Haruna leads NDC boycott … Says Minority members were being stampeded to work

 

By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House

[email protected]

The Minority members on the Appointments Committee of Parliament boycotted the committee’s sitting yesterday, claiming they were being stampeded to do their work.

The Joe Wise-led committee sat on Wednesday to grill some nominees of President Akufo-Addo for the various deputy ministerial portfolios, but because of the boycott, not a single member of the Minority turned up.

The Appointments Committee of the 7th Parliament is made up of 26 members – 16 from the Majority, and 10 from the Minority. When this reporter got to the committee hearing yesterday, around 11am, vetting was on going, with only members of the Majority, some of whom are not even members of the committee.

Information gathered by The Chronicle indicated that the Minority members were peeved over the turn of events, because they had earlier agreed that the vetting of the nominees should be done in May, after the house returns from recess.

The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, confirmed this when he spoke to a section of the parliamentary press corps yesterday, adding that they (Minority members) will not allow themselves to be stampeded.

He said they initially wanted the President to present his list earlier, for them to vet them, because the House was due to rise, but the President “was unable to act with urgency on the list.

“It appears that the Majority has no respect for Minority rights. We were thinking that this morning we should vet the report and then approve the 15 batch of ministers, then the others can be considered some other time, but we are being compelled – like it or not you must finish vetting the ministers – this is not done anywhere, so they don’t have our cooperation going forward.

“We are protesting that their lack of planning should not be an emergency on our part. And as you know, we advertised to take this batch, that they are seeking to take now, in May, because Parliament was due to rise last Thursday, or at best Friday. So, we agreed at the business committee to work up till today.

“Indeed, as I am speaking to you, I am now perusing the 9th report of the Appointments Committee on 15 Deputy Ministers we have completed [the committee will then present the report to the plenary] for those batch of ministers to be approved today or tomorrow…

“Now, we don’t get CV’s early, we are not able to conduct any background and diligent checks. It is not just for Parliament to rubberstamp whatever referral the President brings to Parliament.

We have the right to ensure that nominees satisfy the requirement of Article 94 of the Constitution. We assess their temperament, their suitability, and understanding of policy,” he said.

A member of the Minority, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on his part, claimed the committee was supposed to go on recess this week, but there was no consensus with the decision to continue the process of vetting the remaining 50 deputy ministerial nominees.

The North Tongu MP expressed bitterness over CVs getting to the members very late.

“CVs will come on the eve of vetting; some of the CVs come in the morning of the vetting, because everything is being rushed, and so you are not able to carry out the needed due diligence, background checks, and all of that.

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  By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House [email protected] The Minority members on the Appointments Committee of Parliament boycotted the committee’s sitting yesterday, claiming they were being stampeded to do their work. The Joe Wise-led committee sat on Wednesday to grill some nominees of President Akufo-Addo for the various deputy ministerial portfolios, but because of the boycott, […]

The post Haruna leads NDC boycott … Says Minority members were being stampeded to work appeared first on The Chronicle - Ghana News.

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