Minority stages walk out as Parliament approves all deputy ministerial appointees

On June 24, 2021, 6:00 AM

Parliament on Wednesday, June 23 adopted the Eighth Report of the Appointments Committee on the President’s nominations for Deputy Ministerial appointees.

Subsequently, the house approved the nominees for their various portfolios.

This means, all 40 nominees comprising one Minister of State and 39 Deputy Ministers submitted to the Speaker of Parliament on April 21, for vetting have been accepted.

The Report tabled at the plenary covers the vetting process of four deputy ministerial nominees, Diana Asonaba Dapaah as Deputy Minister for the Office of Attorney-General and Justice and Lariba Zuweira Abdul for Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The rest are Martin Adjei Mensah-Korsah, Deputy Minister, Local Government and Rural Development and Amidu Issahaku Chimnia as Deputy Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources.

The approval of the nominees were however without the Minority side of the house.

The Members of Parliament (MPs) staged a walkout because their members on the Appointments Committee did not take part in the vetting on Friday, June 11, 2021 when the nominees appeared before it to be vetted.

The group made a strong case and pushed for a re-vetting of the four nominees, as they attributed their absence in the vetting to their observing the Greening Ghana Day.

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has asked all MPs to go back to their constituencies and participate in the national exercise aimed at replenishing the forest cover of the country through tree planting.

Chair of the Appointments Committee and First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu presented the Committee’s Report to the house.

He stated that President Akufo-Addo submitted the list of nominees for the position of Minister of State and 39 Deputy Ministers appointed under 24 portfolios to the Speaker of Parliament on April 21, 2021.

The Committee, according to him, duly considered the President’s nominations for the Deputy Ministerial appointments and recommended them for approval by consensus after ensuring that they met all constitutional provisions among other considerations.

After a brief debate, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Asiamah Amoako who was then presiding over the sitting, put the motion to a voice vote where he ruled that the four nominees have been approved by the House.

The House, he said, would proceed to communicate the decision to President Akufo-Addo as Parliament having given prior approval to the nominees.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minority Leader, James Avedzi, said, the Chairman of the Appointments Committee was unfair to them.

He explained that they were sidelined in the vetting process of the four nominees, as they heed to the instruction of the Speaker, who had ruled that such activities should not be held on Green Ghana Day.

“Whilst Speaker directed that we should take part in the tree planting, they organised a meeting for vetting of these people.

We from the Minority will not be part of this debate because the chairman has not been fair to us,” the Ketu North MP said.

The Appointments Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, June 2 commenced the vetting of the President’s deputy ministerial nominees, and ended their work on June 15.

They consisted of a Minister of State and 39 deputy ministers, including 10 women for 24 portfolios.

A number of the nominees were members of the president’s last government, with some maintaining their portfolios in President Akufo-Addo’s second term.

The nominees also featured first-time MPs, including Hassan Tampuli of the Transport ministry and John Ampontuah Kumah, of the Finance ministry.

Story By Francis Ntow