By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Minority Caucus in Parliament says it is not happy with the attitude being displayed by the newly appointed Minister for Roads and Highways, Mr. Francis Asenso-Boakye, towards parliament.
The Roads and Highways Minister has continuously been absent from parliamentary sessions where he is billed to answer questions and queries related to his ministry.
This has angered the leadership and members of the Minority Caucus, thus expressing their displeasure when highlighting the repeated absence of the Minister.
The Caucus, led by its leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, and the Chief Whip, Mr. Governs Kwame Agbodza, has therefore issued a strong warning to the Minister for Roads and Highways to turn away from such negative attitude.
According to the Caucus, the Minister has, on three separate occasions since his nomination to lead the Roads and Highways Ministry, failed to attend parliamentary sessions scheduled for him to respond to questions.
“The former Roads Minister, Mr. Kwesi Amoako-Atta, was extremely diligent to this House and appeared religious before this House and answered questions. It is not a good start for him (Mr. Asenso-Boakye) to fail to appear before us for the third time to answer his questions, and we will forgive him today,” they cautioned.
They also raised concerns over the delegation of a Deputy Minister for the sector, Mr. Stephen Jalulah, to deal with the questions on the floor of Parliament.
However, the Majority Chief Whip, Mr. Frank Annoh-Dompreh, believes the concern raised by the minority group is unnecessary.
“I think our colleagues should not raise the temperature unnecessarily with the greatest of respect because the Whip has indicated and has communicated duly your concerns, but I don’t know if repeating just for emphasis, but the fact must be told.
The early weeks that the member was nominated, he came to this House and answered a number of questions,” Mr Annoh-Dompreh explained.