Our Parliament Is Not Strong - Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu | Parliament

The majority leader and Minister for Parliament Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has said that the 8th Parliament of Ghana is not strong compared to previous Parliaments.

Speaking in a TV3 interview monitored by GhanaWeb, Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu explained that this appears so because parliament's committees are weak.

According to him, the leadership of some of these committees in the House are inexperienced.

“I generally agree that our Parliament is not strong. I keep saying that a Parliament is accessed on account of the strength of its committees. So, any Parliament is as strong as its committees are.

“Our committees are not that strong. That is one of the reasons why our Parliament is not very strong. I keep relating to the structure of our committees including the leadership of committees. In established democracies, the Parliament will vote on who becomes the leader of a particular committee.

“In our case, for instance, today, we happen to have some first-timers appointed as vice chairmen of committees even when we don't know their strengths. That cannot be good for Parliament,” he said.

He added that in established democracies, there is no way a newcomer in Parliament will be made a leader of a committee because the person at that point may not be able to grasp properly, the workings of the House.