Vetting of Ahmed Ibrahim, for Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs (2)

Armah Buah: Honourable Ahmed, the Royal Academy of Chiefs, will it be a department?

Ahmed Ibrahim: Mr. Chairman, we have University of Local Governance Studies. DCEs’ capacity will be built. Chiefs’ capacity will be built. Mr. Chairman, if you can’t, I’m not a lawyer, but if it, when it comes to law, our lawyers will tell you that when it comes to customary issues, they need to be given special touch and we call Royal Academy…

Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor: Chairman, let me, I didn’t want to do this, but let me. Uh, honourable nominee, welcome. And congratulations. In other words, it will be a faculty for chieftaincy studies, in other words.

Ahmed Ibrahim: Mr. Speaker, that is why the lawyers are there. You will be brought together for us to bring the various subjects and courses together. But for now, we just want you to know that we have a course like that.

Dafeamekpor: You have intentions to run a formal programme for our Chiefs and Queen Mothers.

Ahmed Ibrahim: Exactly. And thank you for adding the Queen Mothers.

Patrick Boamah: Smart Ahmed. Ahmed let me turn your attention to your party’s manifesto. Page 181 of 200. You are proposing to set up, to, to come out with a formula to implement the waste, Plastic Waste Recycling Fund under the Customs Excise Amendment Act. Do you know how much goes into the fund annually?

And whether you have an idea of the proposed formula and its distribution? Because I, I’m sure you are thinking in the light of the DACF formula or the GetFund or the NHIA formula with regards to this. But first and foremost, you need to know how much, because this is what you call the borla tax that you spoke against. And now in the manifesto, you are thinking of coming out with a formula under your Waste Management Programme, Solid Waste Management Programme. I don’t begrudge you, but I want to have an idea. Thank you.

Ahmed Ibrahim: Mr. Chairman, that will fall under the jurisdiction of the Minister for Finance. Now that all the taxes are being considered and being realigned, so if you can give me the benefit of the doubt, let’s wait for the Minister for Finance to bring the budget later by next month or next two months.

Then we’ll see the way forward. For now it is a policy. Once the calculations and the things have not yet been done, when the Minister for Finance bring it, you and I are here and we are going to work together to know what will go into it. But for the record, you know, I thought you were going to credit me.

We were all part of a three-committee made up of 75 MPs who went on nationwide tour to come to propose that there must be a sanitation tax, which is called borla tax. And Mr. Chairman, you know I was the convener of those three member committees. So, I thought you were going to credit me. From where we sit, some may speak against it, but we were. It was our brainchild.

Patrick Boamah: Chairman, I don’t have any further questions for my friend. I’m needed in the chamber and I have to beg leave of you. Congratulations. I wish you the very best.

Ahmed Ibrahim: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. But Honourable Boamah, you know you’ll be highly, and your services will be highly needed in my new ministry.

Patrick Boamah: For a fee.

Armah Buah: Thank you. Thank you, Honourable. It’s now the turn of Honourable Rockson Dafeamekpor.

Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, MP, South Dayi: Chairman, thank you very much. Chairman, I have a couple of questions for my whip and it’s to enhance his work. No malice intended at all. So, let’s make progress. The key issue for members of Parliament, and also the assemblies especially, because having had the opportunity to serve on the Public Accounts Committee for eight years, I’ve come accustomed to the peculiar problems of the assembly in carrying out their mandate.

It’s in respect of the late releases of their share of the common fund. And as the sector minister, if this persists, we are going to be bedevilled with this. What innovative means would you deploy to ensure that there are regular releases of these funds to the various assemblies to carry out their mandates? From not the Ministry of Finance, but from the administrator.

 

Ahmed Ibrahim: Mr. Chairman, you and I know that in the government, that place with the timely release of this assembly common fund to the MMDAs pays the consequences. In 2014, the NDC couldn’t pay the third quarter. I was a deputy whip. We spoke about it. We lost the 2016 elections. After that, it was paid.

In 2024, the current government also delayed in paying the third and fourth quarter. He also paid the price. And after losing, he has paid. Whether you win or lose, you paid. So, a government that is in power and you want to win your elections, you must pay for your DCEs to work. If they work, the electorate will be happy and they’ll vote for you. So, I’m not going to keep my mouth shut because I’m the minister responsible for local governors.

I will continue to work as I used to work when I was a whip. And when I was a member of the local governance committee. And make sure there is timely releases of those funds. Thankfully, the person I used to do the work together with, is now going to occupy the high office of the minister responsible for finance. Who is very organised and focused.

