The Majority Leader and Member of Parliament for Suame, Mr. Osei Kyei Mensa-Bonsu, has agreed to the suggestions from the floor that governments need to present loan agreements on the floor of the house early enough for members to do a thorough scrutiny and effective committee work before they are approved.
According to Mr. Osei-Bonsu, the practice of late presentation of loan agreements did not start from the current government but have been a ritual for many years.
The Suame MP, who doubles as the leader of government business explained that loan agreements and works on most bills are normally piled up whenever the house has few days to go on recess.
In an interview with members of the press corp, Mr. Mensah-Bonsu indicated that “works are normally piled up at the latter days of every sitting. It has been the practice of Parliament in previous administrations as well”.
He admitted that delays in committee works sometimes inform the house to hasten certain decisions.
Mr. Mensah-Bonsu again added that the delay in certain loan agreements were due to the presentation of the 2018 Midyear Fiscal review.
“I agree that it is not the best of practice. Some of the reasons for the delay in the approval of some agreements is the midyear review. We have to wait for the midyear review budget to be presented. As we move on, we will know the way in solving some of these problems”, he stated.
Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu reiterated that there are some of the loans before the Economic Management Team for consideration before they are forwarded to seek approval from Parliament.
He however, indicated that he has not been able to attend to the meetings of the team due to the load of work in Parliament.
“In the Westminster system of government in the United Kingdom, where all the Ministers come from Parliament, they are still able to perform their functions as Ministers and MPs. In Ghana where we have some Ministers who are not MPs, it should rather be easy for us to combine both functions as Ministers and Members of Parliament”, he revealed.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
