The Executive Director of Parliamentary Network Africa, Sammy Obeng has raised concerns about the alarming rate of diminishing trust in Ghana’s legislative arm of government.
Ghana’s parliament is currently facing a trust deficit, following concerns about bribery and corruption allegations. In recent pasts, both the Minority and Majority caucuses have been accused by a section of the public of engaging in dubious concessions behind closed doors for either personal or party interests.
The controversies have resurfaced after Political Activist, also Convener of the Fixthecountry movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor, through social media posts alleged that monies are being giving to expedite the approval of the president’s minister-designates during partliament’s appointment committee vetting proceedings.
Although there has been evidence of a sort to substantiate the claim that the vetting committee receives some monies from the presidency, the purpose of such an approach is not the same as alleged. This was disclosed by Ace Investigative Journalists, Manasseh Azure Awuni through previous interviews with top parliamentary officials for his book “The President Ghana Never Got.”
Meanwhile, the allegations of bribery and corruption have been refuted by MPs and the appointment committee.
However, the Executive Director of Parliamentary Network Africa, Sammy Obeng believes that the proliferation of such accusations needs addressing as soon as possible to regain public trust. According to him, the reasons for such negative public perception need to be investigated.
“Just like Speaker Bagbin, in his first term as Speaker, instituted specific probe or research into how Civil Societies can work effectively with parliament, perhaps it is time they initiated a process into why these public perceptions about members of parliament and parliamentary committees and what can be done, make the findings known to us, use the findings to initiate internal reforms.”
“The Standing Orders of parliament currently provides for an ethics commissioner to be appointed to be able to do some of these things, including an ethics committee; how are they rolling out all these anti-corruption measures that parliament itself is looking at,” he said on JoyNews’ AM Show on Wednesday January 30, 2025.
Moreover, Mr. Obeng admitted that the issue of waning public trust in parliament is not perculiar to Ghana, adding that it is an issue many countries on the African continent are facing. However, countries that wish to deal with the situation adopt a “deliberate step which gets communicated, carries the citizenry along for the citizenry to know that we are trying to change the narrative.”
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