Ras Mubarak, a former Member of Parliament for Kumbungu who petitioned the Speaker of Parliament against the three absentee New Patriotic Party (NPP) members, said legislators cannot be missing from Parliament all of the time because they are paid to work by the taxpayer.
His remarks come at a time when Parliament’s privileges committee has laid out the procedures for considering the charges concerning the three NPP MPs.
“We are using taxpayers’ money to pay MPs therefore we can’t have them being absent all the time in parliament,” he remarked on 3FM’s The First Take.
Kweku Ricketts Hagan, a ranking member of Parliament’s Privileges Committee, explained the hearing’s protocols on Wednesday.
“On the 26th of May, we will meet with Henry Quartey, the 27th of May will be Adwoa Safo’s turn, and on the 31st of May, we will meet with Kennedy Agyapong,” he remarked on Tuesday, May 24. The modalities will be discussed at today’s conference.”
Kennedy Agyapong, Assin Central, Sarah Adwoa Safo, Dome Kwabenya, and Henry Quartey, Aywaso Central, have been sent to the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, for missing more than fifteen sittings of Parliament without authorisation.
During the hearings, however, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Asawase disputed the Speaker’s decision, claiming that allowing it to stand would set a dangerous precedent that could be exploited by a “dictator speaker” in the future to harm lawmakers.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Joseph Asare
