New MPs Have No Cars

After almost seven months of being in Parliament, new members are yet to be given their official Cars to facilitate their parliamentary duties.

This situation has resulted in low moral amongst a number of MPs from both sides of the house who have no means of transportation.

It would be recalled that during the last parliament each member was given about 2O million cedis to purchase a car of his/her choice.

Speaking to The Independent at the Parliament House on Tuesday, June 17,2001 a number of MPs expressed their disappointment about the way leadership of the house is handling the issue.

"All that we hear are rumours, there is no concrete information as to when we are getting our cars", an aggrieved MP told this reporter.

Parliament, the MP said, has put one bus at their disposal to convene them from Sakumono, where majority of them reside to the house, adding, "this arrangement causes a lot of inconvenience to them.

The MP observed that immediately after parliament closes one has to rush to catch the bus or find his /her own transport to Sakumono which in most cases is not easy.

According to the MP this arrangement has made it extremely difficult for them to go to other places to lobby for projects for their respective constituencies.

Some MPs who also talked to The Independent on the issue accused the leadership of the House for showing less concern about their plight.

"Most of the leaders in the house from both sides, Ministers and deputy Ministers have cars as such they don't see the seriousness of the issue", they alleged.

When The Independent contacted the deputy Majority Leader Papa Owusu-Ankomah to comment on the issue he said, "it is not strange because during the last parliament it took almost one year before we were given our cars".

Owusu-Ankomah, who is also the Youth and Sports Minister designate however said the NPP Government is doing everything possible to facilitate the mobility of the Members of Parliament.

"We want democracy to work in Ghana so whatever we will do to entrench the noble ideals of this system will not be taken for granted", he assured.

Meanwhile, a number of Motor Companies in Accra are showcasing their cars to members of parliament .The latest company is Mechanical Lloyd which displayed its BMW (520 i) with two litre injection going for $20, 000 approximately ?140 million and a double cabin Ford Ranger going for $19, 000 equivalent of ?133 million.