Some MPs manipulate attendance sheet in Parliament – Sam George

Member of Parliament Ningo Prampram Sam George has claimed that some members of the House do not come to the chamber but manage to get their names on the attendance sheet of the house.

The claim was triggered from a protest from the chairman for the public accounts committee James Avedze Klutse who was marked absent even though he was present at a committee meeting.

“ Mr. Speaker this is an honourable house of parliament, can we all be truthful to ourselves and to God. That if we take today’s vote and proceedings, the names marked present were really present in this chamber or even at committee?

“There are some names that we can mention here that appear present everyday; we have never seen them here, even state of the nation address they don’t even attend yet the names appear. So is it that there is a way to get your name marked present even when you are not present? Maybe because I’m a first time member I have not been initiated yet. We need to really look at this carefully and find a true way of marking members present whether they are in the chamber or committee level,” the Ningo MP said on the floor of the House Thursday.

However, the MP for Okaikoi Central Patrick Yaw Boamah took exception to the comments and urged his colleague to be cautious of the remarks since it could create disaffection for MPs.

“He made an allegation and it is very dangerous, we have visitors and media personnel here, I want him to clarify; perhaps it was a slip of tongue that some people are always marked present. You see bad news travels and this is what might be reported. The image of this House keeps sinking everyday for the conduct of some members”.

Meanwhile, a new survey has suggested about 49.5% of Ghanaians will vote out their Members of Parliament (MPs) over poor performance if elections were held today.

The Survey conducted by the Political Science department at the University of Ghana had 42.6% of the respondents ready to retain their lawmakers with 7.9% of the respondents still undecided.

Also, a majority of the respondents representing 46.7% do not want their incumbent MPs to contest in 2020 general elections while 42.4% want their MPs to contest with 10.9% still undecided on whether their MPs should contest or not.