GRi in Parliament 19 – 02 - 2003
The private members' motion that
is at the instance of the Minority front benchers is now at the mercy of time
and the Business Committee. Sponsors include Alban Bagbin, Minority Leader and
Doe Adjaho, Minority Chief Whip.
Others include Abraham Kofi Asante, Minority Spokesman on Energy, Moses Asaga, Minority Spokesman on Finance and Alhaji Ali Amadu,
NDC-Attebubu South. When the decks had been cleared
for the motion to be moved, Bagbin said:" We would get some vital
documents by tomorrow (Wednesday) and would be ready by Thursday."
The Majority bench appealed to
the Speaker to adjourn the motion sine die since the Minority were yet to
gather information. Abraham Ossei Aidoo,
Deputy Majority Leader said he does not understand why a motion that was filed
about three weeks ago could not be moved when the floor had been cleared.
He said if the Minority group had
not been able to gather their facts, then they should be ready to have their
motion rated second stage if it is allowed at all. The Debate on the State of
the Nation address is due to start Wednesday and that the TOR motion cannot
have prominence over it.
Papa Owusu Ankoma,
Majority Leader, said the Majority had always allowed the Minority to have
their day in the house. He said the group seemed to be in disarray," I had
wanted them to move the motion last Friday since they needed enough time to
press home their views but they could not."
He said the debate on the state
of the nation address would not take less than seven days hence the need to
rethink the TOR debate. Peter Ala Adjetey, Speaker, therefore, refereed the
motion to the business committee to reconsider it.
The motion which had two main
amendments to it read, "that this house investigates the Tema oil Refinery
to determine the following (a), Whether or not the allegations of corruption,
fraud, inefficiency and mismanagement levelled against it by his Excellency are
true. (b), the true state of indebtedness of the company and (c),Whether the very high increase in prices of petroleum
products recently by the government is realistic.
GRi.../
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The facilities to be constructed
under the project are 210 boreholes fitted with hand pumps,
eight groundwater based piped water supply system, five surface-based piped
water supply systems, 2000 household latrines and 72 institutional latrines.
Yaw Barimah,
Minister of Works and Housing said this in an answer to a question asked on
behalf of Alhaji Alhassan Yakubu,
NDC-Nanton as to what steps the ministry was taking
to solve the perennial water problems of Tampion and
its surrounding villages.
The Minister said the objective
of the project launched in 2002 was to improve the health and living standards
of the rural population in the district through the provision of potable water
and decent sanitation facilities.
Barimah said the Tampion
Area Council and its surrounding towns has 14 functioning boreholes and 12 protected
hand dug wells while the Community Water and Sanitation Programme phase two
plans to desilt the Tampion
main dam to deal with the perennial water problems.
He explained that the project
was demand responsive and it demands that the communities need to liaise with
their District Assembly in order to receive the needed support under the
project.
Alhaji Amadu Ali, NDC Atebubu South in a supplementary question asked what
immediate plans the ministry has to assist the people in view of the threat of
guinea worm infestations and lack of potable water in the area.
The Minister said if the problems
are critical then emergency response would be taken to solve them. He also
asked the Minister whether there were any plans to extend water from the main Dalun Treatment Plan that serves the
Kwakye Addo,
NDC-Afram Plains South asked about the obligations of
the communities and the minister said each beneficiary community was expected
to pay a minimum commitment fee for the District Assembly to complement the fee
for the implementation of the project.
GRi.../
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