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Parliament has constituted two committees to oversee urgent businesses of the House in the interim, pending the passage and review of its new Standing Orders.

 They are the Appointment and Business Committees, that have been tasked to vet nominees of the President to various ministries, and draw up the business of the House till about the end of next week when work would be completed on the new Standing Orders.

Government has been called upon to, as matterof urgency, prioritise gender responsiveness and sensitivity in all up-coming ministerial, boards, MMDCE and other public appointments.

According to ABANTU for Development and the Women Manifesto Coalition (WMC), both women-focused groups, this would ensure increased women’s participation and empowerment in the country’s growing democracy as enshrined in the global human rights instruments, Ghana’s 1992 Constitution and other national laws.

By unanimous decision, the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an application by former President John Mahama, seeking the Electoral Commission (EC) to answer certain questions of fact in the 2020 election petition.

The petitioner couched the questions in the nature of interrogatories which by law is a procedure that helps set out, narrow down or determine the issues for trial of a case.

The immediate past Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo, has postulated that the bribery allegation by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asawase Constituency in the Ashanti Region, Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka has upset her.

She decried that the lawmaker had defamed all Supreme Court justices with his bribery allegation when he claimed a Supreme Court judge made an offer through a phone conversation to a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucus in Parliament to vote for former Speaker Mike Oquaye during thecontest for a new Speaker.

Leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucus in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, has accused President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of being in breach of the Presidential (Transition) Act 2012, Act 845.

This is because the government, through the Administrator General, Haruna Iddrisu said, has failed to furnish the House with handing over notes of the various ministries, departments and agencies for the previous mandate of the president.

Section 6 of the Acts requires government to prepare the handing over notes 30 days to the presidential election.

Ninety-seven people, including 37 females, were yesterday arrested by the police for failing to wear nose masks in the Accra metropolis.

This follows directive by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to the police to enforce the mandatory wearing of nose masks,to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The exercise was conducted at CMB, Farisco and Railway Station, and other parts of the metropolis.

The government must pay attention to growing the country’s agricultural sector, an Economist, Dr Adu Sarkodie has suggested.

 He said while many industries last year shrank amid the coronavirus pandemic, the sector recorded significant growth hence the need to focus more on it.

“Your concentration must be on agric modernisation and industrialisation. So, going forward, I think the key point here is for government to intensify and enhance the policies and programmes of the modernisation of agric,” he said.

Parliamentary has constituted a 20-member Committee of Selection, to oversee the nomination of members to the 11 Standing Committees of the House.

 The Committee, pursuant to Standing Order 152, would also see to the composition of the 16 Select Committees of the House, groupings and associations.   

Chaired by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the committee was expected to present its report to the plenary of the House within 10 sitting days of its composition in line with Standing Order 151(2).

Ghana stands to face grave economic challenges in 2021, if the government does not adopt the right economic recovery strategy, Kenneth Thompson, Chief Executive Officer, Dalex Finance Limited has said.

He said the economy was in recession after two consecutive quarters of negative Gross Domestic Product growth, adding that, the standard prescription for a recovery from recession was an economic stimulus package and yet Ghana was ‘broke’.

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) says it will, today, present proposals to the National Census Steering Committee for consideration on the determination of the specific dates for the conduct of the 2020 National Population and Housing Census.

The proposals, according to the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim have been informed by the reopening of schools and weather conditions in the months scheduled for the census to take place.