House displeased with ministers' failure to appear before it

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, yesterday showed his displeasure at the failure of ministers to appear before the House by deferring some loan agreements that had been scheduled to be laid by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor.

His action was informed by the absence of the minister and his two deputies from the House to lay some financial agreements submitted to the House by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

“If ministers who bring issues to the House show interest in the business of the House, the House will also show interest,” Mr Adjaho said, adding it was not for any reason that ministers had deputies.

The papers included a credit facility agreement between the government and Fidelity Bank Limited for 24.11 million euros to finance the purchase of the remaining two of the four helicopters for the Ghana Armed Forces and a 15.8 million euro loan from Stanbic Bank Ghana Limited for the purchase of 200 ambulances for the National Ambulance Service (NAS).

Others were a $20-million loan from the International Development Association (IDA) to finance Phase II of the Regional Trade Facilitation Project, another $30-million loan, a $10-million grant from the IDA to fund the Ghana Statistics Development Programme and a request for the waiver of customs duties, taxes, VAT and NHIL, GCNet, destination inspection fees, EDIF and ECOWAS levies amounting to $512,758 on goods to be procured under the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP).

The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who caught Mr Adjaho’s eye, after a Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Mahama Ayariga, had been asked to lay the papers, said it was unfortunate that the Finance Minister had not heeded the House’s admonition on a similar matter last Friday.

“The minister ought to have taken a cue from last week’s admonition to take the House seriously. There is the need for the minister to come to the House to explain his action,” he said.

For his part, the NPP MP for Atwima-Mponua, Mr Isaac Kwame Asiamah, supported the sentiments expressed by the Minority Leader and wondered whether the Finance Minister and his deputies were not interested in the matter they had brought before the House.

The NDC MP for Shai-Osudoku, Mr David Tetteh-Assumeng, was equally not happy with the situation, compelling him to remark, “The issue of ministers failing to appear before the House is becoming too much and a solution has to be found for it.”

Last Friday, MPs from the Minority side expressed misgivings over the issue and chastised ministers, particularly the Minister of Finance, for failing, over the last three years, to appear before the House to answer questions posed by MPs.

The MP for Akim Oda, Mr Yaw Owusu-Boateng, who started it all, accused Dr Duffuor for his failure to appear before the House even when he had been scheduled to do so.

He explained that for the past three years, his questions meant for Mr Duffuor had never seen the light of day, even when the Speaker had sometimes impressed on the leadership to make sure that the minister came to answer the questions.

The MPs from the Minority side who spoke on the matter were dissatisfied with the explanation by Mr Pelpuo that questions were private businesses which should not take precedence over public business.

Responding to the Deputy Majority Leader’s answer, the NPP MP for Sekondi, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, said no matter the situation, it was unacceptable that questions filed by MPs should remain unanswered by sector ministers for more than six months.

“This is an abuse of power by the Executive. We should not try to shield them. The House must not countenance this attitude,” he said.

He called on the House to sanction ministers who took the business of Parliament for a ride, since their attitude was a disservice to the nation.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah urged MPs to take advantage of provisions in the Standing Order 66 (3) of the House and know when their questions were sent to the various ministers so that they could speak from facts whenever they raised concerns over unanswered questions on the floor of the House.

For his part, the NPP MP for Afigya Sekyere West, Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, said besides its legislative function, Parliament also had an oversight responsibility over the Executive.

Meanwhile, after Mr Adjaho had handed over the seat to the Second Deputy Speaker, Prof Mike Oquaye, Dr Duffuor appeared in the House and apologised for his inability to come to the House earlier to lay the papers.

After accepting the apology, Prof Oquaye allowed the Finance Minister to lay the papers.