A member of the Appointment Committee of Parliament, Mahama Ayariga, has served notice to ministerial nominees that they will have to convince the committee of their competence and readiness to serve the nation before they are approved.
He cautioned that the committee would not be a rubber-stamp committee as it was the case previously and would be doing the citizenry a disservice “if they do not demand the best from the nominees.”
Mr Ayariga, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central in the Upper East Region, explained that “the nominees must prove that they are up for the task assigned to them by the president and you will have to justify your nomination by the president, and I think that is good for our country.
“We will be failing citizens if you come and you are not up to standard and we just pass you, I don’t think that the tax payer’s money, or with the kind of monies that are used to pay us to run the affairs of the public, it will be fair to the taxpayer that we lined up mediocre people to run public affairs.
“The make-up of the committee and Parliament is an opportunity for the MPs to advance the interest of Ghanaians, this current structure of Parliament provides an opportunity to screen people properly and if really they don’t meet the standards it will raise the red flags,” Mr Ayariga noted.
He assured that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs would not use the platform to settle personal scores or antagonise any appointee but rather would do a professional job and “if they are able to prove that they are not capable for the job, they would vote according to their conscience.
“If we are able to prove that you are not capable of the job, I think that we will vote according to our conscience, no MP is just going to go out there, massacring people out of personal or perceived antagonism towards particular nominees,” Mr Ayariga intimated.
The committee will from February 10, 2021, begin the vetting of the first batch of ministerial appointments made by President Nana Akufo-Addo. –ghanaweb.com
