Top 5 Major Achievements Of The Old Minority Leadership In Parliament

The term in office for the outgoing minority leadership in Parliament might have been over for now, but their works in parliament during their tenure speaks for themselves.

They made a tremendous impact in Parliament for the last six years when they were nominated to lead the minority in parliament by the opposition, National Democratic Congress(NDC).

The old Minority leadership in Parliament included Haruna Iddrisu as the leader, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak as Minority Chief Whip and  James Klutse Avedzi as Deputy Minority Leader.

The Ghana Report takes a look at five major achievements that were chalked under their tenure.

1. Ken Ofori-Atta dragged before a vote of the censure committee

In their quest to get the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, to resign, the Minority, led by Haruna Iddrisu and Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson (the new Minority Leader), initiated a parliamentary process to remove the minister.

He was eventually dragged before an ad hoc committee that was set up by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to look into the vote of censure motion brought before the House.

It was another historic moment, seeing that in the history of the country, this was only the second time that a minister of state was facing a vote of censure.

The Speaker of Parliament, after reviewing the report presented to him by the committee called for a vote to be taken on the motion.

The Majority however staged a walkout, leaving their colleagues on the other side of the House to deliberate alone, but they were unable to get the motion passed because they failed to make up the needed numbers to pass it.

The vote of censure eventually failed.

2. Enormous effort in Probing COVID-19 expenditure

On Thursday, June 2, 2022, Haruna Iddrisu led the Minority in Parliament to demand that a probe be made into the expenditure that has been made so far in the country’s fight against the Coronavirus.

According to him, the Minority is vindicated by the fact that a leading member of the NPP publicly disclosed that COVID funds were shared among party executives.

His comment followed claims that some COVID-19 monies had been shared among NPP members.

”As much as we feel vindicated, we also feel equally scandalized by emerging reports by leading members of the NPP in particular, a leading Vice-Chair called Felicia Tetteh, who is publicly reported to have said that COVID monies were shared among party leadership, constituencies, regional and for my purposes, I add national,” he said in a press conference.

Haruna Iddrisu further stated their demand for an immediate investigation into the matter.

“That in fact makes our call for an imminent investigation of the highly anomalous COVID expenditure spending to be probed. We now can understand why a motion by the Minority in Parliament to probe COVID by an institution which should be the most fundamental institution and guardian of the public purse, parliament, will dismiss the motion even at birth by actors of the New Patriotic Party political administration,” he added.

In August 2022, the probe eventually started.

The Auditor-General’s report on covid-19 has indeed vindicated the position of NDC and called for an expenditure probe.

The Auditor-General’s report revealed some infractions in the government’s expenditure for Covid-19 from March 2020 to June 2022.

Some of the corrupt practices that were uncovered include; paying a total of US$607,419.02 out of US$4,049,460.12 for the purchase of 26 ambulances that were never delivered, paying unapproved GH ₵151,500 by the Information Ministry to its own staff as Covid insurance, and paying for $80 million worth of vaccines by the government that was never delivered, amongst others.

 

3. Rejection of 2022 budget

On November 26, 2021, the Haruna Iddrisu-led minority in parliament chalked up another historic feat when they rejected the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy that was presented to the House.

The statement was presented by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

On the day, parliament was expected to bring finality to its debate of the budget, and eventually approve it, but things spiraled differently.

In a turn of events, the majority of MPs staged a walkout of the House, leaving only members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) side to decide on the budget.

They eventually voted for the rejection of the budget, making it the first time such a thing had happened in the country.

However, days later, there was a reverse move by the Majority when they resumed sitting. They overturned the earlier decision of the Speaker of Parliament, who was absent on that day, led by the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a member of the NPP, Joseph Osei-Owusu.

4. Got E-Levy rate reduced from 1.75% to 1.5% and eventually to 1%

Through the influence of the Minority, the initially proposed 1.75% Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) that was presented to parliament, was reduced to 1.5%.

The controversial E-Levy bill which has since become law, allows the government to tax all digital money platforms, such as Mobile Money services, and has recently been reviewed downwards to 1%.

5. NDC Speaker of Parliament from the Minority side:

It was the first of its kind when it emerged that, for the first time in Ghana’s history, the person who had been elected to be the Speaker of Parliament was from the minority side of the House.

Alban Bagbin, who had not long ago said his goodbyes to contesting the seat of the Nadowli/Kaleo constituency ( the seat he held from 1992 until 2020), beat the incumbent Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye to become the Speaker of Parliament.

His election coincided with the historic 8th Parliament of Ghana, which is the first hung Parliament ever in the country, with a split of 137 seats each on both sides of the House.

However, the only independent Member of Parliament for Fomena who was elected the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Andrew Asiamah Amoako votes for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The election of Alban Bagbin as Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament remains, perhaps, the biggest achievement of the Haruna Iddrisu administration.