Parliament to approve $22.5 million loan facility for MPs’ cars

Parliament is today expected to approve a credit facility of $22.5 million (approximately GHC96.3 million) for the purchase of official vehicles for all the 275 Members of Parliament (MPs).

The loan facility is being secured by the Parliamentary Service from the Societe General Ghana (SGG) Limited with the Government of Ghana as the Guarantor.

Ex-gratia payable to the MPs at the end of their four-year tenure would also be used as a guarantee for the procurement of the loan.

The facility, which was laid this morning on the floor of the House, mynewsgh.com sources say, will see each MP receiving a loan of about $80,000.

The move is to enable the lawmakers acquire brand new vehicles to facilitate their work as some MPs have to commute long distances to their various constituencies and back to Accra weekly.

All the MPs are expected to pay back the loan within four years starting from January 7, 2017 to January 6, 2021.

Instead of being excited, some of the legislators have expressed misgivings over the erroneous impression from the public that the cars are given to MPs for free.

They explained that the loans are expected to be paid back in monthly installments for four years, by which time their tenure of office in parliament would have come to an end.