Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh has taken a dim view of a directive issued by Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin to the Finance Minister to appear before the House to render an account of the use of COVID-19 funds.
According to him, the Speaker does not have the authority to issue such summons to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
“The Speaker’s summon to the Minister was a bit unfortunate because the Speaker has no persona on his own. Such decision has to be the sense of the House,” he stated.
The Majority Whip responded to a summons that the Speaker issued to the Finance Minister to appear before Parliament and render account of all funds that the House has approved for the COVID pandemic fight.
Speaker Alban Bagbin gave the directive Thursday, May, 26th, 2022 when the House shot down a €75 million loan agreement between the government of Ghana and the European Investment Bank, EIB for COVID-19 health response Ghana Project.
Ranking Member of the Finance Committee, Mr. Cassiel AtoForson had quizzed the failure of the Finance Minister to properly account for funds received in the name of the COVID 19 pandemic so far.
Speaking during an interview in Parliament on Friday, however, Hon. Annoh Dompreh argued he called for the question on the Motion to be put on hold for further consultation rather than the Speaker demanding the presence of the Finance Minister.
The Speaker, he said, communicates the sense of the House but cannot express his own decision, especially when he is not a member of Parliament.
He said, “We are members of Parliament and the Speaker is presiding and is expected to convey the sense of the House; The sense of the House at that material time was that a question should not be put.”
“It wasn’t that unless the Finance Minister comes to the House to render an account.”
“Nobody is shying away from accountability but for a statement of fact, I am saying that was not it and I think we have to correct that impression,” he stated.
“When the Majority leader returns we are going to engage the Speaker going forward. We don’t want to have any banter with the Speaker but when we think things need to be straightened we will do so to have peace for the progress and execution of the work of Parliament,” he added.