News:
October 19, 2011
The Member of Parliament for Asokwa, Maxwell Kofi Jumah is advocating for local Civil Society Organization who have knowledge in parliamentary work to periodically grade the performance of public office holders such as Members of Parliament.
According to him, institutions such as the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) and the Center for Democratic Development (CDD) have the capacity to rate performance of MPs rather than a media organization which lacks credibility conducting a rating exercise on Ghanaian Legislators.
His comment comes in the wake of the latest publication by the Africa Watch magazine in which the President, ministers and Parliamentarians have been graded based on their efficiency.
The publication has been met with lots of condemnation from a large number of MPs who are incensed by the report as some were scored unenviable score of F while other received D for the performance of their duty.
Speaking on Hot FM’s morning show, the Member of Parliament for Asokwa, Maxwell Kofi Jumah who was scored C+ rubbished the rating exercise which was not done based on any clear criteria.
“We are not clear which indices the magazine used in arriving at this conclusion, and which time frame their exercise was carried out, I was scored F which is fail, by my party at the constituency level as I was voted out during the recent primaries, but yet the African Watch magazine scores me C+ what does this tell you about the rating’’ he asked.
Hon. Kofi Jumah added that the MPs work cannot be judged only on the floor of Parliament, but must take into account the contributions at the committee level, constituency and other areas.
He added that local Civil Society groups and other institutions that have good track records with better understanding of the work of an MP, will be better placed to conduct a credible exercise on the performance of parliamentarians, more than a magazine which is based abroad with no known representatives in Ghana.
“We have the CDD and IEA that have conducted opinion polls on elections and other national exercise in the past, obviously these organizations can do a better job’’ he stated.
Kwadwo Anim/ghanamps.gov.gh