Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has described as illegal and offensive a decision by the 1st Deputy Speaker Joseph Osei Owusu to overrule a Private Members Motion that he had admitted.
According to him, the penchant of the Deputy Speaker to set aside his (the Speaker’s) rulings is unconstitutional.
Mr. Speaker, he said, is the determinant of the admissibility of motions just as is the case with the admissibility of questions to Ministers under the Standing Orders of the House.
Addressing the events of Tuesday 22nd February, 2022 when Deputy Speaker Osei Owusu overruled his decision to admit the Private Members Motion by the Minority seeking an investigation into expenditures of COVID-19, Speaker Bagbin indicated it is interesting this is the second time the Deputy Speaker has taken the chair and overruled a position that he has taken and established before the House.
He averred that when Deputy Speakers are in the Chair, whatever happens in the Chamber is their responsibility and Mr. Speaker cannot be called upon to overrule it.
“Similarly, the reverse is also the case that when Mr. Speaker is in the Chair whatever happens in the House is the Speaker’s responsibility and the Deputy Speaker cannot be called upon to overrule it.”
Popularly called Joe Wise, the 1st Deputy Speaker in his ruling of Tuesday, February 22 stated, “All the committees of the house including the Public Accounts Committee are bipartisan, and the Public Accounts Committee is designed by nature to be chaired by members of the Minority.”
“In all its form, the Public Accounts Committee, if it is minded to investigate anything related to the Covid-19 expenditure, is fully seized with the authority and power to investigate that, particularly because all the accounting of it has been provided for in the budget, which budget has been provided to the House and is before the committee.”
“My view is that this motion ought not to have been admitted, and it’s improperly before the House.”
The motion was moved by Ranking member on the Finance Committee Casiel Ato Forson who prayed the House to constitute a bi-partisan parliamentary committee chaired by a member of the Minority Caucus to probe the expenditures made by the Government in relation to Covid-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020.
Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, reacting to the ruling said the precedent that is being set is worrying for the future of Ghana’s parliament and the future of any parliamentary committee that will be constituted under Article 103(3) of the 1992 Constitution to enquire into any matter of public interest.
Deputy Majority leader Afenyo-Markin who responded to the Minority leader’s remarks accused the side of being overly partisan in preparations towards 2024.
Democracy, he said, is respect for rule of law and processes and stressed that is the only way democratic principles can be sustained.
“We can’t do it haphazardly, we can’t do it as and when it pleases us and as and when it suits us.”
“Everything about public expenditure is a matter of public records. This house approves certain facilities, this house mandates the government to spend certain money.”
“There is no way, in this day and age with the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS) system, government can spend and hide, it is not possible. I repeat, there is no way government of Ghana can take public funds, spend and hide those expenditures, it is not possible,” he stated.