JH Mensah Cries For Aviation

40 years ago - 2 flights to Kumasi; Today - None
Accra, Dec. 13 (Daily Guide) - THE member of Parliament (MP) for Sunyani East, Hon. J. H. Mensah, has expressed concern over the country’s beleaguered aviation industry and said more should be done to put it in shape.

He said the state of the nation’s airports even showed that “we are not serious about the gateway project.”

Hon. Mensah made the submission in Parliament yesterday when the motion was moved for the approval of ¢15,509,000,000 for the services of the Ministry of Aviation for the 2007 fiscal year

He said it was regrettable that the country’s airports, in this era of technology, were hardly able to handle the biggest planes of today, and that since airports were profitable enterprises the world over, “nobody should have been afraid to vote more money to build airports”.

“Forty years ago under Kwame Nkrumah, we had two flights to Kumasi,” the 78-year-old Parliamentarian recalled, explaining that it was unfortunate the same could not be said today.

Mr. Mensah was not happy that “our discussion with North American Airlines collapsed” and that the airline would now look elsewhere to invest.

He said attention should be given to the Ghana International Airlines (GIA) so that the problems that afflicted Ghana Airways would not affect the former.

“After all, Government is the major shareholder in the GIA and the same problems that afflicted Ghana Airways could afflict it.

It is unfortunate that when we had our own, our own people ran us into unbelievable losses.”

He called on the Ministry of Aviation to resolve all grievances in the sector “so that we can enjoy any benefit that is due us in the area.”

The MP for Ahafo-Ano South, Hon. Stephen Balado Manu, appealed to the ministry to make the best use of its budgetary allocation.

“Though the money being given them is not the best, we pray that they do their best with the little they have, so that we can add more to it.”

The MP for Tamale South, Hon. Iddrisu Haruna, called on the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning to liaise with the Minister of Aviation to give the former Ghana Airways workers their end of service benefits.

Parliament also approved the budgetary allocations for other ministries such as Defence and Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiative.

The Defence Ministry received ¢1, 059,337,000,000, while the Trade Ministry had ¢758,519,000,000.