Ghana's Parliament to be inhabited by 'fat wallets' people - Majority Leader

Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu while speaking in an exclusive inertview on TV3 earlier today had stated that the Parliament of Ghana will soon be inherited by those with 'fat wallets'.

He stated while reacting to a report by the Centre for Democratic Governance and the Westminster Foundation, which disclosed that members of parliament spend close to 86,000 dollars to get elected into the House.

He further stated that the amount of money that goes into getting one elected to Parliament to become a lawmaker is rather paving way for those with the fat wallets to go in for the positions rather than those with experience on the issue of governance.

He said that the situation is devaluing the status of Parliament due to the fact that rather experienced Parliamentarians are being replaced with new comers and this is very alarming.

He said,“Parliament is not a one year affair, its not a two year affair, its not a one term matter. People need to be in parliament to mature in the business of legislation; passing laws and exercising their oversight responsibilities”.

Moreover, he said that MPs are mostly voted out after just one or two terms for new people to replace them, a trend he said does not inure to the benefit of the House that has lately been criticized for its work.

Touching on the issues some electorates base to vote MPs out of office, he said that some new comers are vibrant and display high technical know how in the Parliamentary works but care taking out because they did not pay monies to certain people in their constituencies. "Its a tragedy to our democracy" he stated.

“If we’re not careful, we’re going to have a situation where parliament is going to be inundated by people with fat wallet. We’re going to encourage money bags to take over parliament; not on the account of their knowledge, not on the account of their experience, not on the account of their demonstrable competence but on the account of the size of their wallet and that certainly cannot be good for us,” he warned.

In his estimation, Ghana’s parliament is taking a nosedive due to how the experienced MPs are being “peeled off”, which noted was in turn affecting the quality of debate that goes on in the House.

“Increasingly, our parliament is taking a nosedive. I must agree that occasionally you have one or two from among the new people who enter parliament who may come up strongly,” he observed.

He added: “by and large, those who peel off, on the average, are better materials than those who are replacing them, and if you keep doing that, then parliament’s image may suffer some battery” he warned.