Parliament on Thursday, December 8, 2022 voted on a censure motion seeking to remove the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta from office, albeit unsuccessful.
The voting process was done without the Majority New Patriotic Party Members of Parliament who had staged a walkout minutes before voting commenced.
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, however proceeded with proceedings of the house and asked the Clerk of Parliament to go on with the vote of censure.
All the 136 Members of Parliament from the National Democratic Congress who sponsored the motion were in the house to carry through their plans to get the finance minister out.
But after the secret voting, the Speaker announced the results:
“This house hereby resolved as follows, to pass a vote of censure on the minister responsible for finance. Those in favour, after the secret vote is 136, those against zero, abstention zero. Now in accordance with Article 82 (1) which reads: ‘Parliament may, by are solution supported by the votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of Parliament, pass a vote of censure on a Minister of State’. Following the terms of Article 82 (1), the vote is accordingly loss.”
Early on, before the walkout, the Majority Leader told the house that his side cannot support claims made against the minister because they cannot tell which of the claims are true and false.
“Mr. Speaker these are matters of serious and grave concerns. The matters raised against the Finance Minister are really serious matters…[they are matters] of criminality…political statements…let me end on the note of the Minority Leader.
“The Minority Leader in landing admitted that many of the allegations packaged, he said the Finance Minister notes that some of the issues that they have raised are true, they are right. What it means is that some of them are untrue, some of them are falsehood and you want us to vote?” Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu asserted.
He stated further, “Mr. Speaker, he didn’t point out which ones are true and which ones are not. And you want us to follow you on this misadventure, on this grotesque misadventure? Mr. Speaker, like Pontius Pilate we wash our hands, we wash our hands, we wash our hands off it.”
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, however proceeded with proceedings of the house and asked the Clerk of Parliament to go on with the vote of censure.
Without the participation of the Majority, the censure motion failed because the Minority could not get the183 Members of Parliament representing 2/3 of the house needed to vote in favour of the motion.
Background
The Minority caucus filed a motion of censure against the Finance Minister, accusing him of mismanagement of the economy, financial recklessness, conflict of interest, and gross mismanagement of the economy.
The 8-member ad-hoc committee which was set up by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to probe the motion brought against the Finance Minister presented its report to Parliament on November 25, 2022.
The house today, Thursday, 8th December 2022 debated the motion which centered on whether the House should vote to remove Mr Ofori-Atta from office or not.
Mr. KT Hammond, who is the co-chair of the committee that probed the allegations said they did not find a single piece of evidence to warrant the claims made against Ken Ofori-Atta.
“The committee was not able to come out with any findings,” he said on the floor of Parliament on Thursday.
But the co-chairman from the Minority side, Dr. Dominic Ayine insisted that they had “unassailable evidence” to get the minister out of office.