The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has instructed that the Ministers of Works and Housing, Francis Asenso-Boakye, and Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, appear before Parliament to inform the House on the country’s flood-prevention efforts.
This follows the devastation caused by recent rains in sections of the country.
The Opposition Chief Whip, Governs Agbodza, announced on the Floor of Parliament that a lady and her two children are missing, that others have been hurt, and that property has been damaged as a result of the water.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, believes the Ministers should offer specifics on how the government intends to address the issue.
The Speaker added that the unavailability of substantive ministers should not be an excuse when there are deputy ministers available.
“Minister responsible for Works and Housing be programmed by the Business Committee to appear before the House together with the Minister of Finance to give us a brief on the action being taken to make this a thing of the past, and so we expect that at latest before the end of next week, these ministers should appear before us.
“If the substantive minister is not there, there is a minister of state at the Ministry that can come and represent him and this is a very important matter and one of the ways we could support national leadership to find a solution is for us to pass the Budget Act.”
“It is a very important subject matter because since I entered Parliament in 1993, we have had so many statements of this nature almost every year and we are not finding solutions to the problem and I think it starts from the priority settings, and Parliament must be involved and not wait until a month to the end of the year and the budget is thrust upon, and you have no time to talk about even increasing budget allocations,” the Speaker added.
