Parliament To Meet GFA Over League Delay.

A Parliamentary Committee on Youth, Spots and Culture has written to the Ghana will meet he Ghana Football Association for a meeting to discuss issues surrounding the delay of the Ghana Premier League.

The Ghana Premier League has for the second successive year, failed to follow the football calendar of the country due to legal issues before the adjudicating body of the FA.

The 2014 / 2015 premier league campaign was delayed by about six months when King Faisal Babies and Aduana Stars were tussling each other over latter’s failure to meet a deadline on the FA rules.

The Ghana FA were petitioned to make their rules work, but they were denied.

And 2015 / 2016 is following a similar pattern as alleged match-fixing case before the Ethics Committee has delayed the league by three months. The FA has fixed a date for the commencement of the new season, but a Parliamentary select committee wants answers to the why delay.

“We’re writing a letter to invite the GFA to find ways to solve the issues as quickly as possible for once and for all. Honestly, it is not good, last year we suffered the same thing and this year too we encountered it, it’s not good,’’ Hon. Kobina Mensa Woyome, MP for South Tongu, a member for the parliamentary select committee on Youth, Sports and Culture told Kumasi-based Boss FM.

“We have been following (the current issues surrounding the delay of the league) and we are not happy about it. We have gathered some information but it’s always good to talk with GFA.

“So a letter will be going to the GFA so that they can come and brief us what’s going on at their end, so that we will know how to solve them as quickly as possible,” he Added.

Honourable Kobina Mensa said the select committee has been silent due to oversight of responsibility, but have chosen to act on this issue because the Ghana Football Association manages football in the country.

“We have oversight responsibility about all the sports activities in the country which of course the Ministry of Youth and Sports oversee hence, we have an interest because the GFA manages our national teams.

“The running of the league is more or less like a private issue but once it has some bearing on selection into the national teams, we need to put measures in place to solve those issues.” he said.

Parliament To Meet GFA Over League Delay.

Stop imposing Tax on Imported Timber– MP tells Mahama

Member of Parliament (MP) for Atwima-Nwabiagya North, Benito Owusu-Bio, is pleading with President John Mahama to use his good office to impress upon his fellow Heads of State in the ECOWAS sub-region to reconsider the convention of imposing taxes on imported timber.

According to the law maker, the challenges confronting the timber industry in Ghana is quite different from those that exist in other countries in the sub-region and therefore, the decision to impose taxes on imported timber will further hurt the local industry.

The Parliament of Ghana on Thursday, December 17, 2015, passed the Customs Amendment Act, 2015, Act 891, to insert the ECOWAS harmonized system of imposing taxes on imported timber into the country.

Mr. Owusu-Bio who was not content with the passage of the Amended Bill pleaded with the House to reconsider taking the Bill through a second consideration stage to enable members make an input into the Bill.

His plea was based on the fact that sections of the Bill will further hurt the Ghanaian local wood industry.

“I have decided that we stop it now and look at certain sections (Section 1) of the Bill because – the heading is to deal with wood and wood articles. Under schedule 44.02 to 44.044 we have tariffs for the importation of solid wood in terms of round logs and wood that can be used for raw materials for our timber industry.”

“Over here, we have 10% for import duty and 15% for VAT. When you add them together, you will get 25%. We in Ghana, currently we are all aware of the collapse of the timber industry. The timber industry, especially, the sawmill aspect of it is virtually collapsing and it is collapsing not through the doing of the managers of the firms but rather due to the fact that the raw materials currently are not available. Even if they are available, what is there is not enough,” he noted.

But his plea was ignored with the House going ahead to pass the Bill.

Majority Leader, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, commenting on the matter told Members that the issues raised by Mr. Owusu-Bio could not be addressed by the House since ECOWAS as a sub-regional bloc had already agreed in principle to impose the taxes on imported timber.

Moments after the passage of the Bill into an Act, he told the President of the land through an interview with Kasapafmonline.com to intervene by putting a stop to the imposition of tariff on the importation of timber into the country.

He said because of lack raw materials (timber), most of the sawmill firms, especially, in Kumasi and other parts of the country, are folding up.

“Go to Kumasi – Ahinsan, Kaase – most of the firms are now being turned into churches and that is the seriousness of it. Lots of people have lost jobs.

“There is an issue which is the fact that our government has the right to go out there and sign treaty agreements and others without considering its effect on Ghana. And when those treaties are brought to the Parliament of Ghana, we who represent the people we are only supposed to accept the treaty as it is or reject it.”

“We are not supposed to amend it but rather accept it as it is. And our Parliament does not want to reject a treaty that has been brought to Parliament by the Executive.”

“So, what is wrong with asking the government to go back to the ECOWAS Community and have a discussion with them if there are issues with the treaty? As we speak, most of the countries in the ECOWAS region do not have problems with the treaty because if you talk about Liberia, they never cut their wood like we did so they still have the wood.”

“Gabon, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and others they still have the wood but we in Ghana we started the timber industry over centuries ago and based on that the timber industry is dying because cutting the wood without replanting has brought us thus far.”

He believes that once the stops the tariffs on the importation of timber into the country, wood products will be cheaper and  industry will open up and employ more of the teeming youth who are unemployed.

“Why don’t we help the Ghanaian industry for them to get the raw materials and impress on them to produce the furniture that we want? It can even lead to the ban in the importation of furniture from outside Ghana. This is a policy issue and I don’t understand why Parliament will not help us to do this.”

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Kasapafmonline.com/Ghana

Stop imposing Tax on Imported Timber– MP tells Mahama

Only Graduates Must Be Allowed In Parliament – O.B Amoah

Member of Parliament for Akuapim South O.B Amoah is pushing for Ghana’s parliament to peg its minimum entry requirement for fresh legislators at a First Degree.

