MPs absence at parliament is usually for a good cause -Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs

Chief Director for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Dr. Evans Aggrey Darko has explained that most of the time, Members of Parliament (MPs) are absent from parliament to lobby for developmental projects for their constituents.

Speaking to Raymond Nyamador on the Happy Morning Show, he posited that these MPs do not absent themselves from parliament just for the fun of it.

“I will tell you on authority that when you go to parliament, one of the reasons for parliamentarians’ absence is not because they are moonlighting or enjoying themselves. But many of them in these cases are lobbying. They are all over the place. They are lobbying from ministry to ministry for their constituents. That is the major issue of the MPs. But the larger issue is that the cake is not enough for all. So in the lobbying process, some constituencies may be denied of certain things”, he said.

He stated that many constituents mistook the role of the MPs to be agents of developments when their main role is “largely reduced to the issue of facilitation and lobbying”.

Noting the agents of development he said,” First and foremost you are thinking about the district assemblies because they have the development budget. The second group is the central government ministries. So some of the ministries will go into the constituencies directly or district and do something. Maybe education, health, and those critical ones. There are times that the president also intervenes directly”.

Dr. Aggrey Darko disclosed that going forward, the Ministry will focus on educating the populace on the role of legislators in parliament.