Parliament discusses Heritage Fund clause

Nov, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah1

THE varied opinions expressed by members of the Joint Committee on Finance and Mines and Energy at the committee level on some aspects of the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill was carried onto the floor of the House when the proposed Heritage Fund came up for discussion at the Consideration Stage of the bill.
While some members argued strongly that the amount set aside as Heritage Fund for future use should be used now for infrastructure development for the benefit of future generation, others were of the opinion that since petroleum is a finite product, there was the need for the fund to be set up.
In the end, however, the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu’s suggestion that the clause dealing with the fund should be stood down for further consultations, in view of varied opinions on the floor was supported by his colleague the Majority Leader, Mr Cletus Avoka.
In his submission earlier, Mr Cletus Avoka did not mince words when he stated his opposition to the Heritage Fund as is presently contained in the Bill.
“Mr Speaker, it will not be wrong for the present generation to utilise the fund for development projects for the use of the future generation”, he argued.
He cited the various development projects, such as the Job 600, Parliament House among others, which were constructed during Nkrumah’s era but were being used by the present generation to buttress his point.
Mr Avoka suggested that the entire petroleum revenue should be used now until the 10 years before they begin to think about any Heritage Fund.
For his part, the MP for New Juaben North, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, supported the establishment of the Heritage Fund, he was of the opinion that after 30 or 40 years, we should begin to use the money for development.
Other contributors were of the opinion that Parliament should be empowered to review the usage of the fund from time to time when the need arose.
Meanwhile, four bills were laid before the House on Monday for their first reading.
They were the General Health Services Bill, 2010, the Health Co-ordinating Council Bill, 2010, the Veterans’ Administration, Ghana Bill, 2010 and the Data Protection Bill, 2010.
A report of the Joint Committee of Lands and Forestry and Mines and Energy on the agreement among Ghana, the Volta River Authority and Clark Sustainable Resources Development Limited for harvesting, processing and marketing of timber from the Volta Lake (Phase II) was laid before the House for consideration.
In another development, the House also deferred discussions on recomposition of members of the various committees of the House because the name of MP for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa, Mr P.C. Appiah-Ofori did not feature in any of the select committees.
In addition, the name of a deceased MP, Ms Doris Seidu also appeared in one of the select committees.
The Minority Leader, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, explained that the anomaly had already been detected and the Minority Chief Whip, Mr Frederick Opare-Ansah was working on it.