Minority Chief Whip and Member of Parliament of Parliament (MP) for the Asawase Constituency, Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, on Tuesday, told Parliament that under no circumstances can any of the Members shy away from telling the truth about how he or she won the Parliamentary elections to become a Member of Parliament.

He said, while in opposition, the only way out for one to unseat a sitting MP is to undermine him and tell the electorates lies by making promises to win their votes.

Without these, he said, it would be very difficult for one to come to Parliament as a lawmaker.

According to him, all these things are done because the populace or constituents lack the understanding of the work or duties of an MP.

Contributing to a statement delivered on the floor of Parliament by Dr. Emmanuel Marfo over ‘Assessing the performance of Members of Parliament: A time to own the process’; Hon. Muntaka said it was about time MPs and political parties tell the truth to the constituents about the responsibilities of a lawmaker.

Dr. Marfo in his statement drew the House’s attention to some research done by some institutions and organizations about the performance of Members and the need for all to have an interest in those kinds of work.

He referred a recent study published by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) where the study observed that majority of the respondents rated the performance of their MPs low to average.

For instance, he said, many of such studies discount the enormous time used by MPs to follow up on projects, school admissions, job applications, committee sittings and other public interest assignments such as services on board as well as intellectual contributions deployed during those assignments.

The study, he noted, further revealed that almost 50% of respondents who contacted their MPs did so to discuss developmental issues and some 40% to seek various forms of assistance, including financial assistance. That means less than 10% actually contacted their MPs on questions of legislation or oversight functions.

Story: Richmond Adu Dwamena

 

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