Minister appoints himself as minister?

....NDC taunts Adjapong for `incredulous` claim
Accra (Chronicle) - Parliament was yesterday thrown into a state of controversy when majority leader, Felix Owusu Adjapong announced to the House that he had been nominated by the president to act in the interim, as Minister for Roads and Transport in the absence of a substantive minister.

“For your information, the president has appointed me to handle the ministry,” he told his colleague Parliamentarians.

The majority leader said this when the minority heckled him after reading the business statement of the House and indicated that the committee on Roads and Transport would be presenting the report on the annual estimates of the ministry.

Deputy Minority Leader, Doe Adjaho, who stood opposed to the statement, said there were rumours that the former Minister for Roads and Transport was running the ministry from his private office.

He added that for the rumours to be baseless, it is important for the government to come clear on the matter and appoint an interim cabinet minister to act, whilst a substantive one is appointed.

Adjaho stated that the minority was not going to tolerate the presence of any deputy minister coming to defend the annual estimates of the transport ministry unless appointed by the government.

The MP for Lawra Nandom, Benjamin Kumbuor, also added that the minister had appointed himself because transparency of state institutions required that anytime such appointments were made, the citizens ought to be informed.

He said the House does not know when the said appointment was made and at what particular point the responsibility was given to the minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

“The public needs to know,” he emphasised. The MP for Ashaiman, Alfred Agbesi, also told the House that questions related to the ministry was brought on the floor of the House to be answered but because members objected to the absence of a substantive minister, it was withdrawn.

He said if therefore the majority leader knows that he has been given the mandate to act in the interim, he should have come back to the House to inform them because the said questions were long overdue.

The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Freddy Blay, who was then in the chair directed that the leadership looked at the situation. He cut short the debate and proceeded with the business of the day.

It would be recalled that Dr. Richard Anane, the then Minister of Road and Transport, was said to have come to the conclusion of honourably quitting the job in order to avoid the humiliation of a possible dismissal by the president following the recommendation for his dismissal by the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) which found him culpable for the offences of conflict of interest and perjury.

Our sources at the presidency also revealed that the Minister came to the conclusion after a marathon meeting with the president on Wednesday evening. Even though the details of the meeting could not be captured, it is believed that the focus of the meeting was for the two to dialogue on how to reach a compromising position on the appropriate step to take as far as the recommendations of CHRAJ were concerned.