Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Murtala Mohammed, has revealed that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is disrespecting parliament.
According to him, the finance minister has on several occasion ignored the request of parliament to answer questions on the COVID-19 expenditure by government. He indicated that the minister has been “condescending, dismissive and he refuses to come”.
Mr Mohammed explained that prior to parliament going on recess, a date was fixed but Mr Ofori-Atta never showed up and on resumption as well, “the ministry through parliament’s correspondence fixed another date… but he refused to come without any explanation”. He stated that in the event leading to the Speaker’s decision on the matter, the minority took a position not to entertain anything coming from the ministry of finance until the minister appears before parliament to answer questions.
“… Now, the Speaker had to call the leadership into conclave before they made that pronouncement. So, it means everybody agrees that the man is disrespecting parliament. If Ken is a lord in this government, he is not a lord to parliament [and] the people of this country.”
Murtala Mohammed
The Tamale Central legislator highlighted that it took threats from the Speaker for the finance minister to agree to make an appearance in parliament later today. He expressed that the Speaker had indicated that parliament will not be receptive to anything coming from the ministry of finance.
“As we sit today, there’s a loan he wants us to approve; $1 billion loan, when they told us that they were not going to contract any loans again.”
Murtala Mohammed
Mr Mohammed pointed out that he is one of the “sixteen members of parliament who have filed questions” for the minister of finance to answer.
“I want to know how much we have generated as a state through the sale of power to our neighbours. Because this government celebrated it that we now sell power to our neighbours. Meanwhile, you chastised the NDC government and President Mahama for hugely investing to expand our capacity and repeatedly, they’ve said we have generated more capacity than we need…”
Murtala Mohammed
Appearance of finance minister before parliament
On his part, the Member of Parliament for Mpraeso, Davis Ansah Poku, emphasized that it is important for the Finance Minister to appear before parliament to answer questions, especially one that borders on how government spends monies. However, he noted that, it seems as if there’s “an attempt to put everything on the head of the finance minister and that is a bit worrying”.
Mr Poku explained that during the height of the pandemic, it was through the ministry that monies were disbursed to the Ghana Enterprises Agency to support businesses, whiles government workers equally continued to receive salaries. These monies, he indicated, were made possible through the ministry.
“So, for me, we should appreciate that some monies were spent and it’s important to account for it. But to want to play politics with this matter is very worrying, knowing very well that the duty of the finance ministry is just to disburse these funds to various ministries and agencies. We know in parliament, ministries are allocated to committees… If those ministries got monies from the finance ministry, they need to appear before us and explain to us how they spent their money.”
Davis Ansah Poku
Mr Poku questioned whether the appearance of the finance minister is to come and account for how the COVID-19 monies were disbursed and spent, or the “NDC is now saying that they have seen some infractions that have gone on” which requires some answers? He opined that if it’s about infraction, the minority needs to be very clear so that appropriate investigations can be carried out.
“But if it’s about calling on the finance ministry to present to us how agencies spent their monies allocated to them, that for me, I think is farfetched.”
Davis Ansah Poku
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