Parliament Summons Ministers Over BoG Advances, KIA COVID-19 Testing

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Parliament has summoned the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, to brief members on the temporary advances the Bank of Ghana gave to the government for the 2020 Financial Year.

The question to be asked by the Minority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, is one of four urgent questions which sector ministers are expected to provide answers to.

He is due to answer the question tomorrow.

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

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.

Transport

The Minority Leader will also on Thursday, ask the Minister of Transport, how much had been accrued from the contract between the Ghana Airports Company and the Frontiers Healthcare for the conduct of COVID-19 testing at the Kotoka International Airport as of the end of December, 2020.

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

Business

Giving an outline of the Business Statement for this week, the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, 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.

He said the Minister of Food and Agriculture would answer an urgent question as to when the government would release 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 are the Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul, who is expected to answer a question on agitations by the La Traditional Council and the youth over alleged invasion of military officials on their stool lands.