GRi in Parliament 20 – 03 - 2003
Accra (Greater Accra) 20 March
2003-A statement made by a member on Wednesday on the destructive activities of
elephants in his area turned out to be a favourite fable of the Majority, a bad
omen for the Minority and a little offensive to the feminist.
The statement paid full
compliments to the elephant, which is the symbol of the New Patriotic Party,
the Majority party, while certain towns mentioned bore names that depicted the
frail nature of women.
Abraham Owusu Baidoo, NDC-Twifo/Hemang/Lower Denkyira had sought to highlight the plight of peasants
along the fringes of the Kakum Forest Reserve where
rampaging elephants destroy farms.
He presented an interesting
zoological account laced with folklore of the beast, which is arguably the
biggest animal on land. "It has a wonderful memory to the
extend that after several years it is capable of remembering an event
which took place as far back as fifty years.
It is soft and gentle and is
believed to consider all other animals as its children." He said, "the meekness of the elephant however, does not mean weakness
because no other animal is known to have ever defeated the elephant in a
fight."
The member said the mammal was a keystone specie, "playing a pivotal role in
structuring plant and animal communities and dominating the biomass in the habitats
it occupies."
He said certain plant species
like
Grace Coleman, Deputy Minister
of Finance, appealed to the people whose towns bore "anti woman" names
to rename them as a tribute to the modern woman who is progressive.
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They noted that apart from
contributing their quota to ensuring food security for the nation and offering
employment to people who might otherwise drift to the cities in search of
non-existent jobs it would help to decapitate the notion that farming was a
punishment or meant for the non-educated.
The members expressed these
sentiments when contributing to a statement made by Kwame Owusu Frimpong, NPP- Ahafo -Ano North on "Rapid and Sustainable Agro-Economic
Development; A role the Member of Parliament to Complement".
Frimpong said one important
initiative that could be employed to keep former MPs at home after their duties
was to encourage them to take to farming. He said many past parliamentarians
who have not been able to secure jobs back in the mainstream public or civil
service after losing their seats become frustrated and that explains why some
tend to travel outside the country for greener pastures.
Frimpong said the travelling
outside by former members is happening at a time when sitting MPs are appealing
to constituents to stay home to contribute their quota towards the development
of the country.
"Mr Speaker, Let the
government begin serious farming drive with MPs leading the people and the
nation will not be disappointed and the multiplier effect cannot be counted",
he addded
Frimpong said for a start, the
banks should be encouraged to offer generous loans of not less than 30 million
cedis to MPs and willing senior officers to be deductible monthly from their
salaries for their farming projects.
He said such an arrangement
could bring about employment for about 10 farm hands each and with each MP
cultivating about 20 or more acres of crops intercropped with perennial cash
crops like cocoa, cotton and cashew about 4000 acres of farmland would-be
cultivated.
Frimpong said with the right
approach of land acquisition involving all stakeholders such as chiefs, land
users and owners a common ground could easily be found to ensure the release of
more lands for farming.
"If the MPs go back to the
land in spite of their busy schedule, they will be contributing to avert the
rural-urban drift and over five thousand jobs will be created and the MP will
be at ease knowing where to reside when his duty in Parliament is no
more", he added.
Kosi Kedem,
NDC-Hohoe South said the statement was re-echoing
earlier sentiments he made to assist MPs go into farming and said the plight of
former MPs should be lesson for the necessary assistance to make them
contribute their quota to the "green revolution".
Gershon Gbediame,
NDC- Nkwanta said an earlier programme to assist MPs
go into cashew cultivation has not materialized and called for its
implementation. He said there would be no incentive in going into farming if
farmers do not have ready markets for their produce and suggested opening up of
more marketing centres to assures agricultural
producers of guarantee for their produce.
Capt. Nkrabeah
Effah-Dartey, NPP- Berekum said there was the need to
strengthen agricultural production as a form of occupation and said it was not
appropriate to limit job opportunities of MPs to only farming ventures.
He suggested measures to improve
agricultural production as provision of guaranteed markets, frequent
agricultural fairs to be organised, improvement of road network, mechanization
of agricultural production and improvement of agricultural research.
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The Revenue Agencies Governing
Board Act of 1998 states that the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) was
to replace all governing boards of the Revenue agencies.
The Value Added Tax (VAT) has
become an important revenue source and Government has shown its interest in
developing this tax as one of the important vehicles in its drive for efficient
and effective revenue mobilisation.
Osafo-Maafo said this when Kwakye Addo, NDC- Afram Plains South asked the Minister why the Value Added
Tax Service has not submitted Annual Reports on the activities and operations
of the Service to Parliament as required by Section 52 of the VAT Act 1998 (Act
546).
He said the Act went further to
provide for the extinction of all governing boards of the revenue agencies
under section 15 (2) which states that, "Upon the coming into force of
this Act, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service Board, the Internal
Revenue Service Board and the Value Added Tax Service Board in existence
immediately before the coming into force of this Act shall cease to
exist".
Osafo-Maafo said the RAGB was
therefore, constituted in August 2001 by the present Government and the VAT
Service was legally without a governing Board. The
Minister said taking into consideration the time it took to operationalise
the Board and eliminate its logistical constraints, both human and material, it
is not surprising that submission of annual reports by the RAGB have not been
on schedule.
Osafo-Maafo said he was happy to
indicate however, that he has the receipt of the 2001 report, which he was
studying and he would soon present the report and his comments as required by
Section 12 of the RAGB Act to the House.
In another development,
Osafo-Maafo said the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) has
rehabilitated the Sewuom Border Post at a cost of
23.5 million cedis using direct labour.
The minister said this when John
Kwekucher Ackah, NDC- Aowin Suaman asked what steps the
ministry was taking to rehabilitate the dilapidated buildings at CEPS posts at Omanpe, Sewun, New Yakaasi and Dadieso all on the
South Western border with Cote d'Ivoire.
Osafo-Maafo said similar works
would be carried out at Omanpe, New Yaakasi and Dadieso this year. He
said furthermore under the CEPS Expenditure Budget for 2003, it is proposed to
wire and hook Omanpe, New Yaakasi
and Sewuom to the national
Grid at a cost
of 87 million cedis.
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