8th Parliament will be the most corrupt Parliament if care isn't taken – UPSA lecturer

Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) Dr. Kwaku Mensah Mawutor has indicated that if care is not taken, this 8th Parliament will be the most corrupt Parliament in the history of the Fourth Republic given the current composition.

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has 137 and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) also has 137.

There is one Independent Member of Parliament who has declared his support for the governing side.

Analysts have indicated that there is going to be a lot of consensus building in the legislature following the numbers that the two major parties control in the House.

But speaking on this development in an interview with Johnnie Hughes on the New Day show on TV3, Monday, January 11, Dr. Mensah Mawutor said “For the past few days, we have been hearing different school of thoughts that we are going to have the best of parliament that things will be done on a consensus basis. But where some of us sit, I can tell you that, if care is not taken this particular parliament will be the most corrupt in the history of this nation.”

He added, “we are now at the crossroads where Ghana as a whole could benefit from this parliamentary setup, where we are now witnessing the two political parties have equal numbers, the determinant being the Independent MP, so one school of thought will say that issues will be discussed dispassionately and move away from partisan influence”.

“However, recounting the numerous allegations by MPs, as well as people outside parliament, we’ve heard a number of institutions who have ever dealt with parliament alleging that some of the bills they send they have to pay out and reach out and at any given point in time they will be invited and then, as usual, you have no evidence, if the one who pays the bribe is also accused and then in the eyes of the law you have broken the law, it will be very difficult for them to accept that yes indeed I paid bribe, so you wouldn’t get any evidence” he stated.

Dr. Mawutor answered that “the lobbyist will have to pay more, in the sense that, with the previous parliamentary setup, we had a political party which was in majority so if truly people paid bribes and all those things, what it means is that you can only pay a section of the members in there, but this time you will have to convince the entire house, which will be expensive for the lobbyist”.

He further stated that, notwithstanding all these, “we want a good legislature where people can go to parliament to have good intellectual discourse to come out with good acts that emanate from the august house.

“I have dealt with parliament before, I quite remember when we were changing our name from “IPS” to “UPSA” I was part of the committee that met the educational committee of parliament from both sides, I did not witness any bribery, however, we heard some of these allegations but if you want evidence to be given by the giver, you wouldn’t get.”