Alban Bagbin
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K Bagbin is displeased with his First Deputy, Joseph Osei Owusu for dismissing a private member’s motion seeking to probe the government’s COVID-19 expenditure.
He was of the view that his deputy’s decision to flag down the motion was illegal and offensive and must not re-occur, especially when he had already admitted the motion.
Speaker Bagbin fumed when presiding over the sitting on Wednesday, February 23, 2022.
He however indicated that although he disapproves Joe Osei Owusu’s ruling, he will not overturn.
According to him, “The penchant of the First Deputy Speaker [Joe Osei Owusu] to overrule my ruling is, to say the least, unconstitutional, illegal, and offensive. Be that as it may, I shall not be taking any steps to overrule the decision of the First Deputy Speaker to dismiss the motion as moved by the Hon. Ranking Member of the Finance Committee.”
Speaker Bagbin, had early on admitted the motion from three Members of the Minority Caucus for an inquiry into the expenditure made by the government since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak; and the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, filed the motion which is calling for a bi-partisan parliamentary committee chaired by a member of the Minority to probe COVID-19 expenditure.
The Private Member’s Motion was captured in the order paper for Thursday, November 4, 2021
However, Joseph Osei-Owusu while presiding in the stead of Bagbin on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, threw the motion out, saying that the work of such a bi-partisan committee is already provided for by the Constitution, to be conducted by the Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
Bagbin in 2021 took issue with Joe Osei Owusu over a similar incident when the latter overruled Bagbin’s directive to stand down the approval of the 2022 budget statement and economic policy.
“This is the second time the 1st Deputy Speaker has taken the chair and has made a ruling whose effect was to overrule a position I have earlier on established before the House,” he recalled.
By Vincent Kubi
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