The Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has said that he wouldn’t want to be called before any investigative body for questioning on any matter after serving his four-year term as Speaker of the 8th Parliament.
He has therefore cautioned that he will not work on any document that does not emanate from government sources.
“I know the legal implications and I will not risk that”, he noted, adding “Parliament deal with the government and so when you enter into those agreements with the private sector or what not, we will depend on your communication and the documents that you will attach to this communication are the authentic documents for our attention”.
The Speaker was commenting on Article 181 (5) of the 1992 Constitution which says “This article shall, with the necessary modifications by Parliament, apply to an international business or economic transaction to which the government is a party as it applies to a loan.
Commenting further, Rt. Hon. Bagbin expressed worry why the Ministry of Finance has failed to present to Parliament for approval all the various agreements it has entered into with some agencies, after several promptings.
“As of today after one year, it has not been done, and we cannot depend on documents from those agencies as authentic documents to work with”, he said, stressing “this is a notice to the Ministry of Finance. Personally, I have called the Ministry a number of times and we are not getting the necessary responses from them. Please take these things seriously”.
He added “The judgment debts are becoming too much for the country, and we don’t want to be part of it. I will not work on any document that is not emanating from a government source. I know the legal implications and I will not risk that. I don’t want to leave this seat after that to be called to any agency to be investigated because of something, no”.
