President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with Alban Bagbin
Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin has expressed worry over the appointment of Members of Parliament as board members of state institutions.
According to him, the practice discourages such lawmakers from holding such institutions to account.
Speaking at the swearing in ceremony of the newly elected executives of the Parliamentary Press Corps, Mr Bagbin disclosed that President Akufo-Addo will, henceforth, be required to seek clearance from the speaker as dictated by the constitution before such appointments are made.
He said: “In Parliament today, the governing party has a lot of the members through patronage. They are made chairs of boards, members of boards, and chief executives of some institutions but they are members of parliament, so how can you come and criticise the same thing that you are involved in”?
“That is patronage, political patronage and we are going to look critically into our constitutional provisions to make sure that we don’t allow this to continue…it is clear in the constitution that for you to hold an office you need a certification from the Speaker…before anybody is given that appointment the Speaker must give a certificate, it is not just for the president to sit there and dictate and co-opt everybody and leave parliament with only the minority to rather be critical of government actions and inactions. That is not helpful to our democracy and we have to crack the whip on this matter,” he added.
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