Parliament Won’t Be Treated Like MMDAs; Bagbin Tells Ofori Atta

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has distinguished his House from that of the Executive’s Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and Ministries.

In the form of a message, he reminded the Finance Minister of the fact that the Parliament is an arm of government and not a sub-element of the Executive.

According to Bagbin, revenue for funding the House hasn’t yet hit the account for the effective running of the same.

This came up after Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak, sought the mystery behind delayed printings for the House.

In response, the Speaker noted that all printers of the House have broken down.

“Almost all our machines (printers) are down except one. Previous Parliaments have made efforts to try and get replacements. The Parliamentary Service Board is still on these reports. We’re not getting the necessary financial support to buy new ones.

“Even Though the board has given approval we are still struggling with funding and it’s still not there.

“What many of you don’t know is that at this time, we don’t have releases from the Ministry of Finance for us to run Parliament so we are running Parliament on some arrears of last year.”

He noted that his office is forced to sometimes decline requests of MPs for operations not for the love of declining but because “we don’t have the wellwithal to fund those operations”.

“I don’t think the Ministry of Finance should treat Parliament like a Ministry or MDA. This is an armed government. We are not part of the MMDAs”, he said.

He noted that he will not take the blame for the incapacity of the House due to the financial constraints it faces.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini