Minority, Majority MPs clash over E-levy
Parliament reconvenes January 25, 2022
The Minority Caucus in Parliament has stated it will no longer have unofficial meetings with Majority Leader, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, stressing that all meetings with him have to be minuted for the purposes of records as the House readies itself to resume on January 25, 2022.
This the group says is to serve as a cautionary measure to avert his serial misrepresentation of what transpires at meetings between the two sides of the house.
Minority Chief whip, Mohammed-Muntaka Mubarak, in a Citi News interview, emphatically stated that the Suame MP (Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu) who is also the leader of government business has over the years proven himself to be a liar thus cannot be trusted.
“I keep saying that when you are in a pit and you dig and you see that you are sinking, you stop digging ..the insults, the misrepresenting of meetings and half-truth, half-lies that he [Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu] keeps talking about is worrying so we [the Minority Caucus] have decided [especially the leadership] that we will we not hold any unofficial meeting with him again.
“Because in all these unofficial meetings, you don’t have people taking minutes. I must admit, I have been the government whip before…the house is run largely by these informal meetings but because of his penchant to lie about outcomes of meetings ..we have decided that ‘no’, we will not hold informal meetings with him. He is a liar. He has consistently been saying it and we keep drawing his attention that you are misrepresenting what happens. He keeps repeating it. What else do we call it [that] it is a lie he’s telling,” he said.
TWI NEWS
Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on a number of occasions made some controversial statements about some meetings he and other colleagues MPs had – a claim most often rubbished by the minority side.
In one of his most recent statements post the fisticuffs in parliament that occurred on Monday, December 20, 2021, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu claimed that the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, in a meeting insisted that 'no GH¢1.72 billion for parliament, no budget approval'.
He alleged that the Speaker said the consideration of the e-levy bill will be payback time for the 'sins' of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta's father, Akwasi Andrews Jones Amoako Atta Ofori Atta, who led parliament, several decades ago, to reject one of the budgets of President Dr. Hilla Limann.
The Minority Caucus and the Parliamentary Service have since dismissed the majority leader’s claim stating that the speaker is not clothed with powers to reject or accept budgets.
