Govt spent over GH¢100,000 each day on Anti-Gay Bill public hearings - Parliamentary Committee Chairman reveals

Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, Chairman of the Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, discloses that the government spent more than GHC 900,000 in 9 days on public hearings for the Promotion of Proper Human Rights and Family Values Bill, commonly known as the anti-gay bill.

Anyimadu-Antwi emphasized the extensive consultations conducted was to gather input from Ghanaians and international human rights perspectives.

Additionally, he disclosed internal challenges, revealing that some Majority MPs are opposing the bill's passage due to considerations related to the rehabilitation of individuals under the LGBTQ+ umbrella.

Speaking in an interview in with Journalists in parliament, he said “…Recognizing the massive public and global interest in the bill amidst government obligation under the international human rights treaties and conventions, the committee decided to develop three approaches as part of the measures to broaden consultations and ensure in depth consideration. Extensive public hearings to listen to the concerns of Ghanaians and Human rights activists including International human rights, communities as well as persons that believe to be in the LGBTQ community. 9 public hearings were held in all and in each of the hearing parliament, parliament spent not less than GHC100,000 on the public hearing. Sometimes parliament spent as much GHC140,000 for one public hearing.”

Kwame Anyimadu-Antwi, also claims that some Majority MPs are against the passage of the bill.

He explained that the bill took a different turn when the Committee discussed rehabilitating individuals falling under the larger LGBTQ+ umbrella, a fact known to Sam George.

“The bill has been here, and we have not prosecuted it because the religious bodies came to the Speaker because it got to a point that we were looking at the rehabilitation of people that will fall as victims of the LGBTQ+ and the Speaker suggested that we meet with the religious bodies to see how best we can incorporate that into the bill and our initial response was that it may not be sustainable, but I discussed it with the Ranking Member, who said that we have to do one workshop and iron out quizzes and last week, I went to the Speaker’s office, and he asked me on this bill and I told him that we need to do something on this bill before we can go ahead and do it or prosecute it.”

“Leadership has not drawn my attention that we should go ahead and do consideration on this bill and at any rate, this is not the only bill at the consideration stage. The Intestate Succession Bill has also been there and nobody thinks of prosecuting it, and then we have the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill on page 24 and when the Speaker called me. If we start today, there is no way we can finish these amendments before this meeting ends, so why should I start it?” he added.

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NAY/OGB