The National Democratic Congress (NDC), is unhappy with the performance of the leadership of the Appointments Committee of Parliament, especially, the Chairman, Joe Osei-Owusu in the ongoing vetting process.
The party believes the Chairman is “over-protecting” various minister nominees appearing before it, and not “allowing the minority to flow more”.
This position was reiterated by the National Organizer of the NDC, Kofi Adams, who told Citi News “the leadership is just there to frustrate the work” of the committee.
“I don’t think that it’s decent enough. They should allow the minority to scrutinize those appearing before them because at the end of the day, when they get confirmed, they are going to be working for Ghana, using the authority of the state,” Mr Adams said.
He noted that, the Chairman’s position “sometimes even embarrasses his own members”.
“I have witnessed instances where the Majority Leader even came in to say that he believed that some questions that had been overruled by the chair of the committee should be allowed to pass, but when the ranking member feels that a ruling is not in the best interest, and the nominee should be made to answer, he doesn’t allow.”
Thirteen minister nominees have been vetted so far.
These include Minister Nominees for the Agriculture, Education, Health, Foreign, Finance and Local Government and Rural Development. The rest are Senior Minister, Energy, Trade and Industry, Attorney General, Defence, Interior and National Security.
While some have endured what has been described by many as grueling moments before the committee, others have sailed through rather easily.
Despite his stance that the Minority is being hindered, Kofi Adams said the minority members on the committee are doing their best in probing the issues.
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