A former Member of Parliament for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini has defended the Speaker of Parliament’s dissatisfaction with a dismissal of a private member’s motion seeking to probe the government’s Covid-19 expenditure.
Inusah Fuseini said Joseph Osei-Owusu had on several occasions taken decisions in a manner that contravenes the Standing Orders of the House.
“I cannot understand the basis for the 1st Deputy Speaker’s actions. Unless of course, he thinks he ought to have been the Speaker and not Bagbin. He is overturning decisions made by the Speaker and that is not by the Standing Orders of the House,” Mr. Fuseini explained on Eyewitness News.
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu; the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak; and the Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, filed the motion which sought to constitute 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 4th, 2021.
But Joseph Osei-Owusu while presiding in the stead of Bagbin on Tuesday, February 22, 2022, dismissed the motion, 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).
Mr. Fuseini argued that the First Deputy Speaker’s refusal to allow for the motion to be debated exposes his bias.
“Matters of this nature must be resolved by debate in Parliament. When a motion is debated, members are then asked whether or not they support the establishment of an adhoc committee and if the ‘yes’ have the votes an adhoc committee is set up and the matter ends.”
Mr. Fuseini believes a review of the Standing Orders of Parliament will prevent a recurrence of such a development.
“We must consolidate the hierarchy of Speakership, review the standing orders and provide clear rules to regulate the conduct of the Speaker, 1st Deputy Speaker, 2nd Deputy Speaker, or any other person.”
