MPs shouldn’t be ministers – GIMPA Rector advocates

The Rector of Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has advocated that contrary to the current provision in the constitution, Members of Parliament (MP) should not be appointed ministers.

Prof. Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson speaking at the maiden Constitution Day lecture said burdening one person with the responsibility of handling these two keys positions impedes development.

“I believe that MPs should not be ministers not that there is not a good case for MPs being ministers because in some democracies we do have that but how has it worked?,” the GIMPA Rector quizzed during a lecture at the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra Monday, to mark Constitution Day.

To buttress his point, Prof. Bondzi-Simpson explained that, “There is so much business to be done in a country that is hungry for development and I even suggest that there are so many competent people out there if you choose to be MP, that is what you chose to do for four years, go and do MP work.”

According to him, “At least if you get it [MP], you are guaranteed your job for the period unless you absent yourself from a number of sittings [in parliament] and you are kicked out but focus on that, be compensated for it and do the work.”

Article 78 (1) of the 1992 constitution allows for some Members of Parliament to be made Ministers of State. 

It states that: “Ministers of State shall be appointed by the President with the prior approval of Parliament from among members of Parliament or persons qualified to be elected as members of Parliament, except that the majority of Ministers of State shall be appointed from among members of Parliament.”

But the GIMPA Rector stressed that one should not “encumber MP position, encumber minister position and you are not doing both well…this is a case of serving two masters and despising one….” 

“…the country not should move in that direction,” he urged.

Source: Myjoyonline