News:
December 14, 2013
The Speaker of Parliament Edward Doe-Adjaho has warned the house will not approve budgetary estimates of ministries whose political heads (ministers) fail to show up in Parliament.
The Speaker says the continuous boycott of Parliament by some ministers is disrespectful to the president and parliament.
The speaker says he is frustrated by the attitude of these ministers.
Presenting the business statement for the week, the Majority Leader Dr. Benjamin Kunbuor moved the suggestion for disciplinary action to be taken against such ministers.
This was supported by Deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul who described the action as “appalling”.
The Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho recalled a pre-budget meeting involving the president and the ministers in which the president directed them to fully participate in the budget discussion.
The Speaker therefore wondered what the absentee ministers “take the house for”.
“If they are not respecting the president and they are not respecting this house, then I don’t know who they want to respect in this country,” he said disappointedly.
“Nothing is more frustrating than calling a motion and the person to move the motion is not there; nothing can be more frustrating to the chair than this.”
He charged the ministers to read the Standing Orders and the 1992 Constitution in terms of the relationship between them and Parliament.