A former Second Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, has stated that Parliament has been rendered ineffective due to the hybrid system which allows Parliamentarians to be appointed into Executive positions.
“When our Parliament is hybrid in nature, which enables members of the Executive to be selected into Parliament, then naturally, the Parliament cannot really control the Executive,” he said.
[contextly_sidebar id=”hcd9oTWMKlipiDLZjslTy77MgYpJYFH5″]Prof Oquaye said this on Wednesday during a dialogue on Assessing the Effectiveness of Parliament in Ghana’s Democracy,” organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in collaboration with the European Union.
He said the issue of a Member of Parliament (MP) looking forward to a position into the Executive body has made it difficult for Parliament to critically scrutinize the activities of the Executive and unless that trend is reviewed, the Ghanaian Parliament will continue to be less efficient.
The Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin, called for the provision of the needed resources to the various parliamentary committees to enable them investigate and adequately probe the Executive.
He said instances whereby some MPs who are also committee members in Parliament as well as members of the Executive body make it very difficult for the committees to thoroughly conduct investigation into activities of the Executive.
“The whole thing looks as if they give it to you with one hand, then turn back to take it from you with the other hand,” he added.
He said it is sad that Ghanaians even see district chief executives, ministers and deputy ministers to be higher than MPs, and expressed wonder whether the Parliament could control them if it is deemed to be lower.
Deputy Minority Chief Whip, Ignatius Barfour Awuah, called for the total separation of powers between the Executive and the Legislative bodies to avert a situation whereby parliamentarians refuse to chide the Executive in the pursuance of favours.
Source: GNA