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Tag: Privileges Committee of Parliament

  • Render Adwoa Safos seat vacant Privileges Committee recommends

    The majority of members on the Privileges Committee want the seat of Dome-Kwabenya legislator, Sarah Adwoa Safo to be declared vacant.

    This is according to copies of the Committee report that has been laid and sighted by JoyNews.

    Per the report, Sarah Adwoa Safo has been afforded the opportunity to explain the rationale behind her absence from the House.

    However, she has failed to utilise these opportunities afforded as to why she should not lose her seat.

    “…the Majority, was of the view that, Hon Sarah Adwoa Safo failed to take advantage of the numerous opportunities and facilities offered her to provide reasonable explanation to the Committee with regard to her absence without leave,” portions of the committee report indicated.

    Parliament is yet to deliberate on the matter and take a final decision on the report.

    Political witch hunt

    Sarah Adwoa Safo, on July 17, opened up about the ordeal she is facing in the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

    According to her, she has become a victim of a sustained political witch-hunt by certain elements in the NPP and in Parliament for their own parochial goals.

    Ms Safo expressed shock about how she is being treated differently by people, including members of her party for staying away from official duty in order to attend to personal issues involving her child.

    She expressed surprise about not enjoying the famous support of her party leadership both in Parliament and at the party level in her most difficult moments.

    Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu disagrees

    The Majority Leader in Parliament expressed his disappointment with Dome-Kwabenya MP for accusing the caucus of witch-hunting her.

    Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the comments made by Mrs. Safo are unfortunate.

    According to him, he personally has sent several messages to his colleague without any response.

    “I am surprised if she says leadership is witch-hunting her. I think it is the most unfortunate and regrettable statement. For the past two months, I have not been engaging because I have sent numerous messages to her and she has not responded,” he said.

    Source: Myjoyonline

  • I’m baffled as to why the Executive is silent on Adwoa Safo’s absence Ricketts-Hagan

    Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan, ranking member on the Privileges Committee of Parliament has said he is completely baffled as to why the Executive arm of government has refused to take a decision against Gender Minister Sarah Adwoa Safo after months of abandoning her ministerial duties and staying outside of Ghana.

    Speaking on the KeyPoints show on TV3 Saturday, he said, “What baffles me is that; let’s take the parliamentary role of Hon. Adwoa Safo out of the whole thing, supposing she was just a Minister appointed by the President; we know in our constitution if you can’t do the work resign, fine, but what would have been the procedure at the Executive end in dealing with this matter?”

    He continued, “The Executive is silent on this, it’s as if now the Executive is waiting for Parliament to bring some finality to this for them to be able to act, and I find it quite baffling.”

    He added, “So I’m saying if she wasn’t a Member of Parliament, what are the laid downs? Because the Executive don’t have Privileges Committee or Privileges Ministry, maybe they should think of having one in the future.

    He quizzed, “I’m really wondering what’s going on at that end, but it’s been going on for some time now. I would like to know what sort of excuse leave if any, that the honourable has submitted to the Executive which I’m not privy to?”

    Mr. Ricketts-Hagan made these comments on the back of the failure of the embattled Dome-Kwabenya MP to appear before the Privileges Committee of Parliament.

    Ms Safo is among three legislators who have been dragged before the Privileges Committee to answer questions about their long absence from the House.

    She was summoned through the media after failed attempts to reach her.

    Chairman of the committee, Hon. Joseph Osei Owusu directed that the summons be published publicly as she had been unreachable.

    The Privileges Committee has been tasked by the Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Alban Bagbin, to engage Adwoa Safo, Kennedy Agyapong and Henry Quartey over complaints of chronic absenteeism brought against them.

    Meanwhile, Adwoa Safo had explained in a previous interview she granted Joy News, that she was in the United States and had not been served any invitation from the committee.

    Source: Ghanaweb

  • I absented myself from Parliament due to ill-health Kennedy Agyapong

    The Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong has justified reasons behind his absenteeism in Parliament.

