Bagbin prays to God for a Ghana where evil and poverty shall be done away with

Speaker of Parliament Alban Bgabin has, in his opening prayers for the sitting in Parliament on Wednesday June 22, prayed to God to help Ghana become a country where evil and poverty shall be done away with.

He also prayed to the almighty for country where there shall be enough to feed the people.

“Oh God, grant us a vision of our country, fair as it might be, a country of righteousness where none shall wrong his neighbours, a country of plenty, where  evil and poverty shall be done away with, a country of brotherhood, where all success shall be founded on service and honour shall be given to the deserving a country of peace where government shall rest on the will of the people and the love for the common good,” he prayed.

He later suspended sitting as Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta was yet to appear on the floor.

Mr Ofori-Atta is scheduled to answer questions on a number of issues including the government expenditure on Covid-19. The Finance Minister incurred the wrath of the Speaker when he was unable to show up in in the House last week to render the account.

Mr Bagbin earlier said that the House was not going to entertain any business from the Finance Ministry until Mr Ofori-Atta appeared before the House to account for Covid-19 funds.

Mr Bagbin said in the House on Thursday June 16 that a lot of questions have been asked about how the government spent the funds, questions he said require answers from the Finance Minister.

“Yes, last week, for good reasons, [his appearance in parliament] wasn’t possible and usually the Business Committee is given the opportunity to do the allotting. So the Minister for Finance was allotted today to come and answer a number of questions. The Minister is not available today, we are told.

“The Minister spoke to me why he is not available today but before today, I had given a directive and that directive was to the effect that the Minister should appear before this House to account for monies that we approved for him to use to lead the country as a ministry for us to see how we respond to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“A lot of questions have been raised in respect of that so he should come to account to the good people of how that state resources have been applied by his Ministry to the benefit of the people. I did indicate that until that is done, the motion that requested the approval of this house, for more monies to be given him, that is his ministry, for the purpose of Covid-19 be on the hold until he answers the questions, I think that still holds.

“I will go further to say that until the answer is provided, until he goes through the accountability process, we will not take that motion. With respect to the questions, well, today he has another request before us, that will also be affected, until he comes to respond to the questions and to submit the statement, given explanation, as to how that money has been applied, we will not entertain any business from that ministry, mark my words,” Mr Bagbin said.

Source: 3news.com|Ghana