Kingsley Alban Bagbin, the Speaker of Parliament has charged that the house won’t hold any business with the Ministry of Finance unless Ken Ofori-Atta appears in the house.
The Speaker of Parliament has directed that all transactions with the Finance Ministry has been put on hold till Ken Ofori-Atta gives a proper accounts of the COVID-19 funds.
Mr Bagbin sounded this warning following the failure of the Finance Minister to show up at Parliament meeting to answers urgent questions on how the COVID-19 funds were spent.
According to him, who spoke at the Parliament meeting on Thursday June 16, a lot of questions have been asked about how the government spent the funds, questions he said require answers from the Finance Minister.
However, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta is yet to appear before the house and give a proper breakdown on how government spent the COVID-19 funds.
“Yes, last week, for good reasons, [his appearance in parliament] wasn’t possible and usually the Business Committee is given the opportunity to do the allotting. So the Minister for Finance was allotted today to come and answer a number of questions. The Minister is not available today, we are told.
“The Minister spoke to me why he is not available today but before today, I had given a directive and that directive was to the effect that the Minister should appear before this House to account for monies that we approved for him to use to lead the country as a ministry for us to see how we respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“A lot of questions have been raised in respect of that so he should come to account to the good people of how that state resources have been applied by his Ministry to the benefit of the people. I did indicate that until that is done, the motion that requested the approval of this house, for more monies to be given him, that is his ministry, for the purpose of Covid-19 be on the hold until he answers the questions, I think that still holds.
“I will go further to say that until the answer is provided, until he goes through the accountability process, we will not take that motion. With respect to the questions, well, today he has another request before us, that will also be affected, until he comes to respond to the questions and to submit the statement, given explanation, as to how that money has been applied, we will not entertain any business from that ministry, mark my words,” Mr Bagbin said.
