Agyapa deal: Parliament needs consultants – Majority leader

Majority leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu has called for the engagement of experts and consultants in various fields in specific parliamentary duties.

This he says will augment the work of the House to deal with pertinent technical arrangements that need independent assessment.

His call comes on the back of the renewed controversies surrounding the Agyapa minerals royalties deal.

He also lashed out at claims by the minority that they were not given adequate time to peruse the deal.

Speaking to the media in parliament Wednesday. Mr Mensah-Bonsu said “the main cracks of Haruna’s  [minority leader] intervention is that they didn’t have time, they were given only four hours. Which he knows between him and his God was a palpable untruth.”

“On two days, at least, we had to tarry because he was to go up north. And he pleaded with me that we should hold on until he returned and we did so. So, for him, to say that we had only four hours, to me, I think parliament doesn’t work that way. Playing to the gallery doesn’t work that way, it doesn’t help anybody.”

He went on “let’s respond to truths. Is it true that parliament was given only four days, that’s a palpable untruth. We had more than four days to work on this. That doesn’t mean that whatever parliament or any Parliament anywhere in the world does is sacrosanct. There’s no Parliament in the world that is beyond reproach.”

On the call for independent assessment, he said “especially given our own circumstance when we don’t have experts to independently consult to give us their opinion about that. And we must be working to improve that in order for us to improve the quality of our own positions on matters.”

“We are not experts, all of us are not experts in the various fields. It is important that we are able to engage consultants and experts and we don’t take whatever comes from government as a giving.”

He added “so, we must work to improve the conduct of business in the house. That one yes, I agree. But for anyone to say we didn’t do good work, we had four hours, that’s untrue.”

Source: Starrfm.com.gh