CHAIRMAN of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), James Klutse Avedzi, has hinted that all ministers serving on PAC would soon be replaced with Members of Parliament (MPs) who are not ministers to avoid issues of conflict of interest and ensure efficiency in the work of the committee.
According to chairman of the committee, the replacement would be done as soon as the House resumes sitting in May 2017.
Mr. Avedzi, who is also the Deputy Minority Leader, revealed this on Thursday, April 27, 2017 when some officials of Ministry of Health (MoH) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) appeared before the committee to respond to queries in the Performance Audit Report of the Auditor-General on the disposal of government vehicles.
The move follows concerns raised by some members of the committee over the appearance of Deputy Minister of Health, Mr. Kingsley Aboakye-Gyedu, before the committee who also happened to be the Ranking Member of the Committee.
MP for Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, who raised the issue, suggested that he stepped aside in the interest of the committee to avoid a possible conflict of interest and wondered how he can be a judge and a witness in his own court.
But chairman of the committee explained that the situation would not be permanent as plans had been put in place to reconstitute the committee as soon as the House resumes in May.
He pointed out that, although this has been a regular practice, there had been several attempts to get ministers of state on parliamentary committees replaced but yielded no positive results.
He however, ruled that the deputy minister of health who is the MP for Bibiani Anweaso Bekwai should be allowed to sit in for the substantive minister, Mr. Agyemang Manu, but will not be allowed to take any oath.
This compelled the deputy minister to sit quietly throughout the proceedings without uttering a word.
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