The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has lamented the dire financial constraints Parliament is currently facing. According to the Speaker, he has stopped approving financial commitments of the house due to the constraints.
Speaking in Parliament, the Speaker called out the Minister for Finance for starving the House of funds. “It is not because I like declining your requests. It is because we don’t have the wherewithal to fund those operations.”
Mr. Bagbin also suggested that Parliament was deserving of more respect than it currently got. “The Ministry of Finance should not treat Parliament like a ministry or NGO,” he said. “This is an arm of government. We are not part of the MMDAs. We have even been written to, to reduce our budget in some cases by 50 percent,” he complained.
He further stressed that he would take responsibility for these financial constraints. “If they want Parliament to run aground, they should let us know. The Speaker is not ready and prepared to be blamed for the inability to get Parliament going on just because we are not getting the necessary funding.”
