Parliament by the time it rises on Thursday November 3, 2016 would have approved loans to the tune of $900 million.
With just a week before the House rises for the general elections on December 7, the Minority is worried that due diligence is not being done with the approval of these loans.
According to a Member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah, although he wished that due processes were followed, that is not being done.
Speaking to Joy News’ Parliamentary correspondent Elton Brobby, the New Juaben South Member of Parliament said, “By the time we rise on Wednesday we would have approved $900 million in loans…this presents a lot of danger.”
Dr Assibey Yeboah said all of the loans come to Parliament with Executive approval, without Cabinet’s consent and there is very little Members can do about it.
“The President hurries this alone, he doesn’t consult with Cabinet, he brings it alone. I don’t know if he has the expertise to be deciding all of these on his own.”
“It is not for nothing that the Constitution says there shall be a Cabinet consisting of not less than 19 ministers so that everybody brings his views on board,” he said.
But the president alone brings this by executive approval and we hurriedly are being asked to pass this and I think we are not doing due diligence and a lot of these loans there is no value for money, he added.
Dr Assibey Yeboah also described government’s decision to site the University of Environment and sustainable development at Somanya in the Eastern Region as politically motivated.
This was after Parliament approved a €38 million for its development.
“All the public universities are sited in regional capitals. And it is not for nothing that they are in regional capitals, you want to attract lecturers because they are thinking about the infrastructure of the area.
“This is a political decision, it is driven by politics. They get most of their votes from Donkorkrom, Afram Plains and Somanya – the Krobo area – that’s why the university so going there. So we are denying the other people in the region the opportunity to benefit from such a facility because the siting of the university because its siting creates an impediment in assessing it.”
But, Environment, Science and Technology Minister, Mahama Ayariga disagrees.
He says the sighting of the university was as a result of recommendations by a committee set up to deliberate before siting the university.
“In all the universities that we have established, the decision as to siting have been as a result of extensive technical work, not political,” he said.
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