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The first vice-president of Parliament, Joseph Osei Owusu, warned Thursday the deputies who signed the register of presences and who, later, decided to give up the practice or to be sanctioned for reasons other than those related in the room.
"There are people I have noticed; every day that I check, their names are here but I have not seen them here for a month. This practice is bad. For those who have other official duties, the Rules are clear, ask permission of the President.
"But we should not encourage the practice that people write their names and go private or sit in their offices and watch the proceedings saying that they are in the House," he said. .
The Vice President warned after Sam Nartey George, MP for Ningo Prampram, expressed his concern when the session began for the day in the House, about the very high rate of signing of the register by some MPs . later not seen during parliamentary work for the day.
Mr. George was responding to a protest raised by Dr. James Klutse Avedzi, Member of Parliament for Ketu North and Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, in the correction of the votes and deliberations of the day before, for being declared absent even though he was unable to attend. he was present.
Sam George said some MPs were not coming to the room but were able to register on the time sheet.
Mr. George said, "Mr. Speaker, this Parliament is an honorable chamber. Can we all be honest with ourselves and with God? That, if we take today's vote and business, the names marked as present, were they really present in this chamber or even in committee?
"Some names that we can mention here appear every day but we have never seen them here. Even the "State of the Nation" address, they are not even present but the names appear. So, is there a way to get your name marked as present even when you are not present?
"Maybe because I'm a member for the first time, I have not been initiated yet. We really need to look at this carefully and find an effective way to mark the members present, whether they are at the House or committee level. "
Mr. Osei Owusu told lawmakers: "If you claim to be in circulation and you find that you are doing something else, the Privileges Committee may blame him for his responsibility and I encourage members to consider this matter. .
"The committees that sit should first come to the room. This has been decided since my arrival in the House ".
In a rebuttal, Mr. Patrick Yaw Boamah, MP for Central Okaikoi, called for caution in commenting on participation in Parliament, so as not to create disaffection for MPs and to cast a negative image of their members.
He called Mr. George to clarify his allegation, saying that "it may have been a slip of the tongue that some people are still marked as present.
You see bad news traveling and here is what could be reported. The image of this House continues to sink every day because of the conduct of some members. "
The news of absenteeism follows the publication of a survey conducted by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, according to which a majority of respondents (46.7%) do not want that their current deputies contest the general debate of the 2020 elections, while 42.4% want their deputies to contest, with 10.9% still undecided as to whether their deputies should appear or not.
Professor Mike Oquaye has often expressed his concern about the low participation of MPs and urged them to "come to work."
— GNA
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