There will be interesting days ahead of us, Minority tells Speaker
Minority Leader has expressed disappointment over the Deputy Speaker’s decision to dismiss a motion which was admitted by Speaker Alban Bagbin.
According to him, these actions by
Read full articlethe deputy Speaker are some of the things that cause chaos in the chamber.
He added that the country is in interesting times if he could overturn the ruling of the Speaker
“Our motion was a very simple one admitted by the Speaker (Alban Bagbin) and dismissed by the Deputy Speaker, interesting times in Ghana. This is what sometimes invite chaos into the chamber.”
Haruna Iddrissu was speaking during an interview after the Deputy Speaker dismissed a motion to probe the government’s expenditure COVID-19 from 2020 to date.
First Deputy Speaker in Parliament on February 22, threw out a private motion by the minority seeking to enquire into the expenditures made by the Ghana government in relation to COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.
According to Joseph Osei Owusu, Alban Bagbin should not have admitted the motion as everything related to the motion falls under the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which is a bi-partisan committee.
“…the matters that were called upon to set up a committee to investigate did not come under any of the select or standing committees of the house. In my view it falls squarely in the PAC, and indeed all the committees of the house including PAC are bi-partisan and PAC is designed to be chaired by the minority so, in all its folds and questions related to the PAC, if it is minded to investigate anything related to the COVID expenditure, it fully sits with the authority and the power to investigate that, particularly because all the accounting for it has been provided for in the budget which budget has been presented before the house and it is before the committee.
“My view is that this motion ought not to be admitted as is improperly before the house,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has reacted to the decision by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei Owusu (Joewise) to overturn his ruling.
According to Alban Bagbin, it was offensive and unconstitutional for Joe Wise to overturn his decision after he admitted the motion.
“The penchant of the First Deputy Speaker [Joe Osei Owusu] to overrule my ruling is, to say the least, unconstitutional, illegal, and offensive. Be that as it may, I shall not be taking any steps to overrule the decision of the First Deputy Speaker to dismiss the motion as moved by the Hon. Ranking Member of the Finance Committee,” he said.
