Rumours of an imminent ministerial reshuffle has forced many Ministers of State who double as Members of Parliament to quickly avail themselves of the $20,000 vehicle loan for parliamentarians.
Until recently, the convention had been that Members of Parliament who held Ministerial positions declined the offer from Parliament and made do with the one saloon car and 4x4 cross country available to them as ministers.
Investigations conducted by The Evening News indicate that some of the ministers who have taken the vehicle loan did so because they were not too confident about retaining their ministerial positions or continuing to be in government.
As one minister who did not want to be named put it, “if by the stroke of the pen I am asked to go back to parliament where I came from and another person replaces me here (at the ministry), how do I make the rounds to and from my constituency as that of an MP which expired at the end of a four-year term.
“In this case, your term as a minister could be as shortlived as six months, a year or if your efforts are being appreciated, run until the term of the government expires” he explained.
He argued that although it was reasonable to expect that ministers of State who had official vehicles at their disposal would not avail themselves of the loan facility “the public must understand the position of the ministers as well.”
This position was, however, countered by a member of the minority and a former Minister of State (name withheld) who said given the fact that the government had repeatedly been “pontificating” on the need to reduce wastage in the public system, the position of the ministers was contradicting that of their own government.
“Why would they need to pick up the loans when we have all been told by no less a person than the Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, that they “are all self-made men who came into government with BMWs, Mercedes Benz and others”? he asked.
When The Evening News talked to some ministers who double as MPs, most of them were evasive about the issue. Efforts to obtain the number of ministers who have picked up the loan facility from the office of the Clerk of Parliament also proved futile.
