Reduce sitting days for us over fuel price hikes – MP appeals 

In the wake of the surge in fuel prices, Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman Constituency, Thomas Ampem Nyarko, has made a clarion call to the Speaker of Parliament to reduce the number of sitting hours of MPs.

Speaking on the floor of parliament on Friday, November 4, 2022, Mr Ampem Nyarko proposed that parliamentary sitting days be reduced to two days a week instead of the usual four.

Currently, fuel prices have hit an all-time high, with petrol selling at about GH¢18 per litre and diesel retailing at over GH¢23. 

Lamenting the cost of fuel, he disclosed that he last spent about GH¢3, 000 to fill his tank at a fuel station.

According to him, the proposal, if implemented, will minimise the expenditure of MPs amid the current economic crisis. 

Pleading with the speaker to take his proposal into consideration, he said “ Mr Speaker looking at the kind of business that we have, is it not possible we can stay for six hours a day instead of driving here 2 hours, and then we go back, we can save like 500 cedis on fuel,” he explained.

 “Sometimes we can come and in less than two hours we adjourn till the next day, I am asking whether it will not be possible for the Business Committee to consolidate, and pack their activities so that instead of four days, we come like two days in a week in order to save on the amount of money we are using for fuel,” he stated. 

However, the Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, kicked against the proposal.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, commenting on the issue, described Mr Ampem Nyarko’s proposal as an “apocalyptic declaration”.

 “What will be the effect on national productivity, this call that you are making, what will be the effect on GDP?” he quizzed.

“I think that really it is an unfortunate call that we should be working for just two days,” he said.

Source: The Independent Ghana