[ 2021-03-01 ]

Appointments Committee approves 22 ministers, eight pending
Twenty-two ministerial nominees of President Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have been unanimously
approved by the Appointments Committee of
Parliament, Asaase Radio’s parliamentary sources
have confirmed.

Asaase Radio can also reveal that the committee
wants clarification on five others while three may
require majority decision via voting on the floor
of Parliament.

Three on hold
According to Asaase Radio’s sources in
Parliament and at the Office of the President, the
Ministers-designate for Food and Agriculture, Dr
Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Information, Kojo Oppong
Nkrumah and Fisheries, Hawa Koomson, could not get
the approval of all 26 members of the Appointments
Committee and must secure approval through voting
on the floor of Parliament.

The sources say, members of the minority side of
the Appointments Committee accused Oppong Nkrumah,
as being the one who called for a member of the
legal team of the petitioner in the ongoing
Election 2020 petition, Dr. Dominic Ayine, to be
cited for contempt, after Ayine told the media on
16 February 2021, that the Supreme Court has a
predetermined agenda to rule in favour of
President Akufo-Addo.

In the case of the Minister for Food and
Agriculture-designate, Kwaku Owusu Afriyie Akoto,
members of the Minority side of the Appointments
Committee accused him of being arrogant when he
appeared before the committee and on that basis,
they will not approve of his nomination.

On Koomson, the Minority side of the Appointments
Committee, are of the opinion that she is not fit
for the job.

Clarifications on five
Information available to Asaase News further
suggests that the Minority side of the
Appointments Committee will formally communicate
to the appropriate authorities to indicate the
clarifications they need with regard to the
remaining five nominations of President
Akufo-Addo.

It is believed that on the Roads and Highways
portfolio, the clarification they may be seeking
has to do with the Tema road contract, before they
approve the nominee, Kwesi Amoako-Atta. The
approval of the Minister-designate for
Communications and Digitization, Ursula Owusu
Ekuful, is also on hold because the Minority side
says they require some clarification on the
closure of some radio stations in the country.

The Health Minister-designate, Kwaku
Agyeman-Manu‘s appointment, according to our
source is on hold because the Minority side of the
Appointments Committee say he did not satisfy them
with his answers on questions regarding the
engagement of Frontier to offer COVID-19 testing
services at the airport some time in September
2020.

The Agyapa Gold Royalties deal and the answers
given by the Minister for Justice and Attorney
General-designate, Godfred Yeboah Dame, to
questions posed by some members of the
Appointments Committee ought to be clarified and
to that end, the Attorney General’s nomination
is also on hold, one source disclosed.

John Peter Amewu, the former Minister for Energy
who supervised the PDS deal and has been nominated
by the president to serve as the Minister for
Railways Development in his second administration,
has his approval also on hold. The minority side
of the Appointments Committee say they require
some clarification on some answers the
minister-designate provided during his vetting on
the PDS deal.

Source - Asaase Radio

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