Ghana Parliament disappointed in President Mahama over breach of procedure.

 

Speaker of Parliament Edward Doe Adjaho has described as legitimate criticisms against the president for failing to inform Parliament about his new ministerial appointees and choosing rather to make it public in the media.
The issue was raised on the floor by MP for Sekondi, Papa Owusu Ankamah who was bemused by the actions of the president.

The president has within the past couple of weeks announced a ministerial reshuffle and by law he was supposed to inform Parliament about it even if he decided to put in the media concurrently.

But the president has failed to inform Parliament about the new nominations. Papa Owusu Ankamah stated the conduct of the president is unacceptable.

"When he fails to put Parliament in the know then the inference is that he doesn't consider the role of Parliament in respect of appointment to be urgent.

So Parliament should never be stampeded into approving or considering the President's nomination.

"It is not a mark of good governance for this practice to continue. After all if the president has considered it worthy to nominate people in the media, contemporaneously he could just write to the Speaker.

He said the management of the president's office is even problematic. The Speaker agreed with the concerns of the Sekondi MP.

"The sentiments expressed on the floor of this House on this matter are a very legitimate one and I share the sentiments expressed by members.

"Policies as much as possible must be announced on the floor of this House," the Edward Doe Adjaho noted.

"We must know which ministers we are dealing with at any particular time," he added.

The Majority Leader Benjamin Kunbuor has promised to draw the president's attention to the anomaly.

Source: Myjoyonline