    According to him, his absence from parliament was inadvertent, due to ill health.

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    He made this revelation when he appeared before the Privileges Committee of Parliament on Wednesday, June 15.

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    Mr Kennedy Agyapong is said to have absented himself for more than the stipulated fifteen sitting days during the First Meeting of the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament.

    Per Article 97(1)(c) of the 1992 Constitution, a Member of Parliament shall vacate his seat “if he is absent, without the permission in writing of the Speaker, and he is unable to offer a reasonable explanation to the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges from fifteen sittings of a meeting of Parliament during any period that Parliament has been summoned to meet and continues to meet.”

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    Referral to Privileges Committee

    Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, referred three members of the House to the Privileges Committee for their continuous absence in Parliament.

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    The three are; the Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo, Ayawaso Central MP, Henry Quartey and Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong.

    Delivering his ruling on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, April 5, Mr Bagbin explained that based on the relevant provisions of the 1992 Constitution and the Standing Orders of Parliament, the named NPP lawmakers are guilty of the absenteeism threshold for Members of Parliament.

    “I have accordingly come to the irresistible conclusion that a Member who absents himself or herself from 16 sitting days of Parliament in a particular meeting, without the permission in writing of the Speaker, falls squarely within the ambit of Article 97, clause 1(c) of the 1992 Constitution and Order 16(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament,” he stated.

    The two other MPs are yet to appear before the committee.

  • Parliamentary Privileges Committee ban media from covering 3 absentee MPs hearing

    The issue of absenteeism in Parliament where three Members of Parliament (MPs) have been referred to the Privileges Committee of Parliament for absenting themselves without permission from the Speaker will be heard in camera.

    The committee will start hearing the three absentee MPs, with Henry Quartey for Ayawaso Central as the first person followed by Sarah Adwoa Safo for Dome Kwabenya and then Kennedy Ohene Agyapong for Assin Central.

    The hearings will start on Thursday, May 26, 2022.

    The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, referred the three New Patriotic Party (NPP) MPs to the Privileges Committee of Parliament for absenting themselves from the House for more than 15 sitting days without his permission.

    But at a meeting of the committee on Wednesday (May 25, 2022), the members concluded that the media would not be admitted to cover the hearing.

    This is contrary to previous meetings and hearings of the 31-member committee which had been covered by the media.

    The problem of absenteeism in the House without permission from the Speaker had been a long-standing issue which needed to be addressed holistically.

    Hence, when the recent one came to the attention of the Speaker, he referred it to the Committee of Privileges to look into it.

    The findings of the committee could lead to the expulsion of the absentee MPs from Parliament if the report suggests so and is adopted by the plenary.

    Explaining why the media has been banned from covering the proceedings, a member of the committee, Kweku Ricketts Hagan, NDC MP for Cape Coast South explained that “the nature of evidence as we’ve been hinted might be on medical grounds…”

    “And it is on that basis that the [Privileges] Committee came to that conclusion that it would be best that we give the opportunity for people to come and be able to come and be able to discuss with us, charged with that responsibility on what the reasons were or the evidence.

    “Of course, when we are done with our work, we will put a report together and seeing the report, it will establish the reason why we recommended that a member should have a legitimate reason to still stay in Parliament or not and I think that will become a public information,” Kweku Ricketts Hagan, a member of the Committee of Privileges said in a radio interview with Accra based Citi FM on Wednesday evening [May 25, 2022] monitored by Graphic Online.

    Pressed further on why previous meetings of the committee had been covered by the media and this time around the media is being prevented from allowing the public to witness the proceedings, Mr Hagan said: “You are querying me on a decision that has been taken by the committee.”

    “I’m telling you the committee’s decision is that, we didn’t think that it will be appropriate to discuss what is likely to be health matters, because we know that at least two of them or all three of them have been dealing with some medical issues and we thought that it will not be appropriate,” Mr Hagan added.

    Source: Graphic online