Chairman of Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has disclosed that the committee has so far approved 21 of President Nana Akufo-Addo’s ministerial nominees by consensus.
According to him, the Committee, however, approved the nomination of three nominees through a majority decision at the committee level, while the approval of five of them is still pending further investigations before approval.
“So far, we have vetted 29 substantive Ministers-designate out of the 30 apart from the regional ministers, we have approved 21 by consensus, three of them were approved by a majority decision and five nominees are still pending for further investigations before approval,” he told Adom FM’s Akua Boakyewaa Yiadom on current Affairs programme, Burning Issues.
The disclosure follows information circulating around that Minority MPs on the Appointments Committee on Monday, March 1, 2021, voted on the ministerial nominees vetted so far and have unanimously rejected three of the President’s nominees.
The report stated that Information Minister-designate Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mrs Mavis Hawa Koomson and Minister-designate for Food Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto has been rejected by the National Democratic Congress MPs on the committee for various reasons.
But commenting on the said rejection, the Chairman of the Appointments Committee stressed that the committee lacks the authority to disqualify a nominee but it can only recommend to plenary by either consensus votes or through a majority decision for the entire House to decide.
“We haven’t disqualified any nominee as being speculated around; it is not true,” Mr Osei-Owusu emphasised.
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The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament added that the Appointments Committee within a week will decide on the fate of the remaining five of the ministerial nominees after the said investigations.
The Bekwai legislator said the committee can only recommend disapproval or otherwise of a nominee even if the said nominee lied before the committee or commit a crime which prevents the person from holding public office for the entire House to decide on the nominee.
The Appointments Committee on Tuesday continued vetting of the regional ministers-designate, while the Minister-designate for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta is expected to appear before the committee on March 8, 2021.
The committee, in the coming weeks, will present their report to the plenary on President Nana Akufo-Addo’s nominees for consideration.