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House Leadership to invite GCB
Governor on redenomination
Accra, July 6, GNA – Alhaji Malik A. Yakubu, Second Deputy
Speaker of Parliament has asked the leadership of the House
to meet and find an agreeable procedure of inviting the
Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) to answer questions
relating to the re-denomination exercise, including how much
it cost the tax payer to introduce the new Ghana Cedi.
This followed a turbulent period which saw the Minority
saying that even though it had brought the question before
the House several times, Mr. Felix Owusu Adjepong, Majority
Leader has not listed the question on the order paper, which
according to a number of Minority MP’s was originally listed
as an urgent question.
The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucus in
Parliament last week held a press conference to register its
disapproval of the refusal of either the Minister of Finance
and Economic Planning or the Governor of the BoG to appear
before the House on the matter and urged them to quickly
address the questions they put.
Mr Alfred Kwame Agbesi, NDC- Ashaiman, who raised the matter
noted that it seemed as if Dr Paul Acquah, Governor of the
Central Bank was not keen on appearing before the House to
answer questions on how much it cost Ghanaians to print the
new currency and other related costs.
He said, he had heard the Minister of Finance and Economic
Planning arguing on a radio station that it was the Governor
who was charged with talking on the re-denomination
exercise.
Mr Agbesi said it was relevant point for the governor to
explain to the entire Ghanaian population how much it cost
the nation to introduce the Ghana Cedi, noting that in other
countries, such information was readily available.
To this, Mr. Ossei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, Majority Chief Whip
said it was wrong for anyone to think that Parliament could
order everybody before the House to answer questions.
“We have procedures and ways of going about such a situation
and it is very important we follow these procedures without
recourse to any situation which paints a wrong erroneous
picture of the state of affairs. If we do not watch how some
of these things are done, we would find a situation where
the Chief Justice could be summoned to explain on a certain
ruling.”
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also argued that the House could invite
the Governor to appear before the Committee of the Whole,
noting that the first situation in which Dr Acquah appeared
before Parliament to give the House a situational report
about the re-denomination and its outcomes was wrong and
should not have happened.
But this position did not go down well with Mr Enoch Teye
Mensah, NDC- Ningo Prampram, who rose to his feet to restate
the point that, “all public holders are accountable to the
tax payer and must in all circumstances be ready and
available to disclose information on their activities,
especially when so desired by the representatives of the
people.
“We are the representatives of the people and we have the
right to hear the Governor of the Bank of Ghana tell us how
much it cost the nation to undertake the re-denomination
exercise; how much of the old currency is in circulation and
how it would be destroyed, among others. We need to know,”
he repeated.
Mr. Owusu-Adjepong agreed with Mr Speaker to meet the other
side to find an amicable way of getting the Governor before
the House.
Later the much delayed private members’ motion in which
Parliament is expressing disappointment in the inability of
government to end the energy crisis, almost a year after it
started, took centre stage.
The debate had similar colouration of the initial two
debates, but less confrontational as the Deputy Speaker
warned he was not going to take any unwarranted
interventions that could take away the real focus and
purpose of the debate.
Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of the Interior, in winding
up said the NDC government failed to develop a comprehensive
energy plan that was to make thermal power production
profitable.
He argued that even though the NDC put up the Aboadze Thrmal
Plant, it could not utilize it fully because it learnt too
late that running the Plant was expensive, a trend which Mr.
Kan-Dapaah said, lends credence to NPP’s position that
thermal complementation was not the way forward.
Mr Lee Ocran, NDC-Jomoro said it was not true that the NDC
did not have a long term plan for energy production, arguing
that as far back as 1998 efforts were made to engineer an
energy mix that relied on solar, nuclear, hydro and thermal.
“We started with the thermal plant which brought on 550
megawatts of power and this was to have been progressively
enhanced with a 110 megawatts annually. But was not done
when the NPP government came to power.”
Mr Joseph Henry Mensah, NPP-Sunyani said it was important to
depart from the blame game on who did what and who did not.
“What is important for us now is to look at, not just how to
build up on the water levels, but also put in place a
practical implementation plan to make current searches on
the viability of nuclear energy in this country; because we
know that it is the cheapest means of energy production.”
GNA
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