Parliament has approved an additional 16 ministerial nominees of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
This brings to 29 the ministers-designate that have been approved by the House out of the list of 30 presented by the President.
Nominee for Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, is yet to be vetted after travelling to the United States for medical review following complications he developed after recovering from COVID-19.
The 16 were approved by consensus after a unanimous voice vote on Thursday night.
They are Mr. Kwasi Amoako-Atta for Roads and Highways; Mr Kwaku Ofori Asiamah for Transport; Mr John Peter Amewu for Railway Development; Mrs. Cecilia Abena Dapaah for Sanitation and Water Resources and Mr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal for Tourism, Arts and Culture; Mr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu for Health; and Mr Alan Kyerematen for Trade and Industry.
The others are Mr. Godfred Yeboah Dame for Attorney-General and Minister of Justice designate; Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful for Communications and Digitisation; Samuel Abu Jinapor for Lands and Natural Resources and Mr. Francis Asenso Boakye for Works and Housing; Mr Ebenezer Kojo Kum for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs.
The rest are Dr Kwaku Afriyie for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation; Mr. Mustapha Ussif for Youth and Sports; Mr. Joseph Cudjoe as a Minister of State in the Office of the President in charge of Public Enterprises and Mrs. Freda Prempeh as a Minister of State for Works and Housing.
Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Mr. Joseph Osei-Owusu presented the second report of the Committee to the House and moved the motion for the House to adopt and approve the report.
However, Speaker Alban S.K. Bagbin had to suspend sitting for 30 minutes after some members of the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) complained they had not received copies of the report.
The Minority had earlier on Wednesday expressed their reservation about the approval of five of the nominees – Peter Amewu, Godfred Yeboah Dame, Kwasi Amoako Atta, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful and Kwaku Agyeman Manu.
Unsatisfied with some of the answers the nominees provided the committee during their vetting, the Minority had signaled their readiness to withdraw their approval for them.
However, the committee by consensus cleared all the five after an in-camera meeting on Wednesday and recommended them for approval by the plenary.
Moving the motion for the House to adopt the second report of the Committee, Mr. Osei-Owusu told the House that the 26-member committee, by consensus, had endorsed the approval all the appointees after they had been vetted.
The Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, who is also a Ranking Member of the committee, seconded and supported the motion.
After a lengthy debate, the Second Deputy Speaker, Mr. Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who was presiding over the sitting, put the question for a voice vote on the committee’s report.
The House on Wednesday approved the first batch of 13 nominees. 10 were approved by consensus while three were approved by majority decision after a secret ballot.
The 10 approved by consensus include the Minister-designate for National Security, Mr. Albert Kan Dapaah; the Minister-designate for Defence, Mr. Dominic Nitiwul; the Minister-designate for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, and the Minister-designate for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; Minister-designate for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu; and the Minister-designate for Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh;
The others were Minister-designate for Local Government and Decentralisation and Rural Development, Mr. Dan Botwe; the Minister-designate for Interior, Mr. Ambrose Dery for Interior; the Minister-designate for Employment and Labour Relations, Mr. Ignatius Baffuor Awuah, and the Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection Sarah Adwoa Safo.
The three nominees who were approved through the ballot include Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto; Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mrs. Mavis Hawa Koomson; and the Minister-designate for Information, Mr. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah.
MyPublisher24.com