And who understands he’s a five-time member of parliament. I’m a five-time member of parliament. We all understand the repercussions of not paying. So, if you want the electorates to be happy and retain the government, we’ll do whatever possible to make sure the monies are released. Secondly, Mr Chairman, you asked in connection with the person who sits at the office of the administrator for this assembly common fund. That is going to be a consideration that we must all take due cognisance of.

If you consider the role that such a sensitive office plays, the person who occupies it must be a person that will be vetted by this very committee. And it is for that reason that article, the constitution is clear that this committee must not only vet the minister responsible for local governance, but you must also vet the person who is going to be the administrator for district assembly common fund. So, whoever is going to sit there will come before you for vetting. And I believe this question when it comes, it must also be made clear to him or her.

Dafeamekpor: Beautiful. Now, one problem that the public accounts committee also got confronted with as a result of the auditor general having to flag it year in, year out, is the issue of the deterioration of assembly offices. A lot of our district assemblies, the structures are in a state of disuse. And it’s a problem. They are unable to raise the necessary funds to undertake early renovation. And so, as the years roll by, the structure…

Ahmed Ibrahim …at the various MMDAs no matter the cost. I can’t build a whole district. You cannot be given one building. And you say that within that district jurisdiction, they cannot maintain that one house. I totally disagree. So, what we can do when given the nod is that if you are a district chief executive and you are unable to maintain, repair your own office, then you have no business sitting there. That is a fact. Two, DCEs are not protocol offices.

They are local economic development agents. You cannot be sitting there waiting for Accra to bring you money. That will also be tackled. That is why I said we are going to form a common platform where all the former ministers for local governance, former chief directors responding for local…they are all going to be consulted.

When it comes to local governance, we have the Honourable Joseph YilehChireh, the Honourable Ofosu Ampofo, the Honourable Oppong Fosu, the Honourable Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, the Honourable Dan Botwe, Hajia Alima. We have a number of former ministers for local governance. They all wanted to do something small. They couldn’t complete it. The same way we have former chief directors.

They all wanted to do something. They couldn’t complete it. We will practise what we call administrative continuity. We’ll bring all those people together in an informal way so that the nation will benefit from the opportunity that they were given when they were in office. There are little things that we can do…and that’s increasing and increasing is that we create some districts. We don’t finish redrawing the district boundaries, geographical boundaries, then we create other ones.

So, we keep on compounding that problem. But I believe as a country, time is of essence to make sure that we know our internal boundaries. And Mr. Chairman, we have a lot of surveyors in this country, a number of them trained. So, I don’t think it will be a difficult thing for us to do if we want to realign our boundary. But one critical thing is that when it comes to constituencies, it doesn’t fall within the jurisdiction of the minister responsible for local government.

That lies within the purview of the electoral commissioner. Until the electoral commission creates his constituencies, the minister cannot be saying that, oh, I will redraw this or redraw that. Secondly, article 47 is clear, that’s for electoral commission. As for the duration for the creation of those things to, you know, is seven years or after population census.

So, if I sit here and say, oh, we will redraw the district boundaries or electoral boundaries, I may not. But the existing ones can be rechecked and make sure that there is a district map for every district. But that will also need time. There are very critical issues and this is a national security matter. So, I believe it must be looked at. But I can’t promise either this year or next year. But for now, we identify it as a problem.

Dafeamekpor: Beautiful. Now, one of the recurring problems that auditors flag in respect of assembly’s work is an issue where Yaw Boamah already touched on it, but I’m getting back to it. Where commission revenue collectors, they will go to the centres, collect the revenues from our poor market women.

Even when their sales are not good, they will still collect. If you want to build, they say stop work, produce permits, you go and pay permit fee. They will collect the money, but they will not account for it. Often times, they abscond with the revenues collected. And auditor general will make recommendations, retrieve the money and prosecute. It’s never done…

 

Ahmed Ibrahim: Mr. Chairman, it must be seriously considered. And now that the owners of the land and the owners of the district have been brought on board, I think those things must be things of the past. And that’s why I said revenue collectors will account openly to the district for us to see the electoral areas that are performing and those that are underperforming.

These are critical areas that we must all look at. If a revenue collector or a commissioner, a commission revenue collector absconds with the money, whose money do you think he’s running away with? Is your money, and therefore we must all make sure that we fish for them. So, when the chiefs have been brought on board, and you bring stricter and regent measures regarding revenue collection, and the IGF is used for something concrete for people to see, I think there will be improvement.

But when you go and collect the revenue, the people don’t see what you have used with the IGF locally. Tomorrow, when you go, will you get? The answer is no. So, we must start a new thing. Give ourselves some time. Look at the returns of our effort. If it is good, we move ahead. If no, then we change our steps. But you can’t be doing the same thing and expect a different resource. There must be a new reset.

