The Majority Caucus in parliament have petition the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the 8th Parliament, S. K. Alban Bagbin to recall parliament to enable the August house to address significant government business, including the adoption of the Thirty-Fourth Report of the Appointments Committee and a motion on additional financing.
They made the official call at a press conference with members of the Parliamentary Press Corps on Friday,May 3,2024.
Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin who led the presser categorically stated that the Caucus is invoking Article 112(3) of the Constitution and Order 53 of the Standing Orders of Parliament, which grant at least 15 percent of the members of the House the authority to request a recall.
He went on to explain that as at the time that parliament was adjourning sine die on Wednesday, March 20, 2024,three items of importance for government was underway;“Additional Financing Agreement between the Government of Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for US$150 million to support the ongoing Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) Project,Request for Tax Exemption for selected beneficiaries under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) Programme and Thirty-Fourth Report of the Appointments Committee.
Stressing on to justify their petition, Mr. Afenyo Markin elaborated on 1D1F, alluding that unemployment is the major issue in the country which political parties mount campaigns on, promising job creation.
“We all know that job creation can never be guaranteed in the public sector, if we over relied on the public sector for job creation,our economy will crash and no investment”
“You will recall that somewhere 2013 then president John Dramani Mahama lamented how we were spending all our task revenues on public sector wages,this government came out with a paradigm shift to encourage the private sector to create employment and that is how come the 1D1F concept policy was introduced”
A number of companies he thus said got attracted to this and have started building factories in Ghana,gotten to various stages and there is the urgent need to have those tax exemptions in place.
However, he underscore that their request is made in good faith to enable the government to meet its constitutional and democratic obligations to the people of Ghana.
“The constitution talks about 15% of the total membership of parliament which if my mathematics is right is 42 and I’m able to tell you on authority that we have more than 100 of our members who have signed the said petition titled Notice Of Meeting by Request”
By: Mary Quartey