The Majority Leader of Parliament and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has revealed the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) directive to scrutinize members of Parliament by assessing their performances on attendance to the business of the house, in other to determine who is worth retaining.

According the Leader, “We are losing focus and diverting attention from what should be the statutory responsibilities of Parliament and all parliamentarians, and that is why many times we don’t see many of these members in Parliament.

Urging Political parties and Parliament to assist in strengthening the legislative structure by attending to a system of selecting and retaining members of Parliament, to ensure their core mandate to the House is discharged accordingly.

He said, Majority of Ghanaians have an eye for Parliament, but feels disappointed especially the first timers, after entering into the lawmaking house and realize Parliament is not rosy and money making venture.

As a country, He indicated, ‘we are increasingly over monetizing our politics’, where members of parliament will abandon the works of parliament for their private businesses which will fetch them more money to meet the high demands from constituents, to ensure they are retained as members of Parliament.

Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu disclosed this at the ‘5th edition of the Crystal Ball Series’ which was held under the theme “Opening up Parliament for Effective Governance”, by the Parliamentary News Africa (PNAfrica) in conjunction with the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD).

“Your performance in Parliament will hold you up, as to whether you must be retained or not. I’m pleased to announce today that my core party has also indicated that, attendance to businesses of Parliament will be a primary indicator as to whether or not a member of Parliament should be retained.

So today in Parliament, we have positioned our whips to take notes of when any member from the majority side enters, when he leaves the chamber and how long the person stays”. The Majority Leader had emphasize.

He reiterated that the leaders of the House are also submitting monthly reports on members of Parliament to both the party and the leader of the party, to assess performances of members of the majority on their attendance to parliamentary business.

Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu also cautioned that, Members of the Majority who do not attend parliamentary sittings, as well as those who come to House and do not participate in any of the business of the house, will be sidelined by the party and prevented from representing the party in any election.

 

Exclusively Newslinegh