Re-assigned ministers must be vetted – Minority demands

The Minority in Parliament is demanding the vetting of five Ministers of State who have been reassigned by the President to other ministries.

The caucus contends that before the reassignment of the ministers, the president announced that he had relieved them of their portfolios in government with immediate effect, hence warranting the need for the ministers to be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny.

Ghana’s laws stipulate that reassigned ministers, must not be re-vetted. However, Deputy Ministers who are moved or elevated are required to go through parliamentary vetting.

The Member of Parliament for South Dayi, Rockson Nelson Dafeamekpor, says if the President fails to honour the request of the caucus, it will be compelled to seek legal interpretation at the apex court.

“I am saying on the authority of the constitution that those persons’ appointments were revoked by the president, and their re-assignment must be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny. So, we are demanding that those five ministers he has reassigned must be subjected to parliamentary vetting, and that is the procedure, so they cannot escape parliamentary scrutiny.”

“We will do our duty as the constitution demands, and we will demand that their names be submitted to parliament for them to be vetted, and if this call is not heeded, we will proceed to the Supreme Court for legal interpretation.”

President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday, February 14, announced a ministerial reshuffle and reassigned Mohammed Amin Adam to the Finance Ministry, Henry Quartey to the Interior Ministry, Francis Asenso-Boakye to Roads and Highways, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah to the Works and Housing Ministry, Ambrose Dery as Minister of State at the Office of the President, and then Abdulai Abanga as a deputy minister at the Local Government, Decentralization, and Rural Development.