Ghana's Parliament has become too weak — PPP
Parliament has become too weak to discharge its duties, a situation which can threaten Ghana’s democracy, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has stated.
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This follows former Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin’s, bribery allegations against some members of Parliament (MPs) and recent reports that Parliament is cash strapped.
The Secretary General of the PPP, Kofi Asamoah Siaw, in an interview with Citi News said Parliament as an arm of government must be adequately resourced.
He explained, “we have the Executive sitting in Parliament, so the principle of checks and balances is being defeated.”
According to him, the PPP has long suspected that all is not well in Ghana’s legislature, and current developments have confirmed their suspicions regarding the “conduct of the Executive by the way they treat Parliament, the way Parliament has been under-resourced, the way Parliament has not been effective as far as carrying out their oversight responsibilitya is concerned".
Mr Asamoah-Siaw urged the government to assist Parliament to enable MPs to perform their roles properly and also curb possible bribery and corrupt practices among members.
Relatedly, a statement from the PPP Anti-Corruption Campaign Coalition and signed by Mr William Dowokpor also argued that the MP’s bribery allegation called for reforms.
The PPP, therefore, called on Parliament, civil society organisations and the citizenry in its entirety to take an objective view of allegations made by Alban Bagbin that some MPs collect bribes to champion certain agenda in the legislature.
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“While we appreciate the real likelihood of the allegation having a negative effect on the image of the legislature, we believe it presents a great opportunity for Parliament to re-examine itself and champion reforms that would lead to a strong legislature to serve as an effective check on the Executive, to the extent that it cannot be bribed by the Executive, let alone civil society organisations as alleged by Bagbin,” the PPP stated.
According to the PPP, this development should serve as the catalyst that would lead to the constitutional reform of separating the Executive from the Legislature; where members of the Legislature will no longer be allowed to serve as ministers of state; a feature that has rendered the Legislature the weakest link in Ghana’s governance system.
The PPP disagreed with calls for legislation on lobbying, which it believed would be of no effect as the majority would always have their way and the minority only their say, should the status quo remain the same.
In fact, the PPP stated that it believed the development of an “acceptable” formula for lobbying the weakest arm of government would only lead to legitimising bribe taking by some MPs as alleged by Mr Bagbin.
According to the PPP, it will be happy to join the complainants adding that an official complaint to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) could lead to full investigation into the allegation.
“We, however, remain committed to our reform agenda for incorruptible leadership, open and accountable governance; and take this opportunity to reiterate our recommendations to the Constitutional Review Commission, the Constitutional Review Implementation Committee and President John Mahama on the need to separate the Executive from the Legislature to restore Parliament’s full strength in legislation, representation and the performance of oversight functions,” it concluded.