Joe Wise replies Bagbin on COVID-19 probe saga

First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has rejected claims that he reversed a ruling by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, on a COVID-19 expenditure probe.

According to the MP for Bekwai, Mr Bagbin did not issue a verdict on the matter at the time.

Mr Osei-Owusu said he was convinced that this was so because there was an objection against the motion filed by the minority.

Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, the MP for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam and Ranking Member for the Finance Committee, had moved a motion for the House to constitute a bi-partisan Committee to look into the activities of the government with respect to COVID-19 expenditure.

But this was shot down when Mr Osei-Owusu presided over proceedings in the absence of Mr Bagbin.

According to his assessment, the arguments of the minority and the majority needed to be considered before a final determination.

Hence, the ruling was delivered in favour of the majority after listening to both sides.

“After I heard the arguments from the proponent of the motion and the adversaries, I was convinced that the objection was well-placed, and I, therefore, sustained it. It was never a review of any decision earlier taken by Mr Speaker to admit the motion to set up a special committee, as he seems to suggest in his formal communication,” Mr Osei-Owusu said in a statement on the matter.

According to him, “there is, however, no doubt that in putting the question when the record showed that there were less than half of all members of parliament in the chamber. Mr speaker had contravened Order 109(1)of the Standing Orders and, more importantly, Art 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution. The purported decision of the house was a nullity, and I rightly so declared it.

“To say that my ruling is offensive, illegal or unconstitutional because he would have ruled differently is, in my view, a rather dangerous approach to democracy,” he replied.

The Speaker of Parliament was not enthused about the conduct of Mr Osei-Owusu and expressed it strongly in parliament on Wednesday, February 16.

However, he decided to maintain the ruling delivered by Mr Osei-Owusu.

He was, however, quick to add his disapproval on the handling of parliamentary business by Mr Osei-Owusu.

“It is interesting to note that this is the second time that the First Deputy Speaker has taken the Chair and has made a ruling which in effect was to overrule a position I had earlier on established before the House,” Mr Bagbin said in his statement to the House.

“The First Deputy Speaker has contended and rightly so on several occasions that he is not the Speaker. I have also on several occasions alluded to various areas of parliamentary practice where when the Speaker is in the Chair, makes a ruling, another presiding officer may not overturn that ruling.”

“I must note that this Motion was submitted to me, and I admitted same within the context of Order 79 (4) of the Standing Orders of the House,” Mr Bagbin said.

He said when Dr Forson was on his feet in an attempt to table the motion, the Deputy Majority Leader, Mr Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, rose to make a preliminary objection to the motion.

“It was at this juncture that I asked him to suspend his objection, wait for the Motion to be tabled, and then he may proceed to submit his objection.”

“The penchant of the First Deputy Speaker to overrule my ruling is, to say the least unconstitutional, illegal, and offensive. Be that as it may, I shall not be taking any steps to overrule the decision of the First Deputy Speaker to dismiss the Motion as moved by the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee,” he stressed.

However, Mr Osei-Owusu maintains in his release that he did not err.

Below is the full statement: