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."