Government failing to release funds to parliament because Speaker is not from NPP – Jantuah

Parliament is currently being run on arrears, Speaker

Government to reduce parliament budget by 50 per cent

Without Parliament working, the Executive won't also have it smoothly, Kwame Jantuah

Private legal practitioner, Kwame Jantuah, has said that the refusal by the government to release funds for the effective running of Parliament is a power-play tactic.

According to him, the government is making a deliberate attempt to frustrate the business of Parliament because the Speaker is not a member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

"There could be the power because the Speaker is not from the ruling party. Right now, the Speaker says there is no money, so how will government business go on?" 3news quoted Kwame Jantuah as having said.

His comment is on the back of Alban Babin's statement on the floor of Parliament on May 26 that the Ministry of Finance's failure to release the needed funds to Parliament is affecting the House.

He explained that Parliament has no money to function hence the halt in approving financial commitments of the House.

"Parliament is currently being run on arrears, and the House should not be treated as one of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)," Graphic online quoted the Speaker.

He said the government has written to the House to reduce their budget by 50 per cent.

"This is an arm of government. We are not part of the MMDAs. We have even been written to, to reduce our budget in some cases by 50 per cent," Bagbin complained.

Kwame Jantuah also added that the finance minister and the Speaker should have been called into a meeting to resolve the matter rather than put it out in the public domain.

"Without Parliament working, the Executive won't also have it smoothly unless they bypass Parliament. This is something that shouldn't have even come out.

"The President should have called the Finance Minister and the Speaker into a meeting and resolved this," he added.