Some Members of Parliament have expressed over recent the ranking of their performance by some civil society groups and are requesting the leadership of the house to seriously act to halt such surveys.
According to them such reports only create a bad image for the house. Their comments were with reference to a recent survey conducted by Odekro; a civil society organization that focuses on activities of the legislature.
The survey, released on Monday identified about 19 MPs of the 6th Parliament who were tagged as silent MPs due to their failure to contribute to deliberations on the floor of the house all through their four year stay.
But the according to the member of Parliament for Effutu, Alexander Afenyo Markin, the survey was in error as it was done without a proper understanding of parliamentary business.
Contributing to a motion for the adoption of the constitution of various committees of the 7th Parliament, the Effutu legislator said, “The work we do is not only limited to what we do at committees or the plenary. People travel on delegation, members are also nominated as ministers and they perform their ministerial functions. Members go to their constituencies to do constituency works. So it is important that some of these organizations are well brief with respect to their work that we do.”
“We are in an enterprise of politics where perception is a driving force, so if your constituents perceive you to be a non-performer merely because your voice was not heard or that you were absent, meanwhile you were on official assignment, that is a serious matter,” he added.
He further charged CSOs interested in learning about the activities of parliament to acquire the appropriate information from the leadership of the house.
“I will plead with leadership, to take a serious view of this matter as we undertake our job as the 7th parliament. All those Civil Society Groups who are interested in knowing about our work should come to parliament and meet leadership for proper briefing.”
‘Odekro reports on MPs’ performance’
Odekro in its report released on January 24, 2017 ranked the vociferous Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong among the 50 worst performing MPs of the 6th parliament. The report also named the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Anthony Akoto Osei as the best performing MP. Other best performing MPs according to the report were James Klutse Avedzi, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, Papa Owusu-Ankomah and Alexander Afenyo-Markin.
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