Audio By Carbonatix
The Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has slammed the work done by a joint committee of Energy and Lands about the conflict over the Songhor salt mining agreement between the State and Electrochem Ghana Limited.
Some indigenes of Ada had petitioned the House to investigate alleged abuses and breaches of the lease by the company.
The report of the committee recommended among others educating the people to understand how mineral leases operate but insisted the lease must be respected.
Alban Bagbin says the work was not thoroughly done citing several omissions.
“Failure to visit the site which according to the report the committee members had postponed until ‘later on’ contrary to the terms of reference given to the committee, inadequate stakeholder consultation specifically unacknowledged papers on the matter and as such these were not reflected in the report.
"Inadequate redress to some issues such as the areas of land available to Electrochem Ghana Limited since a large part of the concession has been incumbent.
“Again, the issues that the people keep on raising dealing with unemployment were still not addressed in the recommendations,” he said.
According to him, the validity of the additional lease agreement of Ada West and East covering a total of 140 acres has to be looked into.
Additionally, he noted that the application and relevance of PNDC Law 287 and its implications for Electrochem Ghana Limited leases and future operations in the lagoon by the investor must be probed.
The Speaker further directed for the issue of compensation for affected parties to be done through further engagements with stakeholders.
He therefore asked new committees to investigate the matter again.
Before the directive from the Speaker, the Tamale North MP Alhassan Suhuyini and Odododiodoo MP Nii Lante Vanderpuye spoke against the report.
But, Asawase MP Muntaka Mubarak and Majority Chief Whip Frank Annoh Dompreh defended the committee's report insisting Parliament should hasten slowly in seeking to crucify Electrochem Ghana Limited.
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