E-levy: Muntaka warns Clerk over errors on register; asks him to sit up

Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak has cautioned the Clerk of Parliament to sit up and avoid the mistakes that were made in the register for Tuesday’s sitting when the e-levy was approved.

He described the errors as unforgivable because in his view, they were deliberate.

“The most unforgivable error that I call it deliberate mistake. With the greatest of respect Mr Speaker, we just want to sound caution to our clerk, it is unjust and the Clerk must sit up because knowing the day and the issues on that day he should have been interested to go through to make sure everything was captured properly,” he said on the floor of the House.

The Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin apologized to Members of Parliament for the error. Mr Bagbin admitted that errors did occur and took ultimate responsibility for the mistakes.

He said on the floor on Thursday March 31 that the clerk is only a civil servant and asked that claims that the clerk is partisan be deleted from the records.

“If you look at the attendance register for that day definitely, there are errors, I will take responsibility and apologize to members for these errors,” he said.

Mr Bagbin further indicated that there is no perfect votes and proceedings which is an official report capturing Parliamentary debate, anywhere in the world.

Errors, he said, are anticipated to occur hence, provisions have been made available to correct those mistakes.

He said this after the Minority had said errors were made on the votes of proceedings for Tuesday’s sitting when the e-levy was approved by the House.

The Speaker commended the Minority lawmakers for bringing this up for the necessary corrections to be made.

“There not votes and proceedings anywhere that are perfects,” Mr Bagbin said adding that “…the draft is brought to the house giving opportunity to members to right the wrongs that they have been captured on the votes and proceedings.”

“So rightly you have come and corrected, what you have done is right, we will go through properly and correct the errors,” he said.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) lawmakers have sued the Attorney General following the approval of the e-levy by Parliament on Tuesday March 29.

The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu described the approval as illegal and unconstitutional because in their view, the Majority did not have the right numbers to pass it.

“This is a charade,” he said at a press conference in Parliament, adding that “there is no E-levy.”

“The majority of less than 137 conducting businesses only proceeded on illegal and unconstitutional business. Parliament did not have the numbers to take any decision that should binding Parliament and Ghanaians,” he added.

They therefore decided to sue over the development.

Source: 3news.com|Ghana