Parliament of Ghana
The
Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, was forced to
suspend yesterday’s sitting temporarily before the substantive debate on the
2020 Budget began after the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, raised the issue of
low patronage of the debate by members and the absence of the Finance Minister
to listen to the debate.
The
Minority Chief Whip who was obviously worried about the situation said members
of the House, especially the Majority members, must attach seriousness to the
debate and scrutiny of the government of the day’s budget to ensure that the
budget is approved.
The
Speaker, who has also been reminding members of the need to always be present
in Parliament and do the work for which they were voted for, expressed worry
over the low attendance at the beginning of the debate and consequently
suspended it to allow for more members to be present before it began.
When
the House was constituted and the debate began on the energy sector, the Deputy
Minister of Energy in charge of Petroleum, Dr. Mohammed Amin Anta, said that a
major discovery had been made by a Ghanaian company by name Springfield in the
upstream area as a result of government’s determination to encourage local content
participation in the oil sector.
He
said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was also determined to increase
oil production from 200,000 barrels per day to 350,000 barrels a day to make
Ghana the third highest oil producer in Africa through more investments in the
upstream sector.
He
said the government’s local content programme had transformed the oil industry
significantly.
He
said under the NPP, price of gas had been reduced and gas production had also
been boosted.
The
former Minister of Petroleum, Emmanuel Kofi Buah-Armah, said the news of oil discovery
by a Ghanaian company was good news.
He
stated that the NPP government must not take the whole credit because it was
the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) which gave Springfield the
initial contract for the NPP to extend the contract.
He said the production of oil should not be politicized at all because if Ghanaians were encouraged to invest in the oil sector, it would help boost the economy and provide employment to indigenous Ghanaians.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr
