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Pension bill delayed for lack of quorum
Accra, Oct. 15, Ghanadot/GNA – Parliament on Wednesday
suspended business on the National Pension Reform Bill
because of divisions over numbers to work on the Bill.
Although, leadership had agreed that work in the House would
continue this week despite the need for members to be in
their constituencies to file nominations, yet the issue of
quorum prevented smooth business today.
Some members, including Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, Deputy
Minority Leader and Dr Paa Kwesi Ndoum, CPP Flag Bearer said
the Pension Reform Bill was a very important Bill which
would affect the security and future of Ghanaian workers and
needed a lot of input from majority of members.
The Majority side led by Mr Kwabena Okerchiri, Majority
Chief Whip, insisted that the consideration stage of the
Bill could easily be handled by the few present.
However, Mr Freddie Blay, First Deputy Speaker, who was
presiding, said given the strong objections raised over the
lack of quorum, work on the Bill be suspended until next
week when the House was full.
The Bill, when passed into law, would address issues such as
a Pension Scheme for the informal sector and correct the
inadequacies in retirement benefits.
Earlier, Mr Kwadwo Adjei-Darko, Minister for Local
Government, Rural Development and Environment, told the
House that the School Feeding Programme started in 2006 and
as at October 14, 2008, an amount of 60,723,156.23 million
Ghana Cedis had been spent on the programme.
He said modalities were in place to add 100,300 pupils
during this fourth quarter to bring the total number of
pupils on the programme to 576,383.
Mr Adjei-Darko was responding to a question from Mr Joe
Gidisu, NDC-Central Tongu, on how much had been spent so far
on the programme and efforts to expand it.
GNA
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