Accra (Greater Accra) 12 March 2003-The NDC MP for Agona East, Hon. Adu Yeboah has urged the NPP government to mobilise all necessary resources to salvage the OSA Transport Company from total collapse.
Making a statement in Parliament on Tuesday, Hon Adu Yeboah said the company currently has only 53 in operation out of fleet of 331 buses and 184 serviceable but off – the road buses. As at the end of 2000 when the NDC government was leaving office, Hon Adu Yeboah said OSA had only 103 buses in operation but the figure dwindled to 61 by the beginning of 2002. He added that OSA owes its workers in salary arrears of up to 13 months.
Contributing to the statement, the NDC MP for Ketu North, Hon Modestus Ahiable wondered why the NPP government did not allocate any of the newly acquired buses to OSA and rather gave them to a new company (Metro Transport) which he said, is even using facilities belonging to OSA. These facilities include workshops and bus stops among others.
In her contribution to the statement, the NPP MP for Effiduase Asokore, Hon. Grace Coleman deplored the poor maintenance culture in the country. She said the distressful situation the company currently finds itself would not have occurred if the past government had maintained OSA’s broken down buses.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
12 March 2003- Dr Major Mustapha Ahmed (Rtd), Member of
Parliament for
Ayawaso East, on Tuesday said the government lacked the willpower to make the
projections and goals in the budget statement achievable.
He said while
domestic borrowing had gone up by three trillion cedis there had not been any
closer attention paid to the service industries such as the tourism sector to
bring in revenue and facilitate its development.
Dr Ahmed said this
when contributing to the debate on the Financial Policy of the government in
Parliament in Accra. He said the budget was silent about human habitat, even
though there was a general threat to the exploitation of the environment in all
sectors that required the government and peoples' attention.
Dr Ahmed commended
the government for providing the Ghana National Fire Service with fire tenders
but said the main problem facing the Service were that the personnel were not
housed in barracks to undertake immediate rescue operations, they lacked
training and did not maintain their vehicles.
He said there was the
need to equip the health centres with the requisite facilities and cited the
Dental Department of the Korle Bu Hospital that needed to be supported to play
its expected role.
Prince Oduro,
-Mensah, NPP- Techiman South, said the budget was a recipe that was bound to send
the country to the promised land adding that it only required the people at
this time to swallow the bitter-pill for better things in the future.
He said the budget
tended to highlight private sector development; economic management to
streamline micro -financing; internal revenue generation and the extension of
the tax net as well as ensuring that SOE's were audited frequently to ensure
that there was value for money.
Major Samuel K.
Amponsah (Rtd), NDC- Mpohor Wassa East, commended the Minister of Finance for
providing funding for road construction and urged the Minister of Roads and
Transport to consider the tarring of some of the roads especially in the Mpohor
Wassa areas.
He said the railway
system required special attention to take care of the movement of goods and
services but cautioned that the issue of giving concessions must be looked at
critically for the benefit of the country.
Major Amponsah
entreated the Ministry of Energy to ensure that the rural electrification
project was continued especially for communities that had already provided
their own electric poles.
He also called on
private lotto operators to ensure that they supported government in its drive
at harnessing all revenue for national development. He thanked the Ministry of
Finance for increasing the Parliamentary Service vote describing it as the
right step towards enhancing the training of parliamentarians.
Akwasi Dante-Afriyie,
NPP - Atwima-Mponua, said Nyinahin and 23 of its surrounding communities were
for the first time benefiting from the rural electrification programme and
commended the Minister for the gesture.
Alhaji Amadu Ali,
NDC- Atebubu South, described the budget as anaemic because most its objectives
and targets were too ambitious and wondered how the targets could be achieved
when prices of goods and services were skyrocketing.
He said the budget
was silent about generating internal revenue and no measures to meet foreign
inflows while post harvest loses were still high and the government seemed not
able to stem the tide and failed on its promise of linking farming communities
to marketing centres.
Alhaji Ali urged
government not to divest the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation but should
consider re-capitalising it since it still had the capability of playing its
expected role.
He said more rice
production areas should be supported with irrigation schemes to increase yield
and agricultural inputs subsidised, adding that duty on imports would create
more hardships for local farmers.
Andrews Adjei-Yeboah,
NPP-Tano South, said the budget was a pointer to the citizenry that the
policies of government were geared toward the general development of the
country.
He said if the
approach to work and duties were adhered to, it would ensure not only the
socio-economic growth of the country but bring about a qualitative change in
the lifestyle of the people.
Emmanuel Kwesi Teye,
NPP- Ashaiman, said the introduction of the mass transportation system had
greatly reduced the hardship of commuter, who hitherto had to wait in long
queues for hours.
He called for the
provision of vehicles for all Police stations and the opening of new ones to
combat the high crime rate especially in both the urban and rural areas and for
the setting up of motor vehicle fast track courts to handle accidents cases.
Meanwhile the Speaker
of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey was said to have proceeded to the United
States of America and in his absence, the First Deputy Speaker, Freddie Blay
would act.
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