The Speaker of
Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, has lamented over instances where the state
has been shortchanged in some agreements brought before the House due to gaps
in some of the conditions of such agreements.
“Sometimes
when you just look at the financials, and see there is much per cent of soft
facility in that particular loan, you tend to think that, if they are giving us
an amount plus half, then it looks good, but what is the real value on which
the said amount has been worked on,” he bemoaned.
Speaking at a
training workshop organised by Parliamentary Training Institute in Accra at the
weekend, Prof. Oquaye indicated that Parliament would have to do more to give
value for money in the signing of international agreements.
The training which was premised on provisions of
the constitution which mandates Parliament to ensure that the nation conducted
international affairs in compliance with public international law and diplomacy
and that Parliament must approve all loans taking into consideration any
interest payment and impact on the economy.
According to
Prof. Oquaye, “it has become ostensible for Members of Parliament to
become acquainted with the law and international best practices to ensure that
the state benefits fully from all international agreements because there are
things that even when it has been given to you as a gift, you have to be careful
in accepting them, those are the dynamics that experts are able to put together
in a multi-disciplinary approach.”
Majority
Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu stated that equipping legislators with the
requisite skills and knowledge would help in identifying various ways in
protecting the public purse and insisted that “what do we do with the
Auditor-General’s report? Should it come to parliament before or should the
Attorney-General, once he finishes with his business, go public and condemn
people? Yet, when the report comes, parliament interrogates it only to realise
that the Auditor-General has made a lot of mistakes, what do we do?” -citinewsroom.com
