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According to the Service, the Speaker is working in the interest of the legislature while the majority leader has joined forces with the executive arm of government to undermine the former’s effective running.
“It is interesting that instead of the Majority Leader supporting the efforts to ensure adequate budgetary provision for Parliament to which he belongs, he chose to nail his mast with the executive to starve Parliament of the required funds to operate effectively,” the Parliamentary Service said in a statement issued by the Public Affairs Directorate of Parliament on Friday.
It denied claims by the majority leader that Speaker Bagbin is deliberately employing clandestine means to frustrate the government business.
It went further to emphasise that the Speaker “has no intentions to do anything that will jeopardise the forward march of this country.”
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Responding to claims that the Speaker is to blame for all the violence and rancour that have characterised the 2022 budget which contains the controversial electronic transaction levy (E-levy), the statement said Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu got it all wrong.
“It is not the duty of the Speaker to reject or approve budgets. Approval or rejection is determined only by Members of Parliament.
“The expenditure has gone through the required parliamentary processes. What is outstanding is the revenue.
“The picture that the Majority Leader sought to paint with his comments is therefore erroneous,” the statement said as quoted by 3news.com.
The Parliamentary Service’s statement follows claims by Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu on Thursday, December 23 at a press conference that Speaker Bagbin is carrying through an alleged threat to cause the rejection of the budget unless about 2 percent of the government’s total revenue is allocated to Parliament.