The First Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, has dismissed a motion filed by members of the Minority and duly admitted by the substantive Speaker, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Bagbin, seeking to invoke the powers of Parliament to investigate the COVID-19 related expenditures since the outbreak of the disease in the year 2020.
Delivering a ruling on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, on a preliminary objection raised by the Deputy Majority Leader, Afenyo Markin, the presiding Speaker dismissed the motion on the grounds that it ought not to have been admitted in the first place and it is therefore not properly before the House.
“My view is that, this motion ought not have been admitted, and it is improperly before this House. I so rule” he submitted.
The Private Members motion sponsored by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka; and the Ranking member on the Finance Committee and Member of Parliament for Ajumako/Enyan/Essiam constituency, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, was moved and seconded on the Floor of the House.
The motion read, “That this Honourable House constitutes a bi-partisan parliamentary committee chaired by a Member of the Minority Caucus to enquire into the expenditures made by Ghana Government in relation to COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.”
The Deputy Speaker in his ruling after a heated debate on the motion, surmised that the nature of the motion calls for the application of Order 191 of the Standing Orders of Parliament.
According to him, though the provision permits Parliament to appoint Special or Ad Hoc Committee at any time by a motion to investigate any matter of public importance or consider any Bill, there is a caveat which also states that the matter to be investigated or Bill to be considered should not come under the jurisdiction of any of the Standing or Select Committees.
Mr. Osei Owusu therefore concluded that the request being made falls squarely within the mandate of the Public Accounts Committee, which also happens to be chaired by a member of the Minority as the motion seeks.
“The matters that we are called upon to set a committee to investigate, are we saying that they do not come under any of the Standing or Select Committees? In my view, it falls squarely within the ambit of the Public Accounts Committee. Indeed, all the committees of the House including the Public Accounts Committee are bi-partisan and the Public Accounts Committee, by nature is designed to be chaired by the Minority.
“With all its faults, the Public Accounts Committee, if it is minded to investigate any related to COVID expenditure, it is fully seized with the authority and the power to investigate that. Particularly because, the accounting of it has been provided in the budget which has been presented before the House and it is before the committee anyway,” he ruled.
The Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka, did not take the Deputy Speaker’s ruling kindly. Especially the aspect which said it ought not to have been admitted in the first place. He retorted that posterity will judge him for the decision he has taken to favour the Majority’s position against probity and accountability.
Source: Clement Akoloh||parliamentnews360.com