Dafeamekpor: Thank you very much. Let me conclude by saying that I like the point in respect of the Chieftaincy issues, where you are proposing that lawyers from the Office of the Attorney General be seconded to the various traditional councils to assist them in their work.

It will be such a major policy shift, because the decisions from the judicial committees of traditional councils actually settle a lot of Chieftaincy disputes all the way to the Supreme Court. So, that proposal, if you are able to do it, will be a major thing that will bring comfort to our Chiefs and Queen mothers. And I want to thank you for that innovative idea. I thank you for coming. And once more, congratulations.

Ahmed Ibrahim: Thank you, my very good brother.

Armah Buah: Honourable Ahmed, my brother, congratulations.

Ahmed Ibrahim: Thank you, Leader.

Armah Buah: I entered this Parliament in 2009 with you, who were over 100 members. Today, that 2009 group, we are four of us. It’s me, you, Honourable Ato Forson, and Honourable Bedzrah. That should tell you about the attrition of Parliament, and it also must tell you what it takes to sustain being a member of Parliament.

You have been a deputy whip, and when we were fortunate to be part of leadership, your experience was really very valuable in guiding us. You have been very passionate about the issues of local government. And so, there is no doubt in my mind that you are going to be very successful as a local government minister.

Now, what is exciting about this new role, and that brings me to the very important question I have for you, has to do with the role of Chiefs. You know that Chiefs have been really the, governance has been with the Chiefs at the local level since the beginning. And so, when we started going this path in democracy, I think that what has always come up has to do with what we can do to really get our Chiefs involved in local governance.

This ministry, I’m sure, has been put this way for a purpose. Can you share with us some of the things you would do to really get our Chiefs to be active at the local governance level?

Ahmed Ibrahim: Thank you, my leader, and my very good brother. There are so many things we do together with our Chiefs. Mr. Chairman, you are not far from right when you said, traditionally, our Chiefs used to be the development agents and leaders in their various jurisdictions until the modern governance came. So, the merger or the fusion of traditional governance and modern governance is going to be of great benefit to this country.

Mr. Chairman, there will be a common interface, not only with Chiefs, traditional leaders and modern leaders, traditional governance and modern governance, but together with one other sensitive area, that is our pastors, imams, religious leaders, and faith-based leaders, who I always describe as eminent social capital in this country.

More often than not, we tend to overlook their effort, but until we bring their culture as part of our development culture, we will not get to the destination where we are going to, because we have professors who are pastors, professors who are Chiefs, engineers who are pastors, engineers who are Chiefs.

So, if it happens that wherever those people are posted to, if you bring that common interface, so that every district will bring the Chiefs, the pastors, the DCEs and the MPs together in the development forum, they will be able to identify the basic needs of those jurisdictions. Mr. Chairman, with a little push from the centre, most of these problems will be solved.

Rather than allowing only the DCE and saying that he is the overall president representatives and everybody is waiting for him to do something for them to see. That is why we were not going at the speed that we were expected to go. So, the vision of His Excellency the President is to make sure that he gives the baton back or the key back to the original owners.

He is not saying that I’m going to do away with DCEs, but he has recognised the development contribution of our traditional authorities and our faith-based leaders. And that is why he’s merging the two. So, I practically understand it and I’m going to build upon it. That is one effective thing that we are going to do.

Armah Buah: Thank you Honourable Ahmed. A lot of issues I have, I’m just going to mention them, take note of them as issues that must really concern you. One has to do with the role of assembly members and how we build their capacity at that local level. You know, for example, some DCEs for over a year will not even call for assembly meetings.

Assembly members were weakened, especially based on some of the experience I’ve had. And oftentimes their communities they represent have blamed them that they are not performing. Exactly the things we strengthen assembly members must engage you. The issue of market management, markets, you know, the issue of market fires and the challenges we have there must be an issue that must really get the attention of the district assembly and the DCEs.

That must be something that we must come up with pragmatic measures to address. And there are also districts that, frankly, must be, a second look must be taken at for us to see how we can break them up because they are too huge, even now as we speak, generally speaking.

So those are issues that I think we must really concern you. Honourable Ahmed, those are not questions, I want you to take a note of them. But to say that I’m very, very proud of you. You’ve come a long way. There’s no doubt that you will succeed. As an elder and a brother in Christ, I know that the Lord will guide you to succeed. Congratulations.

Ahmed Ibrahim: Thank you, leader.

Armah Buah: Nominee, you are discharged. Thank you.

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