Ministerial vetting: Some Committee members are not asking “relevant questions”

Gradually, the floor of Parliament is becoming a retaliation grounds for some members serving on the Vetting Committee to repay certain designated ministers who appear before them.

The trend, if not nipped in the bud in its early stages, would make the vetting exercise a fruitless one, Mr. Charles Owusu has observed.

Speaking on ATV, Mr. Owusu explained that he expects members serving on the Vetting Committee of parliament; to ask the nominees for the various ministerial portfolios relevant questions, instead of engaging them in an unbeneficial vindictive exercise.

Mr. Charles Owusu noted that certain members on the Vetting Committee have issues with some of the nominees they vet and consider the opportunity they have to question them, as an opportunity to retaliate.

“The Vetting Committee members are working for Ghanaians and not themselves. I expect them to think about the larger audience and not to embark on a personal retaliation exercise…some of the questions some of them ask are irrelevant. It is like ‘you do me, I do you type’. I am yet to understand some of the questions some of them have asked”, he said.

Senior minister-designate, Yaw Osafo Marfo, had to apologize to the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa after passing an unparliamentarily remark concerning a question he was asked.

In answering a question from the former deputy education minister regarding the Chinese New Techniques Construction Investment Company (CNTCI), the International Finance Corporation loans and the McMillan Text Book printing saga, Yaw Osafo Marfo dismissed the latter as infantile stating that: “I think you were too young at the time to read the matter.”

He latter withdrew the statement and apologized at the command of the Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Joe Osei Owusu.

“I withdraw that statement with apology,” he said.