How Parliament finally approved 13 Ministers

Parliament has approved the first 13 ministerial nominees captured in the Appointment Committee’s report.
They include Sarah Adwo Safo, Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection; Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Minister-designate for Energy; Dr. Yaw Adutwum, Minister-designate for Education and Dominic Nitiwul, minister-designate for Defence.
The others are Albert Kan Dapaah, Minister-designate for National Security; Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Foreign Affairs & Regional Integration Minister-designate; Dan Botwe, Local Government, Decentralisation & Rural Development Minister-designate, Ambrose Dery, Minister-designate for Interior.
The rest are Ignatius Barfour Awuah, the minister-designate for Employment and Labour Relations and Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, minister-designate for Parliamentary Affairs were also approved.
However, these approvals were not arrived at without opposition from the Minority group in the House, which was so intense that some of the nominee’s were subjected to a secret ballot, which extended the sitting of the House from Wednesday night to about 3:00am the following day, Thursday.
Argument over when to commence debate
The sitting started with a disagreement between the two sides of the house on when the debate on the report should begin, after the eminent Appointments Committee, led by Mr Joseph Osei-Owusu, submitted its report to the House on Tuesday March 3.
Per Parliament’s Standing Order 80 (1), no motion shall be debated until at least forty-eight hours have elapsed between the date on which notice of the motion is given and the date on which the motion is moved, but when the motions are of urgent nature, they could be moved and debated.
The Speaker of Parliament had indicated in an earlier communication that the House has a lot to do before it goes on recess on March 30, hence members should co-operate with leadership of the House to achieve their targets.
Speaker Bagbin said the House will receive President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who is obligated by article 67 of the constitution to deliver to parliament a message on the State of the Nation at the beginning of each session of parliament and before the dissolution of parliament, as well as a presentation of Budget for the 2021 Financial year on Friday March 12, 2021 in accordance with 179 of the constitution.
Speaker Bagbin, therefore, expressed his confidence in members of the House to consider the report of the Appointment Committee within the next few weeks to facilitate government business.
Based on this and other considerations, the Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu moved the motion for the House to debate on the report of the Appointments Committee.
However, Minority Members of the House indicated that they had not received copies of the report on time and they couldn’t peruse it, and hence needed time to do so.
In fact, The Chronicle could also attest to the fact that some members received copies of the report at the time the motion for the debate to commence was moved. The majority side of the house, however, insisted that the debate should be taken.
This argument continued until the Speaker, based on the Standing Orders of the House, called for a voice vote and later a head count to determine when the debate should commence.
After the head count, those who advocated for the debate to be taken that evening won.
Arguments over meaning of ‘minority decision’
The Report presented by the Appointments Committee, which was duly signed by the Chairman, indicated that the committee had by consensus recommended 10 ministers whilst three others; Information Minister-designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Food and Agriculture Minister-designate, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto and Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hawa Koomson were recommended base on a “Majority Decision”.
By Parliamentary practices, ministers who are usually approved by consensus usually get easy improvement on the floor of the House and this was evident in the approval of the Ministers whom the committee indicated to have recommended them by consensus.
The difficulty sets in when debates on nominees recommended by “Majority Decision” ensues. On Wednesday, a debate ensued from both sides of the aisle over clarity in what was meant by a ‘majority decision’.
The minority’s quest for an explanation to the phrase “majority decision” was premised on the fact that minority members on the committee had come out with documents indicating that their side had rejected these three nominees.
On the Information Minister, Mr Oppong Nkrumah, the document said he had been rejected on three grounds.
First of all they were not satisfied with the answers he gave, regarding his private businesses. According to them, the Ofoase Ayeribi MP has 83% shares in a company called Oval Micro Finance.
They further state that he failed to admit ethical liability for the related party lending between Oval Micro Finance and West Brownstone, which they say belong to him.
Also, he has dealings with MX24 GH, a content creation, digital agency and media production house located in East Legon, of which he denied any direct association during his vetting.
Overall, the NDC MPs accused Mr Oppong Nkrumah of being “evasive” and “untruthful” with his answers during his vetting.
Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister-designate, Hawa Koomson, who was vetted on the same day was turned down mainly for a gun-shooting incident that occurred during the registration of voters in her constituency.
During her vetting, the 55-year-old admitted to firing warning shots in self-defence and apologised to the Committee and Ghanaians in general for her conduct.
Regarding the Minister-designate for Food and Agriculture, Dr Afriyie Akoto, he is accused of unilaterally cancelling a horticulture contract with the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority on January 11, 2021 without authority.
This cancellation, according to the Minority Group, was unauthorised as he was only a caretaker Minister. Further, the cancellation, they say, will lead to a $50 million judgment debt for the country.
Due to these reasons, the minority side of the House thought it was imperative for the committee to explain what it meant by “majority decision”.
Arguments from some leaders on what “majority decision” meant
Mr Muntaka Mubarak, the Minority Chief Whip and a member of the committee said the Chairman of the committee should take the report and amend it because the decision the committee took was a split decision and not a majority decision.
“When you look at the report on three of the nominees, it was said that it was by majority decision. Mr Speaker it was a split decision. I am saying split because it is 13:13. So Mr Speaker, I will recommend that Chairman will take the report and amend it so that we can make progress.”
However, the Majority leader of the House, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu indicated that the fact that the numbers on the committee are 13:13, does not mean the House should relate to it.
He explained that parliament’s Standing Orders provides that nobody is obligated to vote so the fact that there are equal numbers on the committee does not mean the voting will go in that direction.
“Regardless of the numbers, in committees, the standing orders of the house apply. The Order provides that in the plenary, nobody is under any obligation to vote so the mere fact that they are 26 and a decision is taken does not mean that it should reflect 13:13.
“People are not obligated to vote and that should be taken into consideration. So Mr Speaker, we can’t say that because they are 13:13, necessarily we must relate to 13:13. That is not the correct interpretation of our orders.”
“At the committee level, where consensus is usually the order of the day, we don’t carry party coloration to the committee level, we endeavour not to do that in order to build consensus. But where we cannot achieve consensus, then Mr Speaker, we resort to majority decision”.
He continued that the report from any committee is supposed to be a true reflection of what happens at the committee stage so he believes the committee’s decision is a true reflection of what transpired at the committee.
Mr Afenyo Markin, the Deputy majority leader and a member of the committee pleaded with his colleagues not to personalise the issues.
He said a majority decision is a majority decision and his colleagues should understand it that way.
He said they all worked together hence his colleagues should create the impression that the committee rejected any nominee because the committee didn’t.
“We are in this together. We cooperated during the committee hearing. Mr Speaker we are 26 members on the committee so I don’t want colleagues to create the impression some nominees have been rejected. The Committee has not rejected anybody.
“If by consensus we have recommended some and by majority decision some other three colleagues are suppose to be considered, then for those who have not really paid attention to the report, I want them to know that a majority decision is a majority decision.”
A vote on the three nominees
The Speaker first wanted to use a head count, but after unfavourable attempts in doing so, Speaker Alban Bagbin resorted to the use of a secret ballot to decide whether the nominees should be approved.
Booths were erected and ballots cast by the MPs on the floor. But before the process could commence, Speaker Bagbin advised members to vote in a civil manner and avoid what happened on January 7.
“And I plead with members to let us do this in a more civil manner. And this time around there is Speaker. On the 7th there was no speaker so you had your day. Today is my day and I will not take kindly to any disorder.”
After hours of voting, Food and Agriculture Minister-designate, Dr. Afriyie Akoto polled 143 Yes votes out of the 265 ballots issued, with one spoilt ballot, while Mavis Hawa Koomson also secured 161 votes and Mr Oppong Nkrumah accrued 155.
All three ministers-designate exceed 50% and that makes them eligible for approval per the Standing Orders of Parliament.
Eventually, all other nominees were approved in a voice vote.
The Speaker indicated that the list will be sent back to the Presidency as the certified individual to man the affairs at the various ministries.