We won’t allow deputies to answer questions for Ministers – Minority

The Minority has served a warning to government that henceforth, it would not tolerate the situation where Deputy Ministers appear before the House to answer questions on behalf of their Ministers.

This comes after several complaints from the Minority about the situation where Ministers fail to turn up to answer questions in the House, and direct their Deputies to do so in their stead.

Raising the matter on the floor on Friday [July 13, 2018], Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, indicated that the practice is disrespectful to Parliament. The Minority Leader said, “we will not accept a deputy minister standing in the stead of the Minister, we will not.”

According to him, the Ministers have no more excuses for not being able to appear before the House because they have been banned from traveling outside the country by President Nana Akufo-Addo.

“The President himself has placed a ban on foreign travels, I want to believe it’s motivated by two principal factors – one, for them to stay and engage domestically to deal with matters of the Ghanaian public at home and concentrate on their jobs at home.”

“So we will not accept any excuse that a minister is not going to attend before Parliament…So from now till Parliament rises, ministers must make themselves ready to appear before this house,” he added.

Source: citinewsroom.com