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Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin — Speaker of Parliament
Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin — Speaker of Parliament
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Parliament returns today. . . 22 Govt business items face tough test

When legislators reconvene for the final meeting of the fourth session of the eighth Parliament from today, the consideration of the 22 urgent items of government business will face three possible outcomes.

With no absolute or clear majority in the House, these items may pass (approved), be defeated (rejected) or be spent (expire when the life of the current Parliament ceases).

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As a last-minute display of varied interests, both the Majority and Minority members are expected to engage in heated and long debates before voting in favour of or against any policy, programme, instrument budget or Bill tabled.

It will be a defining moment for the current hung Parliament since all matters pending before it will elapse or expire when the House ceases to subsist by midnight of January 6, 2025 after a four-year period.

Given the long-term policy implications of these items to any government, particularly when a new government will assume office from January 7 next year, the opposition MPs will want to block those they find unfavourable, thus triggering their inevitable defeat.

This will be something that Majority MPs will want to resist by leveraging their 138 numbers to save the face of the government.  

Business items

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, summoned the House on December 2 in response to a request by the Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, for him to recall the House to consider urgent government and public businesses.

They include a request for a $350 million tax exemptions for designated beneficiaries under the One-District, One-Factory programme (1D1F), the Ghana Financial Stability Fund, and an International Development Association facility of $250 million.

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Others are the consideration of the President’s nominations for appointment as Justices of the Supreme Court, ratification of the mining lease agreement between the government and the Ashanti Bauxite Company Limited for the mining of bauxite in the Nyinahini Block 2 Area in the Atwima Mponua District in the Ashanti Region, and the budget on account to cater for the salaries of public sector workers for the first three months of 2025.

The rest are the ratification of the mining lease agreement between the government and Barari DV Ghana Limited for the exploitation of lithium at Ewoyaa in the Central Region.

Bills

The House will also look at a number of Bills such as the Free Secondary Education Bill, the Environmental Protection Agency Bill, 2024, the Social Protection Bill, 2023, the Customs (Amendment) Bill, 2024, the Budget Bill, 2024, the Ghana Boundary Commission Bill, 2023, the Intestate Succession Bill, 2022, the University of Mampong Bill, 2024, and the Pre-Tertiary Amendment Bill, 2024.

The rest are the Colleges of Applied Arts, Science and Technology Bill, 2024, the Ghana Book Development Council Bill, 2024, the University for Development Studies Bill, 2024, the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply Bill, 2024, the University of Health, Agriculture and Life Sciences (Kintampo) Bill, 2024, the J. B. Danquah

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University of Engineering and Agricultural Sciences (Bunso) Bill, 2024, the University of Sports for Development Bill, 2024, and the University of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Ankrodie) Bill, 2024.

Unconsidered  

While a number of these urgent items have not yet been formally presented to the House, less to be read for the first time, some were duly advertised in the Order Paper for consideration on the day the Speaker summoned the House for an emergency session on September 3, 2024.

Those included tax exemption requests for 1D1F companies, review of matters related to the Ghana Financial Stability Fund, as well as consideration of some pending bills.

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Political implications

Besides the long-term political ramifications of these items, one key reason for which they could be resisted will be the previous arguments for and against by the

Majority and the Minority leaders when the Speaker first reconvened the House 95 days to the December 7 polls.  

At the time, Mr Afenyo-Markin had accused Minority MPs of economic sabotage since most of the items were meant to bolster economic recovery and transform education.

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He, for instance, argued that the tax exemptions being sought for companies were meant to reduce tax burdens on businesses in order to empower them to grow and employ more Ghanaians, contrary to the arguments put up by the Minority.

“When a company is given tax break or tax exemption, what that company does is that it uses the space to expand and to empower more. What I think my colleagues in opposition, led by the Minority Leader, should focus on is how to put in monitoring mechanisms to avoid abuses of such grants when companies benefit from,” Mr Afenyo-Markin said.

However, the Minority Leader, Dr Casiel Ato Forson, countered that the Minority was against the tax waivers since they were only meant for crony businesses and were not in the best interest of the ordinary Ghanaian.

“Our position has always been and still remains that they should convert these tax exemptions into tax credit, and maybe link these tax exemptions into equity shares as stipulated in the Tax Exemptions Act.

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“We will not support a giveaway of $350 million to crony businesses in a very opaque and untransparent manner. Giving away tax exemptions in excess of $350 million is not an urgent issue that should warrant a recall.

The Ghanaian economy is bleeding, cost of living continues to be high and the Ghanaian can simply not make ends meet. These are the bread-and-butter issues that should concern any serious government and not a giveaway of much needed tax revenues,” Dr Forson said.

Free SHS Bill

Similarly, even before the Free SHS Bill was put before the House, the Majority Leader had accused the Minority members of refusing to commit themselves to the enactment of a Free SHS legislation to make it mandatory for successive governments to commit to the policy.

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“In a bid to enact a law to make it mandatory, we have stated time without number that those provisions in the Constitution that talk about Free SHS are very aspirational.

So, the way to go is to enact a law to regulate the Free SHS policy which is currently in operation, but the NDC is opposed to this,” he said.

But the Minority Chief Whip, Kwame Governs Agbodza, told the Daily Graphic in an interview recently that the NDC caucus was not against the Free SHS policy but was seeking to streamline it to address existing challenges.

Standoff in Parliament

Another possible factor that may thwart a favourable consideration of these government businesses is the Speaker’s declaration of the seats of four MPs vacant and the subsequent fallout which compelled the adjourning of the House sine die on October 17, 2024.

The Speaker had declared the seats of Andrew Asiamah Amoako, Cynthia Morrison, Kwadwo Asante, all of the NPP, and Peter Yaw Ackah of the NDC vacant for carpet crossing.

While the Supreme Court has overturned the Speaker’s declaration, the uncertainty over a shift in the balance of power in the House appears to linger on.

It, therefore, remains to be seen whether the NDC MPs will resume their Minority status from today and support or oppose the government’s business agenda.

After all, the NDC Caucus, following the outcome of the December 7 polls, now has an overwhelming majority of over 180 MPs, tilting completely the balance of power in the House effective January 7, 2025.

That notwithstanding, the Majority Caucus must bear the burden to engage in extensive consultations with their Minority counterparts to get their buy-in to support the approval of some, if not all, of the business items.

They must be mindful that any attempt to leverage the current 138 number of MPs to push through the government agenda, which the opposition may find unfavourable, will be fiercely countered and this may spell the doom or a defeat for a chunk of the 22 urgent government business items.

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