Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee has served a notice that the Minority will move a vote of censure to remove the Finance Minister from office.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa says nothing will stop his side of the House unless Ken Ofori-Atta appears on the Floor to answer questions about the President’s foreign travels in May.
In an internal memo to the Chairman of Parliament’s Business Committee and Majority Leader, Kyei Mensah Bonsu, intercepted by Joy News, Mr Ablakwa described Mr Ofori-Atta’s delay in responding to the urgent question as offensive.
The Finance Minister was summoned to respond to the question on June 7, but he communicated to the House that he needed more time to put the details together.
The standing orders of Parliament is categorical that urgent questions should be responded to within 10 working days, which have elapsed. Accordingly, the question is yet to be tabled again.
The Minority claims the presidency hired a luxurious jet at about ¢3 million for the trips to South Africa, France and Belgium. However, government denies this.
The Finance Minister is expected to clarify the figures when he appears.
The North Tongu MP is concerned that Parliament seems to be creating a super Minister of Mr Ofori-Atta and questioned why the House has given him the latitude to respond to the question in his own time.
“May I humbly serve notice that if the current contumelious hijack of Parliament by the Minister is allowed to fester, a good number of my colleagues and I will not hesitate to exercise our mandate under Article 82(2)(b) of the Constitution to initiate a vote of censure on the Minister,” Mr Ablakwa wrote in the memo.
“The entire Parliament of Ghana cannot be reduced to a puppet institution that works according to the dictates and the pleasure of the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta. In any case, what can be so complex about computing bills already paid?
“The Busines Committee of Parliament must not be seen to be condoning this unacceptable conduct of the Finance Minister, which ought to be seen as a grave affront to Parliament,” he added.
