{"id":398995,"date":"2018-02-06T13:13:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T13:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=398995"},"modified":"2018-02-06T15:56:04","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T15:56:04","slug":"minority-storms-out-of-debate-on-cash-for-seat-cttee-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/02\/minority-storms-out-of-debate-on-cash-for-seat-cttee-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Minority storms out of debate on Cash-for-Seat c’ttee report"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Minority has staged a walkout from Parliament over the “cash for seat” Committee report following a probe into claims that the Trade Ministry extorted $100,000 from expatriates to allow them to sit close to the President during the Ghana Expatriates Business Awards in December 2017.<\/p>\n
This is because it claims most of the MPs have not read the 146-page report that has been put before them to be debated.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”bvkkFWjvdfTWflhyP9TmAMtB6EQ1AatF”]The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, held that under the circumstances, his side could not take part in the deliberations.<\/p>\n
He argued that per the Standing Orders of Parliament, no motion shall be debated until at least 48-hour sitting days have elapsed.<\/p>\n
“I have a difficulty that we are suspending the Standing Orders on this matter especially seeing that I got my copy of the report only this morning. All members got their copies only this morning\u2026 so why the rush?”<\/p>\n
“In the interest of transparency and accountability, this matter cannot be railroaded through Parliament and I am sorry,\u00a0Mr. Speaker, that if the Chairman wants to proceed, he knows our position… of the 146 pages, I together with many other members are yet to satisfy and read through it thoroughly in order to make meaningful contributions to the debate.”<\/p>\n
Majority to\u00a0proceed with debate<\/strong><\/p>\n The Majority in Parliament has however decided to go ahead with the debate on the report.<\/p>\n The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, said the Minority MP’s non-cooperation on the matter was borne out of their lack of understanding of Parliamentary standing orders.<\/p>\n Controversy over ‘Minority report’<\/strong><\/p>\n The bi-partisan Committee probing the extortion claims was enveloped by controversy when its Minority members decided to prepare and leak a separate report that indicted some stakeholders of interests in the probe, including the Ministry of Trade and the organizers of the awards scheme, the Millennium Excellence Foundation.<\/p>\n The Minority side of the Committee, comprising of Dr. Dominic Ayine and James Avedzi, concluded that, the Ministry of Trade engaged in multiple infractions including breaches of the\u00a0public financial management law and multiple ethical violations.<\/p>\n It also said the\u00a0Millennium Excellence Foundation, among other things, presented forged evidence to the Committee.<\/p>\n