How Parliament Grilled Osafo Maafo

By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House Accra Hon Barbara Ayisi Asher MP for Cape Coast North – Thank you very much Mr Chairman. Mr Osafo Maafo, you have such an impressive CV. You’ve been a minister, and between 1990 to 92, you were the Managing Director of the National Investment Bank and it’s stated that within […]

The post How Parliament Grilled Osafo Maafo appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.

By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House Accra

Hon Barbara Ayisi Asher MP for Cape Coast North – Thank you very much Mr Chairman. Mr Osafo Maafo, you have such an impressive CV. You’ve been a minister, and between 1990 to 92, you were the Managing Director of the National Investment Bank and it’s stated that within a space of two years you were able to declare profit. As a Senior Minster, how are you going to coordinate the activities of all the ministries to bring about growth and development?

Osafo Maafo – I think the number one problem we have in this country is unemployment, and the unemployment is assuming alarming proportions, because the economy is not growing. The economy, in 2011, grew at 14%. The economy today is growing at about 3 4%. Mr Chairman that is the problem, and, therefore, all of us would have to think about growth, and thinking about growth means that we have to look at our economic ministries to pave the way for the private sector to operate smoothly.

That’s why we were described it as a private sector friendly system we want to put up. We need growth to be able to solve our unemployment problem, and as a Senior Minister, I will coordinate with my colleagues to think and dream growth, to do things that will enable the private sector to come-in in a big way to assist with growth.

If you look at other programmes and projects we have in our manifesto, we talking about one district one factory; all these are to ginger growth, and we’re certainly going to pursue them. You need capital to do this, therefore, one of the challenges of this government would be accessing capital, and I think we going to do our best to assist to make this realisable

Hon Barbara Asher – Thank you. Mr Osafo Maafo, some people believe that your role overlaps with that of the Chief of Staff, can you clarify so that the ordinary Ghanaian will know specifically your role, and how different that is from the Chief of Staff please?

Osafo Maafo – I think from the definition I gave you must be different. The Chief of Staff’s role is to coordinate the total ministries, and he is working to enhance the secretariat of the President. Normally, what happens around the President is through the Chief of Staff, and in case her role is not specifically on the economic sectors. Mine is specifically on the economic sectors, because of the President’s dream of economic transformation. It is a question of emphasis. The Chief of Staff will be coordinating everything combined and running the secretariat of His Excellency the President. The Chief of Staff role is slightly different.

Hon Titus Glover, MP for Tema East – Mr Chairman, congratulations uncle [Mr Osafo Maafo]. There has been a lot of discussion on social media, including the traditional media, in terms of the size of His Excellency Akufo-Addo’s government, particularly, in terms of the appointees that he is coming out with.

May I respectfully ask you, looking at the vision of the President, whether it is justified for him to have more ministers to push his agenda, or lesser ministers to look at the work that he wants to do for the country. So from where you are sitting as a coordinator of the economic ministers for the President, do you think it is justified for him to have more ministers to enable him do his job, thank you?

Mr Osafo Maafo – Thank you Mr Chairman, I think the earlier close of the constitution I read said that for efficient running of the state, therefore, the decision is that of His Excellency the President. Sometimes, let’s say Minister for Railways, you hear it and when you listen to the discussions out there, you find out that people have completely missed the point. Mr Chairman, transportation is either by air, by sea, by land or rail.

Now, since Governor Guggisberg, nineteen, I think, twenty seven, Kade Huni Valley because it passes through my hometown road, there has not been any major railway, as a country. Now to think about constructing railways is not as simple as it appears. Think about aviation; you can go and pay your money and take the plane, and the next morning you are gone, because the airport is run by somebody else. Railway is different.

Indeed, the structural or civil engineering works of laying railway lines is physical; let us all imagine, and in our constitution we have one. The eastern one should go from Accra, Kumasi to Paga. We are going to implement a line, and our line should first of all be realigned. Our lines are very obsolete. The gauge of the land we use at the moment, if we want to go the railway in a modern way, has to be looked at. Therefore, it need a complete overhaul. That’s what our manifesto says on the railway system. For the amount of work involved in doing just the civil part, you need more than a minister.

Mr Chairman, not only that, railway financing is very complicated, because you will require medium to long term finance. It’s different from aviation; it’s different from buses, from roads. For a railway, you need a long term finances, because the repayment is long and the inflow is low. But if we want to save our road network, we need to go rail. We need to make sure that the railway comes and comes alive to carry goods.

