News:
March 25, 2019
Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei-Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has assured Members of Parliament (MPs) that the revised Standing Orders yet to be adopted would address the issue of Ministers coming to the floor to answer questions within seven days.
According to the Minister, for urgent questions to serve their purpose there should be time limit for Ministers to respond within seven days, “when we come to agree and adopt the new standing orders it would define it for us”.
He made this remarks in the wake of MP for North Tongu lamenting over filling an urgent question in the name of the Finance Minister which has to do with Ghana’s relation with the European Union (EU).
Mr. Samuel Okudzeto said, “I have waited for the past fifteen days, I have filled an urgent question to the Finance Minister and should not take this long”.
Majority Leader noted that urgent questions are not supposed to be answered within fifteen days he does not know where North Tongu lawmaker is getting his information from, it does not have grounding in the standing orders.
“I do not think you want to conjure any figures from your head, I have insisted that because we have time and time again touched on this issues we should define a time range which urgent questions should be responded to, you cannot go beyond a week”.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com