Parliament summons ministers over BoG advances, KIA coronavirus testing

Parliament has summoned Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, to appear before it next Wednesday to brief members on the amount of 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 MP for Tamale South, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, is one of four Urgent Questions for which sector ministers are expected to provide answers.

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.

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

Following the outbreak of the Covid-19, Ghana Airports 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.

The Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alexander Afenyo-Markin, announced the question when he read the Business Statement for the Third Week Ending 11th June 2021, for the current meeting of the House, on Friday.

The Statement 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.

According to the Statement, the Minister of Food and Agriculture would answer an urgent question as to when government will 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 their Youth over alleged invasion of military officials on their stool lands.