Alban Bagbin
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has qdismissed a motion filed by the Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, for the referral of the matter in connection with the three purported absentee Members of Parliament (MPs) to the Privileges Committee to be reversed.
He has therefore directed the Privileges Committee of Parliament to go ahead to probe the issue of absentees.
Per a memo addressed to Muntaka from the Office of the Principal Assistant Clerk, Table Office said the Speaker had directed that he is informed that the motion has been dismissed.
“I have been directed by the Clerk of Parliament to kindly notify you that Rt. Hon. Speaker pursuant to Order 79(4) of the Standing Orders, declined admission to the Motion filed by you on the subject of absence without permission,” the memo read.
In Muntaka’s motion, he called on Parliament “to revoke, cancel or rescind the referral made by The Rt. Hon. Speaker on the 5th Day of April 2022, to the committee on Privileges to consider the issue of absence without permission from the House under Article 97 (1) (c) of the constitution and Standing Orders 15 and 16 of Honourables Sarah Adwoa Sarfo, Henry Quartey and Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.”
The Speaker of Parliament, while referring the three MPs to the committee said the absence of the MPs without his permission constitutes a breach of the rules of the house.
In Parliament, Mr. Bagbin urged the committee to provide its report to the house two weeks after the House reconvenes from its recess.
The Speaker of Parliament’s referral to the Privileges Committee was premised on a petition filed by a former MP for Kumbumgu, Ras Mubarak to tackle absenteeism in Parliament.
He cited Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo; Henry Quartey, the MP for Ayawaso Central, and Ebenezer Kojo Kum, the MP for Ahanta West and Ken Ohene Agyapong, MP for Assin Central as MPs who he said had flouted provisions of Article 97(1)(c) of the Constitution.
He also said they had breached Parliament’s Standing Order 16(1) which frowns on Members absenting themselves for 15 sitting days without permission from the Speaker.
By Vincent Kubi