Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has expressed displeasure with Speaker Alban S.K. Bagbin, for publicly lamenting the failure of the Finance Ministry to release an outstanding GH¢25 million to the Legislature.
According to him, while the Speaker was in the chair lamenting, the release had already been officially effected and was going through the process.
Mr. Annoh-Dompreh expressed surprise the Speaker went on that tangent and wondered whether the Clerk had failed to officially update him on the processes.
The Speaker on Thursday 26th May, 2022 stated the delay by the Ministry of Finance to release the needed funds to Parliament is affecting the house.
Parliament, he said, has no money to function hence the halt in approving financial commitments of the House.
He said, “Parliament is currently being run on arrears and the House should not be treated as one of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”
“This is an arm of government. We are not part of the MMDAs. We have even been written to, to reduce our budget in some cases by 50 per cent,” the Speaker complained.
However, the Majority Whip who addressed the media on Friday, May 27, 2022, argued that communications on releases is sent from the Finance Minister to the Controller, which does the releases that go on to the Bank of Ghana (BoG) before it hits the account of Parliament.
He said, “So the process had kick-start and so it was just a matter of few hours for it to hit Parliament’s account.”
“Interestingly, I think around 3 pm, I got confirmation from Parliament that the money had indeed hit the account”
“So I was quite surprised… I didn’t know if it’s because the Clerk failed to update the Speaker accordingly; because the Speaker’s statement was a bit presumptuous and with the greatest respect to him, if he had exercised a bit of restraint he may not have made that comment that Parliament is broke,” he added.
According to the Majority Whip, Speaker Bagbin’s lamentation creates a certain image of the country.
“It is not too good, especially in the face of the fact that releases have been done and was just going through the process.”
“So the GH¢25 million goods and services that was outstanding in relation to Parliament has been released and I can confirm that it has hit the account of Parliament,” he added.