Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has told Parliament that Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is not running away from accountability as some members of the Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) claims.
The explanation follows the failure of the Finance Minister to go to Parliament on Thursday to answer questions asked of his Ministry’s activities.
According to the Majority Leader, the Finance Minister had indicated to him on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 that answers he needed from the technocrats with respect to expenses on COVID-19 were dumped at his house last night, for which he would need some time to read through before facing Parliament.
He said the Finance Minister therefore wanted Parliament to reschedule his appearance for next week Wednesday, June 22, 2022 to enable him to come before the house and answer to questions with respect to all expenses made on COVID-19.
The Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim had demanded of the leadership of the Majority, why questions requiring answers had been taken off from the order paper (Parliament timetable) which meant the Finance Minister had once again failed to appear before the house on Thursday.
Adding his voice to the issue, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu said the minority was demanding for accountability in the interest of the Ghanaian people, so the Finance Minister needed to come and account for an amount of GH¢9.7 billion COVID-19 expenses.
Haruna Iddrisu added that he hoped there would not be another excuse next week and that Parliament needed to step down all transactions and businesses coming from the Finance Ministry until Ken Ofori-Atta came to account for the COVID-19 expenses.
Speaker
The Speaker, Alban Bagbin in his ruling on the matter, directed that the Finance Minister must appear before the house next week, Wednesday, June 22, 2022 to give account of how the COVID-19 money was utilised since the outbreak of the pandemic and also answer some 16 questions by MPs which are standing against his ministry.
Mr. Bagbin said until the Finance Minister appears before the House, all matters related to COVID-19 loan facility agreement laid before Parliament are suspended.
