[ 2021-03-03 ]

Appointment C’ttee has no power to disqualify ministerial nominees – Mensah Bons
Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has said
that the Appointments Committee of Parliament has
no power to disqualify any ministerial nominee.

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He told TV3’s Dela Mishel on the Mid Day news on
Tuesday March 2, that the power to disqualify a
nominee is assigned to the plenary.



His comments follow the decision by the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmakers on the
Appointments Committee of Parliament to reject
three of President Akufo-Addo’s ministerial
nominees.

They are Information Minister designate, Kojo
Oppong Nkrumah, Fisheries and Aqua Culture
minister designate Mavis Hawa Koomson and the
Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture, Dr
Owusu Afriyie Akoto.

The NDC MPs said they were not convinced by the
answers these nominees gave during their vetting.

They accused Mr Oppong Nkrumah who is Member of
Parliament for Ofoase Ayirebi of being untruthful
with his answers.

Mr Kyei Mensah Bonsu who is also the nominee for
Parliamentary Affairs said “The Committee
doesn’t have power to disqualify anybody. That
authority is vested in the plenary so that is
where the authority lies.

“I understand that some issues have been raised
about some of the nominees. Five of them I am told
, they are asking them to submit further and
better particulars on some responses they gave,
so, that will not be a rejection.

“In the case of three others they are saying
that they may find it difficult to approve of
them. Saying that you find it difficult to
approve of them should not be reduced to personal
consideration.

“It should be grounded in law. What does the law
say? The law, about ministers of state is
predicated on the provision of Article 78 which
provides that the President shall appoint
ministers of state.”



The MP for Suame added “The qualification
criteria which says that a minister shall
otherwise qualify to be a member of parliament is
set out in Article 94. So that so what you should
aspire to confirm or reject.

“Unfortunately, in Ghana the focus of the
vetting is not soo much on the technical
competence of a person for a particular ministry.
Given that the president has the power to
reshuffle person that they nominate without the
person who have been vetted having to come back to
parliament to resubmit themselves.

“I am have indicated to my colleagues that when
a person is nominated for the Ministry of Finance
and maybe the following day the president shifts
him to environment or to health, will he submit it
himself to parliament again? Unfortunately, it
doesn’t happen in our part of the world. So
because of that we normally related with the
general qualification.”

Source - 3 News

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