Be Measured With Your Criticisms – Annoh-Dompreh To Muntaka

Frank Annoh-Dompreh the Majority Chief Whip, has advised his colleague on the Minority side, Alhaji Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka to be measured in his criticism of the government in relation to the release of funds for Parliamentary business.

Speaker Alban Bagbin, on Friday, May 27, stated that Parliament does not have the wherewithal to fund some of its operations.

He attributed the development to the delay by the Ministry of Finance to release the needed funds to Parliament.

"Parliament is currently being run on arrears and the House should not be treated as one of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)," he said.

The Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, debunked the Speaker's assertion and stated at a press conference that an outstanding amount of GH₵25 million allocation for goods and services had been released at the time the Speaker was telling the whole world that the institution is broke.

Addressing Annoh-Dompreh's rebuttal, Muntaka explained that the GH₵25 million allocation for goods and services for Parliament was to clear arrears and that Parliament has not received funds this year apart from salaries.

Speaking on Joy FM's Top Story on Monday, Annoh-Dompreh insisted that “it is not correct for somebody to say that apart from salaries for 2022, no release has been made.”

“The delay he knows … is coming from us as an institution, because (of) the collation of data, some MPs have changed their accounts, some MPs have made some amendments to their data that we needed to supply and it took some time before we supplied this data to the National Health Insurance Authority and when it was done, the payment has gone through,” he explained.

The Member of Parliament for Nsawam-Adoagyiri added that the delay in the release of funds and salaries is due to administrative reasons.

“I do not agree with the drama with which our colleagues are speaking. These delays are not new. I think they are blowing it out of proportion but we take it in good strides,” he said in response to a submission by Muntaka on the financial status of the House.

Annoh-Dompreh, therefore, asked the Minority to criticise but to do so “with a bit of modicum of consideration.”