Bagbin Gives Two Hour Ultimatum To Health Minister To Appear Before Parliament

“Why will the Minister of Health say there is some other engagement that is more important than appearing before Parliament. If it was his vetting, will other things be more important to him than that?”

This is the rhetorical question that Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin asked after he was informed that Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu was occupied with a more important assignment and would not be able to appear before Parliament to field questions on Monday.

An uncompromising Bagbin then ordered to appear before the house within two hours or face the consequences.

“This action is completely disrespectful and I am not going to take that. I direct that the Minister appears before the House within two hours to answer the questions. Failure to do so, the necessary consequences will apply. Ministers must take Parliament business seriously,” he directed.

The Health Minister had been scheduled to appear in Parliament to answer a question by MP for Sefwi Akontombra, Alex Tetteh Djornobuah, on the nature of health facilities to be constructed for the Constituency, along with timelines for start and completion.

However, Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, informed the House that the Minister was engaged elsewhere and would not be able to appear before Parliament.

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, was annoyed by the excuse saying the Minister’s conduct was unacceptable.

The Speaker agreed with Muntaka and said the conduct was disrespectful to the whole of Parliament.

“We cannot start with these same excuses of Ministers refusing to attend to the House because they have other things that are more important than appearing before this House. This is the time for the budget when all of them need to be in Accra.

“If we relax and allow this thing to continue, then all of us will be held responsible for making this House to be seen to be weak,” he said.