Parliament adopts report on 48.1 million ERSO loan
Members told to expedite action on business
Accra (Greater Accra) 20 Oct. 2000
People should not be disenfranchised by their inability to get Photo ID cards, Mr Kosi Kedem, MP for Hohoe South, said in Parliament on Thursday.
He said there are a lot of people left out in the exercise to replace thumb-print ID cards with photo ID cards through no fault of theirs and if nothing is done to correct the situation, they would not be able to vote in the December 7 elections.
Mr Kedem appealed to EC to undertake a mop up operation to provide "ID cards to those who could not be given when the exercise started."
He said a third of the registered voters in his constituency have not been covered because the exercise did not start on the advertised date of October 5, and there was rampant shortage of materials especially films and laminated cards.
Some cameras were defective and it took sometime to replace them while some of the cameramen were not properly trained and could therefore not manipulate the cameras efficiently leading to their frequent breakdown.
Mr Kedem said the team also had transportation problems and therefore found it difficult to move quickly from one settlement to the other, adding that public education on the exercise was grossly ineffective.
"In some places one group was to cover more than two towns but because of poor information flow and badly drawn up programmes, voters left to their farms or market by the time the team arrived", he said.
The MP said that the electoral commission's request to voters who have not been covered to go to the district offices of the commission to be issued the ID cards would not be successful.
He called on the EC to devise a more positive and result-oriented method in order not to deny innocent Ghanaians the opportunity to vote.
Squadron Leader Clend Sowu (rtd), NDC-Anlo, said the Volta Region recorded the lowest rate of replacement in the nation-wide exercise. He said the rural folk should not suffer for the inadequacies or mistakes of the EC.
Dr. Kofi Apraku, NPP Offinso North, said the integrity of the exercise is on the line because it failed to address the issue of impersonation.
He said apart from the fact that many people in his area were left out, many of the commission's photographers used the guise of their office to dupe the unsuspecting rural folk. Mr. Kofi Attor, NDC-Ho Central, asked the EC to "bring their cameras back quickly." The member said many villagers were not informed about the exercise hence the massive short fall.
He said only two out of the 17 constituencies in the Volta Region had photo ID cards during the last elections, adding that if nothing is done to call back the cameras, a lot of voters in the region would be disenfranchised.
The Speaker, Mr. Justice Daniel Francis Annan, asked the Electoral Commission to appear before the house to address the concerns raised by members. Later in the day the house adopted the report on the Atomic Energy Commission bill.
The bill, which attracted only six amendments, three of which were topographic, aims at modernising the administrative structure of the commission.
Highlights of the draft include the extension of the tenure of office of members of the commission from two to five years and the restriction of membership to Ghanaians.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 Oct. 2000
Parliament on Thursday adopted a
report on a 48.1 million dollar loan agreement between Ghana and the
International Development Association (IDA) to cushion the Economic Reforms
Support Operations (ERSO II).
The interest free loan, which has
a grace period of 10 years, will be repaid within 30 years. It will attract
0.75 per cent service charge and payment will start on February 1, 2011 and end
on August 1, 2040.
Commodore Steve Obimpeh, Chairman
of the Finance Committee, moving for the adoption of the report said, "the
terms of the facility are highly concessional. There are no conditions
precedent to the disbursement of this credit".
Mr Kwame Peprah, Minister of
Finance who was in the House to answer questions concerning the loan, said the
facility is intended to plug holes in government's fiscal expenditure and
balance of payment programmes.
He said an earlier facility of 180
million dollars approved by Parliament has not been fully utilised because of
difficulties in meeting some of the conditionalities linked to it, hence the
need for the additional loan to off-set the gap created by the shortfall.
He explained that five of the
conditionalities were met except the one on the Ghana Commercial Bank that 30
per cent of its shares should be reserved for strategic investors.
Mr Peprah said 130 million dollars
was accessed leaving 50 million dollars, which was blocked and government
needed additional facility to support the budget to move the economy forward.
The Minority threatened that they
would not adopt the report if the Minister did not give the assurance that
Parliament would get its fair share of the loan.
They said the Minister was evasive
of Parliament and that he would only come to the House when he was in
need.
Consequently, the Speaker, Mr
Justice Daniel F. Annan, initiated a compromise deal between leaders of the two
sides and the Minister.
After consultations Mr Peprah was
made to commit 12.5 million dollars of the facility to Parliament for the
completion of the renovation work on the Tower Building for offices of MPs.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 20 Oct. 2000
Members of parliament have been
told to expedite action on businesses to enable the House to complete its
schedules before the tenure of their office expires next year.
Alhaji Mumuni Seidu, Deputy
Majority Leader and Chairman of the Business Committee made the call when he
presented the memorandum on Business for the house for the fifth week of the
third meeting.
He said since members have limited
time, his committee has mandated the Clerk's office to programme any report
that is ready for the consideration of the House.
Alhaji Seidu reminded committees
which are yet to report on referrals to them to quicken action so that the
House meets its deadline on all pending issues.
When Parliament meets next week it
will lay papers on loan agreements between Ghana and New Product and Energy
Ventures for the rehabilitation of the Sogakope-Aflao road for next week.
It will also discuss a 48.75
million Deutche Mark agreement between the government, Ghana Broadcasting
Corporation (GBC) and Schewartz Company, for modernisation and expansion of
GBC-TV and FM Radio network for satellite distribution.
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