Speaker of Parliament summons Finance, Works, Housing Ministers

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has directed the Ministers of Finance and Works and Housing to appear before the House.

The two ministers, Ken Ofori-Atta and Francis Asenso Boakye are to brief the House on measures taken to contain the floods that have come with the rains.

Mr Bagbin’s directive followed an application made to him by the Minority Chief Whip, Governs Kwame Agbodza.

The Adaklu MP called the attention of the House to the flood that followed Wednesday’s downpour which had claimed the lives of at least three people in Accra and Kumasi.

He subsequently prayed the Speaker to summon the two ministers, a prayer both sides of the House supported.

The Speaker, a former Works and Housing Minister himself, summoning the two ministers directed the Business Committee to programme them to attend upon the House latest Friday, June 30, 2023.

“The Minister responsible for Works and Housing should be programmed by the Business Committee to appear before the House together with the Minister of Finance to give us a brief on the action being taken to make this (flooding) a thing of the past.

“We expect that at latest before the end of next week, these ministers should appear before us.”

He said there should be no excuse from the Finance Minister’s outfit about his availability to brief the House.

“If the substantive minister is not there, there is a minister of state at the Ministry of Finance that can come and represent him.

“This is a very important matter and one of the ways we could support national leadership to find a solution is for us to pass the Budget Act,” the Speaker stated.

According to the Speaker, since he entered Parliament in 1993, the issue of floods has always been discussed in the wet season but solution does not seem to be in sight.

“I think the solution starts with priority setting and Parliament must be involved by passing the Budget Act.”

Parliament, the Speaker said, must be interested in the passage of the Budget Act in order to be involved in the preparation of same so as to be able to make a case for the people they represent.

At the stage of Ghana’s development, the Speaker said desilting of drains would not solve the problem but construction of covered drains.