GRi in Parliament 28 – 03 - 2003
We are lucky and grateful to
have such a person as one of us, Kwabena Baterls,
Acting Minister of Tourism said on Thursday. The Minister was winding up a
debate for the approval of 13.7 billion cedis for the Ministry of Tourism.
Captain Nkrabea
Effah Dartey(rtd),NPP-Berekum
suggested that, "a town's beauty,
serenity and cultural presentation should earn it a 'cultural city ward' that
must go with special projects and programmes"
He said the concept, which was
widely patronised in
He said towns or villages would
be lie idle if such events were not sent to their end.
The Deputy Minister said any
visitor would have the benefit of unadulterated form of culture in such
environs. J.H. Mensah said chieftaincy disputes were hampering culture-based tourism
in the country.
He said the image of
The Ministry of Agriculture had
419.3 billion cedis, Ministry of Interior, 624.7 billion cedis and Office of
the District Assemblies Common Fund Administrator, 550 million cedis. In
another development, The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had been mandated to
collect Airport Tax.
A bill to that effect was passed
on Thursday by Parliament taking the power from the Ghana Civil Aviation
Authority (GCAA). Yaw Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance, when moving for the
motion, said the IRS would be physically present at the Airport to take the
tax.
He said the Service would keep
sixty per cent and give the remaining forty per cent to the GCAA as the law
demanded. The minister said although IRS had complained that GCAA were
reluctant to give it its share of the tax, he would make sure that IRS did not avenge.
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He said the process of handling
of cases was very slow, especially when the Supreme Court sits in Panels and so
they are over- worked, which eventually denies the need for ordinary citizens
to have free access to justice.
He said there was the need for a
second look to be taken with certain parts of constitution so that people with genuine
concerns could actually appeal to the Supreme Court for redress.
Prof. Kludze
said this when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on
Thursday to be considered for appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court of
Ghana.
He said he does not share the
view that the constitution should be amended about the number of Supreme Court
Judges, adding that such appointments could only be done on the advice of the
Judicial Council and the Council of State and as such the President cannot
abuse such power.
The President's nominee was
first nominated in November last year and appeared before the Committee on
January 29, this year but his vetting was adjourned following a protest of
allegations of diversion of building materials levelled against him.
Prof. Kludze
holds a PH.D and LL.D from the
He has also been a member of the
New York State Bar and US Supreme Court Bar since 1984 and lectured in various
capacities in
Prof. Kludze
denied all the allegations levelled against him by some members from the area,
saying they were all false accusation and that all he did was to solicit for
educational assistance for schools in the Gbi-Kpeme, Hohoe area.
He said sometime around 1977, he
met a group of American High School teachers, who had served in Africa and wanted
to assist to build a school for the area but they reneged on their promise when
they realised they had to pay duty on the intended building materials for the
project.
Prof. Kludze
said he also later solicited for assistance in the United States and got about
5000 dollars which he presented to the local chief, while the group, Educators
of Africa also presented a plaque for the area as part of their sponsorship of
a school project but no work has since taken place.
He said despite the fact that
the money could not be used judiciously he managed to get his former
University, Rutgers University in the US to donate 14 fairly new computers to
schools in the Hohoe area but has not been availed of
their conditions and performance as at now.
The nominee said mechanisation
or Fast tracking of Courts would be a fast way to delivery of justice in the
country but the technology must be enhanced so that other bottlenecks are eradicated
to speed up handling of cases.
Prof. Kludze
said even though his retiring age may be very close, he would consider his
appointment as a Supreme Court Judge as a honour to serve his country without
looking for any monetary gains.
He said he would like his peers
and kith and kin to see his contributions to the successful delivery of justice
in the country by being fair and firm in all deliberations as a Supreme Court
Judge.
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The dependence on the economy on
agriculture, livestock production, hydra power, tourism on climate related events
placed the country in a very vulnerable position should be the concern of all.
Akwasi Afrifa, NPP Member of Fomena and Chairman of the Committee on Communications and
Technology said this in a Statement in connection with World Meteorological Day
celebrated on 23 March each year.
He said it was regrettable that
"our economy has over the years made very low levels of investment in
infrastructure and direct productive capital goods and hence the heavy reliance
on natural resources".
Afrifa said these natural
resources are already at risk even without significant changes in the climate
mainly due to over exploitation, high rate of population growth and a heavy debt
burden that has led to land degradation, desertification and deforestation.
He said the impacts of the near
continent-wide drought of 1992 and 1983 on the country and the 1997 experience
when the country was virtually at a standstill due to electric-power curtailment
because of drop in the water level of the
The Member therefore reminded
Ghanaians to ensure that appropriate farming practices are adopted so as to prevent
land degradation and its attendant consequences and that appropriate legislation's
for the prevention and control of bushfires are strictly enforced.
He also stressed the need to
ensure sustainable use of the forest resources by pursuing effective afforestation
and re-afforestation policies, work towards the introduction of laws for the
regulation of excessive emission of environmentally unfriendly gases and other
environmentally dangerous substances into the atmosphere.
In addition, he said the
requisite institutions such as Meteorological Services Department should be
well resourced to effectively monitor the climate so as to be in a position to
provide reliable and accurate climate information for use for policy makers.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 28 March
2003- The National Festival of Arts and Culture has been described as a forum
that would ensure more positive cultural norms and values and bring to the fore
the fight against indiscipline in the society.
The NAFAC is therefore, the only
national cultural event that affords the nation the opportunity to celebrate
the underlying unity and rich diversity of the country's heritage.
Samuel Nkrumah-Gyimah, Chairman
of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth Sports and Culture said this in
a Statement issued in Parliament on Thursday on the significance of the
National Festival of Arts and Culture scheduled to be held in Sekondi from 4-13 April this year.
He said traditional authority
celebrate festival to mark the life-cycle of the people, recount the historic
achievements of the ancestors and forebears of the people. NAFAC is therefore,
the only national cultural event that affords the nation the opportunity to
celebrate the underlying unity and rich diversity of the people's heritage and
also create the platform to identify and unearth new creative talents in the
arts and sciences.
Nkrumah-Gyimah said the
celebration of the festival over the years has contributed immensely to the
integration of
He said the festival would
provide a platform for dialogue on burning issues of national concern, while
various activities have been lined up for children, the youth and women. Nkrumah-Gyimah
said it was expected that at the end of the ten-day festival, new creative
forms and talents would have been unearthed, new scientific knowledge
disseminated and more markets created for the artistic and cultural industry of
He said, "NAFAC should be
able to ginger Ghanaians to increase our productivity and our handicrafts to
have a more competitive and qualitative finishing". NAFAC must also enjoy
the patronage of the Executive, the Legislature, District Assemblies and indeed
the people so that as a national event, it would be sustained for the growth
and socio-economic development of the country, he added.
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