Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has taken a swipe at the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, blaming him for the recent happening in Parliament.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) lawmaker reveals the Speaker had warned the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, that without allocating about 2% of the country’s total revenue to Parliament, “his budget is going to be thrown out”.
Addressing journalists in Accra on Thursday, December 23, the longest-serving Member of Parliament said he met the top hierarchy of the clergy over Monday’s melee in Parliament and it is high time he made the truth known.
“Distinguished colleagues, I told you that some clergy men, the cream of Christendom in the country have met me [and] I am not going to speak for a long time but the people of this country should know what is leading all of us into this crisis.
“GH¢1.72 billion for what? He says that he has information that the total revenue of this country was going to be GH¢89 billion and that the Finance Minister should give him 2 percent of it and that works to GH¢1.72 billion.
“If he doesn’t give Parliament GH¢1.72 billion, then his budget is going to be thrown out. He was going to make sure the budget is rejected.”
In the absence of the Speaker last Monday, a free-for-all fight broke out between Minority and Majority members with the bill on the Electronic Transfer Levy not discussed.
The House has since adjourned to Tuesday, January 18, 2022.
“I am hoping that this period that we have between now and the 18th of January, we will be able to get to the bottom of this and rally behind as one people with a common destiny and not submit to the whims and caprices of just one individual.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana