The Minister-designate for parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has bemoaned the executive’s continuous sidelining of parliament in appointing some key officers of certain constitutional bodies.
According to him, for parliament to effectively supervise the executive, there is the need to amend some of the country’s constitutional provisions to encourage and deepen the role of parliament.
“In respect of when the constitution provides that…in the appointment of the Auditor General for instance, and in times of need only, the president in consultation on the advice of the Council of State, who could direct them to do some work…Parliament cannot and yet the Auditor General is supposed to be the tool for parliament in the performance of our oversight responsibilities.
“Parliament is barred from directing the attention of the Auditor General to some malfeasance; we need to look at that,” he told the committee.
“In the appointment of certain constitutional bodies our parliament has been cut off…we need to get our presidents to be much consultative,” he added.
Using the appointment of the commissioner for the Electoral Commission as basis for his argument, the majority leader said “and if you have a president who is overly partisan, he packs the place with his own party supporters the nation will be imperiled.”
He thus called for an arrangement where the president would do the appointment, but require the support of may be two-thirds of the members of parliament.
“That will force the president to be much more engaging and much more consultative,” he said.
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