The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has recommended that certain Presidential appointments be made with the approval of Parliament.
During his vetting for the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs portfolio, he suggested that certain constitutional and statutory amendments in that regard, would make Parliament more effective.
Mr. Mensa-Bonsu noted that, Parliament for instance must have a say in who becomes the Auditor-General, so that it is not only done with the President acting in consultation with the Council of State.
“Parliament is barred from directing the attention of the auditor general to some malfeasance. We need to look at that,” the Majority leader stated. The seven-term MP lamented that Parliament had ostensibly been cut off and this could leave the country at the mercy of an overly partisan President.
“In the appointment of certain constitutional bodies, our Parliament has been cut off. We need to get our Parliament to be much more consultative. For instance the appointment of the Electoral Commissioner, I am not too sure that what we have is the best.
If you have a President who is overly partisan, he packs the place with his own party supporters nation will be in peril.” “I should think that we should have an arrangement where a President may do the appointments, but he may require the support of maybe two-thirds of the Members of Parliament.
That will force the President to be much more engaging and much more consultative.” Promoting career parliamentarians Mr. Mensah Bonsu also suggested that, going forward, Presidents should consider appointing people with critical skills as ministers from outside Parliament.
“If we want to follow the strict executive presidency, the time has come for us, in order to promote career parliamentarians, to have the President to appoint his ministers from outside Parliament and liberate Parliament to be able to do their work,” he explained.
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