Government Assurances Committee of Parliament has attributed their dormancy\u00a0over the years to political interference, lack of resources and ineffective leadership.<\/p>\n
The Government Assurances Committee of Parliament is mandated to pursue assurances, undertakings and promises made by Ministers to see the extent to which those promises are being fulfilled.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”xLXBhA5Bc1QiJhNKMASSrHm6vQzyON7V”]\u201cThis committee has not worked effectively in the past as a result of some constraint; resources, political interference, leadership,\u201d the chairman of the committee Emmanuel Kwesi Bedzrah explained.<\/p>\n
They are also mandated to visit every site to personally verify the extent of work being done as well as organize public hearings where Ministers are summoned to answer questions.<\/p>\n
Clarifying his claims of political interference on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong>, the Chairman of the committee who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho West, said: \u201cDuring the tenure of my predecessor, PC Appiah Ofori who was the chairman of the committee, I heard he called the Minister of Works and Housing, Kwabena Bartels to come and give answers on some of the promises that he made but the next thing, he was moved from there.\u201d<\/p>\n The committee has however developed its own rules and procedures in a bid to revamp its operations to make Ministers accountable and fulfill their promises.<\/p>\n It has employed the use of technology to bridge the communication gap between the politicians and Ghanaians.<\/p>\n According to Mr. Bedzrah, he developed the idea after attending a conference in the United Kingdom (UK) where he noticed that fellow MPs in South America are far advanced in the use of technology to engage citizens \u201cso it made me wonder why we couldn\u2019t open up our own Parliament so I thought of this idea.\u201d<\/p>\n The technology platform was created to get citizens involved in the work of the committee and the Government Assurances Committee of Parliament with an online presence.<\/p>\n It has developed an interactive website, a Facebook page with over 13,000 page likes Ghanaians, a Twitter page and Whatsapp lines as well.<\/p>\n There is also a dedicated toll free short code 9030 which was given to the committee by the National Communication Authority (NCA).<\/p>\n Mr. Bedzrah was pleased with the public response the Committee\u2019s new measures have received and expressed the hope that the nation\u2019s development will be accelerated.<\/p>\n A Ranking Member of the Committee, Joe Badu Ansah also on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong> said the Minority in the House \u201cis very much involved and I think it\u2019s going to help because as MPs, we can\u2019t do things alone. We need a lot of information and there a lot of people out there who could be helpful so it is more of a conduit through which we could get to the people.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @osamidan<\/a>
\n