The Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Oquaye, yesterday announced 12 more nominees made by President Nana Akufo-Addo for ministerial positions who are to be vetted by the Appointments Committee, starting next week.
Meanwhile, the House takes a short break for the composition of the various committees of parliament to facilitate the work of the 7th parliament.
The new nominees, as communicated to parliament by the president are, Kwasi Amoako-Attah (NPP MP for Atiwa West), Minister-designate for Roads and Highways; Samuel Atta Akyea (MP for Abuakwa South), Minister-designate for Works and Housing; Ignatius Baffour-Awuah (MP for Sunyani West), Minister-designate for Employment and Labour Relations and Kofi Addah (MP for Navrongo Central), Minister-designate for Water Resources and Sanitation.
The rest are Dr Anthony Akoto Osei (MP for Old Tafo), Minister-designate for Monitoring and Evaluation; Dan Kwaku Botwe (MP for Okere), Minister-designate for Regional Re-organisation and Development; Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Minister-designate for Environment, Science and Innovations; Joe Ghartey (MP for Essikado/Ketan), Minister-designate for Railways; Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister-designate for Transport; Ursula Owusu-Ekuful (MP for Ablekuma West), Minister-designate for Communications; Otiko Afisah Djaba, Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection and Peter Amewu, Land, Forestry and Mines.
Together, 25 nominees for ministerial appointments have been presented to parliament for consideration.
The announcement by the speaker was greeted with huge uproar by the minority members who thought some of the portfolios had been created to reward some party people.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Keta, Richard Quashigah for instance, told DAILY GUIDE that he does not see the need for the creation of a ministry for sanitation and water resources as well as the Ministry for Regional Re-organisation and Development, because according to him, all these could have been placed under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and therefore, there could be overlapping of roles between those new ministries and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural and Rural Development.
President Nana Akufo-Addo however, told a press conference yesterday that the new Regional Reorganisation and Development Ministry – which is to be manned by Dan Botwe – is to see to it that all the promises made by the NPP regarding the creation of additional regions for the Western, Northern and Volta Regions are actualized.
In the House yesterday there were strong arguments over the venue for the induction seminar or orientation seminar for new Members, which had been scheduled for the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
The MP for Nsawam/Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, had suggested that the new leadership considers moving the induction seminar to a more serene environment like Acqua Safari at Ada; or even to a location in Dubai since GIMPA has become too small with limited facilities for such induction seminars; but the minority, led by MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, who said the suggestion by the Nsawam/Adoagyiri MP is weird because the nation cannot afford to spend its scarce resources to lift 275 MPs to Dubai for an induction course.
The deputy majority leader, Adwoa Safo, in a response, said that the immediate past president, John Mahama, during the last electioneering campaign – after commissioning the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange – said he had brought ‘Dubai’ to Ghana.
“Hon Annoh-Dompreh was only saying that anywhere serene in Dubai (Ghana) as espoused by former President John Mahama would be good for the induction seminar, she averred.”
Parliament will resume on January 24, this year after adjourning sine dine to allow the leadership and the Selection Committee to constitute all the parliamentary committees for the work of parliament to proceed smoothly.
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