What Afeku, Prof Gyan Baffour and Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu told the vetting committee

The Minister designate for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has observed that Members of Parliament (MPs) can do their work better without any fear of the Executive, if the President is allowed to appoint all ministers from outside Parliament.

"If we want to follow the strict Executive Presidency, the time has come for us as a House to promote career parliamentarians to have the President appoint his ministers from outside to liberate Parliament to be able to do its work," he said.

Answering questions before the Appointments Committee of Parliament (ACP) yesterday, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is also the Majority Leader, noted that even in opposition, people looked over their shoulders in the conduct of business in the House.

Constitutional reforms

He called for some institutional reforms in the appointment of key personalities, including the members and the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC).

For instance, he said, the current arrangement that allowed the President to appoint the members and the chairperson of the EC without consulting Parliament was not the best.

"If you have a President who is overly partisan, he packs the place with his own party supporters and he may put the country in danger.

"I should think we should have an arrangement where the President may do the appointment but he may require the support of maybe two thirds of MPs. This will force him to be much more engaging and consultative," he said.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also said the appointment of the Auditor-General by the President, in consultation with the Council of State, without parliamentary involvement needed to be looked at.

Besides, he said, the situation where it was only the President who could ask the Auditor General to act, not Parliament, was not tenable.

He said such reforms would give Parliament some "countervailing power to get the Executive to act straight".

He also kicked against the provision in the Constitution which forbade MPs from introducing bills which had financial implications.

Tourism Minister

The Minister designate for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Ms Catherine Abelema Afeku, said the ministry would push for the creation of single window platform to allow prospective tourists to access information on tourist sites and hotels.

She said she would use effective marketing and branding strategies to market the country's tourist attractions in the traditional and social media.

She also had a plan to promote domestic tourism, starting with an arrangement to encourage staff of the ministry to go for domestic tourism, to be replicated in the other ministries.

Fraud case

Ms Afeku said she had never been convicted of any criminal act or fraud.

However, she said, business with a partner went sour and the partner took the case to court and won the civil suit against her.

She said in 2007 she was made to refund some money. However, it later emerged, through a video recording, that it was a collaboration between her partner and a citizen of Nzema in the Western Region to ditch her.

With that evidence, Ms Afeku said, in 2014 she made an appeal in court and won the appeal, after which every property seized from her following the first ruling had been given back to her.

She said she was in a partnership with friends from Los Angeles to build a retirement home for African Americans in Ghana.

She said should she receive the nod to become the Minister of Tourism, she would relinquish her investment in that project.

Planning Minister

The Minister designate for Planning, Professor Gyan Baffour, said he would be a liaison between the National Development Planning Commission and the government.

He said the ministry would engage in both economic and spatial planning for the government.