Ministerial vetting: Get the best people to lead the country – ACEPA

Dr Rashid Draman, the Executive-Director of the Africa Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) has urged members of the Appointment Committee of Parliament to properly screen the ministerial nominees submitted to the house by President Akufo-Addo.

Dr Rashid Draman in a GhanaWeb interview appealed to the committee to ensure that the ministers who will get their approval have established themselves as persons worthy of leading the country.

Ahead of the vetting, there have been allegations of bribery against the minority side of the house.

There is growing concern that the incident that occurred four years ago when then Energy Minister nominee Boakye Agyarko allegedly offered bribes to some NDC will reoccur.

Dr Rashid Dramani admonished the MPs to do well to spare Ghanaians some of these controversies.

He expects that the appointees who served in the first term of President Akufo-Addo will be interrogated on the roles they played.

“I just want to appeal to the honorable members to spare us another round of ordeal this time around. The MPs have sent a message that the vetting will be serious this time. They are going to hold people accountable for their stewardship particularly those who have held positions in the last four years. I think that should be the focus and they should do well to get the best people to lead the country”, he told GhanaWeb.

Looking into the future, Dr Draman called for the decentralization of the vetting process.

He proffered that the nominees should be vetted by the sectoral committees in Parliament.

“As it happens in most countries, you need to move to a situation where we don’t have an omnibus committee like the appointment committee to vet ministerial nominees. Rather we look at a decentralized method where competent committees carry out these tasks. For example, if it’s the Finance Minister, he or she is vetted by the finance committee”, he said.