Vice-Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee, Patrick Yaw Boamah, has said if he had his way, members of the House will reject a $28 million loan requested by the Finance Ministry to procure 275 vehicles for them.
“If I have the power, I will ask my colleagues to reject the facility. For a simple reason that all the other arms of government, vehicles are procured for them.
“So I think we need to interrogate it, if the public thinks that Members of Parliament (MPs) don’t deserve a vehicle to work with, we should know so that we know our limitations and what the Finance Minister can do to support our work,” he told JoyNews’ Joseph Opoku Gakpo, Wednesday.
The Finance Ministry on Tuesday, July 6, presented to Parliament, a request by the government for a $28 million loan from the National Investment Bank to procure vehicles for the 275 MPs and another for a $3.5 million car loan for members of the 8th Council of State for them to purchase vehicles.
Addressing the floor of the House, Deputy Finance Minister, Abena Osei Asare, said that the medium-term $28 million loans is to be paid back by the members in the course of their four-year term as MPs.
This request has, however, been condemned by members of the general public and scores on social media. According to many, procuring such a loan amidst the adverse effects of Covid-19 on the economy is not the right step to be taken by the government.
In response to the public concerns, Mr Boamah noted that MPs should not be subjected to public bashing.
This, he said, is because a percentage of his salary has been deducted from February this year to cater for the loan to be procured in July if approved by the House.
“Before I started taking my salary in the eighth Parliament, I was given a notice that from February, a certain amount of money will be deducted from my salary in anticipation of this loan which is yet to be approved in July.
“So from February, I started paying even though I hadn’t seen the loan, ” he said.
According to Mr Boamah, it is not out of the ordinary for MPs to be provided vehicles just as members of the Executive and Judiciary are provided with vehicles to carry out their duties.
“From the President, down the line to Ministers. You have seen Ministers, they come here with official vehicles. Nobody complains. The members of the judiciary, they do, nobody has complained, MPs are not having it for free, they are procuring a loan that one there is a problem.
“Nobody has asked why the State, from the Executive and the Judiciary, is given vehicles without having to procure a loan. That is why I am saying, if I have my way, I will tell the MPs to reject the loan and ask government to procure vehicles for us to use in the performance of our duties, after four years, we leave the vehicles for them,” he reiterated.
The Vice-Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee further suggested another alternative, “if we all agree, we must buy a stationed vehicle so that when you are going to your constituency or you are going on an official assignment, you get a driver from Parliament, takes you, you come back and park the car and you buy your own car from your salary.”