 

According to him, the seemingly wholesale entry approach being practiced now affects the quality of the debate in the House.

 

Speaking to Nii Arday Clegg on the Morning Starr Tuesday, the former deputy sports minister said parliamentary work is delicate and requires a higher intellect to execute effectively.

 

“I think there should be a minimum qualification to enter parliament. The situation where everybody just enters is not too helpful. Parliamentary work is a serious business.

 

“Let’s start with a minimum First Degree irrespective of your background.

 

“It shouldn’t be that because one is popular in his area then he gets the opportunity to come to the House… that is why you see people getting into the house and then they start schooling,” he stated.

 

But his colleague Fritz Baffour who was also a guest on the show disagreed with the position.

 

In the view of the Ablekuma South MP, it is the responsibility of political parties to scrutinize the quality of the individuals they present to the electorates.

 

“I don’t believe that and I think it should be within the ambit of the political parties. A lot of people do not go through the mill. The political parties should be the ones to evaluate who should stand on their behalf. People like John Major didn’t have a first degree but they worked within the party structures.

 

“The selection process has been thrown to the woods and anybody can come in, and so long as he can pay he goes through,” Baffour stated.

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StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM

Only Graduates Must Be Allowed In Parliament – O.B Amoah

Power Minister Freed of Jan. 1 Promise by Parliament

Parliament’s Government Assurance Committee says it cannot hold Minister of Power Dr Kwabena Donkor down to his promise of resigning on January 1, 2016 if the loadshedding does not end since that promise was not made on the floor of the House.

 

According to the Committee’s Chairman, the only record of the Power Minister as regards loadshedding is to end it by close of year.

 

Speaking to TV3’s Komla Klutse on Tuesday, December 29, Emmanuel Bedzrah said Dr Donkor is accountable to Ghanaians since he made the promise to them.

 

As a result, the Ho West Member of Parliament continues, the Power Minister can only resign on moral grounds.

 

Dr Donkor is racing against time over his vow to leave his post if the power crisis is not solved by December 31, 2015.

 

At a meeting with the Assurance Committee last week, the Pru East MP said his promise was “give or take” two weeks from the end of the year and insisted that he promised to end loadshedding and not dumsor – which has been coined by Ghanaians to mean power cuts.

 

Mr Bedzra says since the promise of the Power Minister is to end the loadshedding by close of year, the Committee will prepare its report after year-end.

 

President John Dramani Mahama has also promised to hold the Power Minister to his word though the Minister has already made intentions clear he will resign before being fired if the crisis lingers on.

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tv3network.com

Power Minister Freed of Jan. 1 Promise by Parliament

Parliament Finally Approves $1 Billion Eurobond

Parliament has finally approved a new $1 billion Eurobond, after disagreements on floor of the House on Tuesday prevented Members of Parliament (MPs) from going on recess.

The MPs could not break for Christmas because of a rumpus in the House over a vote on the Eurobond.

Proceedings in the House were suspended for several hours on Tuesday after Minority MPs kicked against a decision by the presiding Speaker, Ebo Barton Oduro, to nullify a crucial vote on the Eurobond.

A head count after an earlier voice vote showed 67 Minority MPs voted to reject the Eurobond whereas 66 Majority MPs voted in support of the motion.

But the first Deputy Speaker intervened and ruled the vote as “an exercise in futility” after citing constitutional provisions to argue that the House did not have the required minimum number of MPs present in the chamber for a vote.

The decision sparked Minority outrage and forced suspension of proceedings for several hours.

When the MPs resumed sitting on the matter on Wednesday, the approval was done through a voice vote, giving Finance Minister Seth Terkper the green light to go back to the international market to issue another Eurobond.

The Minister in 2015 alone, led four Eurobond issues, the last one, the $1 billion in October.

The yield for the October issue was 10 .75% as against the 11.5% investors demanded.

However at 10.75%, the yield on the bond is still much higher than government’s initial target of 8.5% and also higher than the previous one which had coupon rates of 8% and 8.5% percent for its $2 billion bond issued.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

Parliament Finally Approves $1 Billion Eurobond

Parliament Approves GHC 300m Budget For Water

Parliament has approved budgetary allocations to the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing for the 2016 fiscal year.

The House approved the allocations shortly after a debate by MPs on a Report that was submitted by the Water Resources, Works and Housing Committee chaired by the Member of Parliament for Shai Osudoku constituency, David Tetteh Assumeng.

Moving the motion for MPs to approve the allocations for the Ministry, the Minister said : “The Ministry of Works and Housing is responsible for the provision of potable rural and urban water, social protection, regular services, affordable housing schemes, and some water drainage programmes.”

“Mr. Speaker the Ministry has applied qualified programmes and projects in the 2016 budget in accordance with the Ministry’s sector medium term development plan taking into account the total envelope made available for the 2016 fiscal year. On this note I beg to you that you approve the total sum of GHC 374, 781, 612 for 2016.”

In his contributions to the debate, Minority Spokesperson on Water Resources Works and Housing, David Oppong Kusi, raised issues with previous budgetary allocations to the ministry and how they were expended.

He claimed various organisations and agencies under the Ministry have over the past years not received funds from the various budgetary allocations that have been done.

“The various organisations or agencies under the Ministry are being starved of funds. In most cases nothing was released to these agencies for their capital expenditure. It has also emerged that after spending lots of money to increase and improve our water treatment capacity, we do not look for the money to expand distribution capacity to the extent that most of these new water treatment capacity are performing under capacity.”

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citifmonline.com

Parliament Approves GHC 300m Budget For Water