MPs are community ATMs for their constituents – Joe Wise

The First Deputy Speaker in Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu says Members of Parliament (MPs) take care of almost all challenges in their communities.

This follows how 28 Members of Parliament lost the just-ended parliamentary primaries of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to Chief Executives of state institutions among others.

Out of 28 sitting MPs that lost, 10 of them are first timers and 18 are more than one term in the House.

Speaking to EIB Network Parliamentary correspondent, Ibrahim Alhassan, the Bekwai lawmaker stated that it is the hope that MPs who have lost parliamentary primaries will respond to the whip and be frequent in Parliament.

“For sitting MPs they are disadvantaged because as soon as you become an MP, you will pay till the next election period. Whereas for the other person who is coming, he may have saved and deepened his pocket all the more. If you are sitting MP, you are disadvantaged."

“Parliament is a poor place. You spend all the money, you are community ATM; you are the financier for all party activity. You are the social burden, you carry all the social burdens of the community so you can’t save anything,” Mr. Owusu narrated.

He continued: “Your emolument is for the whole community so you are distressed from the beginning till the time of the primaries. Many of my colleagues who lost actually took loans to contest and they’ve lost. Some mortgage their properties. It is common knowledge that within one year when they leave Parliament, they can’t pay hospital bills. That is why Parliament has made it a condition to support former Members of Parliament.”