Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumani Kingsford Bagbin, says the House is being starved of funds by the Ministry of Finance and warned that the legislature must not be treated like an NGO.
According to him, the situation was having dire financial constraints on Parliament’s work.
The Speaker who made the disclosure on the floor of Parliament, accused the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori Atta, of starving the House of much needed funds.
Mr. Bagbin said because of the current situation he has stopped approving financial commitments of the house.
“It is not because I like declining your requests. It is because we don’t have the wherewithal to fund those operations,” he noted.
He indicated that that Parliament deserved more respect than it was currently getting.
“The Ministry of Finance should not treat Parliament like a ministry or NGO,” he said.
“This is an arm of government. We are not part of the MMDAs. We have even been written to, to reduce our budget in some cases by 50 percent,” he complained.
Furthermore, he noted that he would take responsibility for these financial constraints.
“If they want Parliament to run aground, they should let us know. The Speaker is not ready and prepared to be blamed for the inability to get Parliament going on just because we are not getting the necessary funding.”
Speaker of Parliament
