Akufo-Addo, Attorney - General and Minister of Justice said Mr Botsio deserved to be honoured by the State and that was why the President Mr J. A. Kufuor has directed that Mr Botsio should be given a state burial.
He said a state that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for.
Nana Akufo-Addo said Mr Botsio is well remembered for his liberation struggle and his national outlook on events leading to Ghana's independence. He has the right place in history when he stood on the podium with Dr Nkrumah together with the others in declaring the country's freedom from colonial rule.
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