Ken Ofori-Atta, Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Others To Answer Urgent Questions By MPs

About four Ministers of State are expected in Parliament this week to respond to some urgent questions by Members of Parliament (MPs).

They include the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, Minister of Food and Agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto and Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul.

An urgent question requires a government minister to come to the chamber of Parliament to provide an immediate answer without prior notice.

The ministers were summoned on Friday after four urgent questions were tabled before the House by MPs including the Minority Leader and MP for Tamale South, Mr Haruna Iddrisu.

An MP can apply to the Speaker for an urgent question if he or she thinks a matter is urgent and important, and there is unlikely to be another way of raising it in the House.

On Wednesday, Mr Ofori-Atta is expected to brief members on the number of temporary advances the Bank of Ghana gave to the government for the 2020 Financial Year.

The Minority Leader would also on Thursday, asks the Minister of Transport, how much has been accrued from the contract between the Ghana Airports and the Frontiers Healthcare for the conduct of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing at the Kotoka International Airport as at the end of December 2020.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19, Ghana Airports and the Frontiers Healthcare Services Limited partnered to carry out a mandatory COVID-19 PCR test at a cost between $50 and $150 for Ghanaians and non-Ghanaian passengers, respectively.

 The Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, announced the question when he read the Business Statement for the Third Week Ending 11th June 2021, for the current meeting of the House, on Friday.

The Statement said the Minority Leader would also want to know the breakdown of the distribution or the utilisation of the said account to the respective contracting parties.

According to the statement, the Minister of Food and Agriculture would answer an urgent question as to when the government will release the money to pay affected cocoa farmers whose farms were engaged by the Ghana COCOBOD for rehabilitation.

Other sector ministers have been summoned to answer 25 oral questions from MPs.

Among them is the Defence Minister, who is expected to answer a question on agitations by the La Traditional Council and their youth over the alleged invasion of military officials on their stool lands.