So that all the heavy goods would go by rail, take passengers as well, but the emphasis is on goods. And I think that the attention of one minister to do this is not too much; there’s a lot of work involved. If I were to look at the Railway Minister, I would give him two deputies. I would give him someone who understands long term financing to be chairing and helping with the financing, because it’s a whole job.

I will be looking at somebody with a good engineering background to also be looking at the civil, so that the ministry is holistic. So when the ordinary person hears the ministry of railway, that person says it is part of the Ministry of Transport that why is the President taking them is monolithic. It looked like it’s a single project, it is not a single project.

The involvement is such that it requires – if you want to do it the way Akufo-Addo’s dream – it requires a minister and that for a long time we have not done much in our railway sector. What have we done since Guggisberg’s time in our railway business, very little. Achiase Kotoku was done by Osagyefo, but for a very short period. But to do railway, as envisaged in our manifesto, requires a whole minister with even deputies to help do it and properly.

I don’t think the number… you must also think about the crusade of the President. The President’s objective is to transform the economy, and he needs people to work with; he needs people to be assigned specific jobs; and sometimes not too much to do this. He’s got 36; and I think it’s okay; and the constitution allows him to it.

Titus Glover – Thank you Mr Chairman, my second question. Projects, and for that matter development, are tied to revenue generation. I’ve heard you again that your interest is to look at those loopholes that are making it easy for people to evade taxes and all that, so that what you are expected to rake in can be harnessed.

Can you share with this committee – I mean trying to block this loopholes need a strong fight and motivation by the tax collectors. Can you share with this committee how are you going to coordinate these things to make sure that these loopholes are blocked, so that we rake in the needed revenue for developmental purposes?

Mr Osafo Maafo – Mr Chairman, I received a number of memoranda at the Transition Team about loopholes in the revenue. I’m shocked about some of the revelations I’m getting. People slip them under the door to my house. I wake up and there are memos and letters at the door of my house. And people are pointing out to me some of the loopholes in the system.

Some arising out of collusion, some arising out of misclassification of the items; some arising out of just shear wrong valuation and that kind of thing. We losing a lot of revenue through these things, and it cannot continue. You may recall that during the NPP time we took off the revenue agency’s salary from the payroll and gave them a 3% of what they collect. I don’t know whether you may recollect, and that’s what I brought in as the Minister of Finance; let’s talk about people being rewarded through efforts.

So you get 3% of your revenue, and it was working, because when we introduced it the first time, the salary of revenue personnel went up about 25% to what they would’ve obtained if they were… And anytime we went into negotiations, we told them that look if you are able to improve, if you double your revenue you will double your salary, so what are you talking about negotiation.

And I think we should be looking at this type of arrangement for our revenue people, so that we improve on our revenue; there are just so many loopholes. And the Transition Team, not only myself, but we have papers and papers brought to us even by the revenue officers themselves about loopholes, and I think it is an area we going to look at and try to improve. Sometimes, you block the loopholes with technology.

You remove the human beings from it, and it is very complicated. You’ve got to sit at it; learn the best practices from other countries. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel, other countries are maximising revenue through technology, by removing the human element. They have to be going in that direction to make sure that we maximise our revenue, and it’s going to be my dream to push that agenda.

Haruna Iddrisu – Chairman, I have an objection to how the minister-designate addressed the President. I heard him in one of his submissions say Nana Akufo-Addo – familiarity, they say, breeds contempt. This sitting is been observed by school children and Ghanaian public alike; you ought to give the President his respect as you intend to drink from his fountain of honour. May you retract and address him accordingly?

Mr Osafo Maafo – Thank you very much Mr Chairman. I withdraw and address him as His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention.

Excerpts of the continuation

Hon Okudzeto Ablakwa – Thank you very much Mr Chairman, and congratulations Hon Yaw Osafo Maafo….My second question, Mr Chairman, has to do with the record of the nominee. Without a doub,t the Hon Yaw Osafo Maafo has paid his dues to this country. He’s served this country very, very well, and he’s an inspiration to many of us. However, during his tenure as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Education, there were some issues that came up.

You were rocked with a few scandals that Ghanaians would want to hear you on. At the Ministry of Finance there was an IFC loan, there was the CNTCI loan whose address turned out to be the address of a hairdressing saloon in the United Kingdom…. Will you use this opportunity to clear the air on this matter?

To be continued…

The post How Parliament Grilled Osafo Maafo appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.

Read Full Story