In a statement, the Bekwai lawmaker said his boss’ choice of word was “totally unreflective of my conduct.”
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Speaker Bagbin's comments about me are unfair - Joseph Osei-Owusu
The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu has expressed displeasure about the description of his recent ruling by Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as “unconstitutional, illegal and offensive”.
Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin and deputy Joseph Osei Owusu
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According to him, he has chosen over the period not to respond to the Speaker publicly but was compelled to set the records straight this time around.
“…characteristically elected not to comment on Mr Speaker’s statement in public in order not to create the impression that there’s tension between him and his Deputy,” Joe Wise said in a statement.
He explained that the Speaker had admitted the motion in question but it doesn't stop him from having a different view on the matter.
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On Wednesday, Bagbin condemned what he referred to as the penchant of his deputy to overrule his decisions after the first deputy speaker dismissed a motion to constitute a bipartisan Committee to probe into the government’s Covid-19 expenditure.
Bagbin’s anger stems from the fact that he had admitted the motion in question but his deputy later ruled that the admission was wrong in the first place.
“Although our standing orders are silent on this, many standing orders and rules from several sister Parliaments provide persuasive rules that suggest that when Deputy speakers are acting as speakers, whatever happens in the House is that officer’s responsibility. The Speaker cannot be called upon to overrule it.
“Similarly, the reverse is also the case, that when a speaker is in the chair, whatever happens in the House is the Speaker’s responsibility and the Deputy Speaker or Acting Speaker cannot be called to overrule it,” the speaker said on the floor of parliament.
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Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam MP, Ato Cassiel Forson moved the motion which sought the House to constitute a bi-partisan committee to look into the government’s Covid-19 expenditure.
But Osei-Owusu who was sitting in the absence of the substantive Speaker threw out the motion.
According to him, there is already the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that will eventually have the opportunity to probe government officials over the Covid-19 expenditure when the Auditor-General sends its report to the house.
“There is no doubt that in putting the question when the record showed that there were less than half of all members of Parliament in the chamber Mr speaker had contravened Order 109 (1) of the Standing Orders and more importantly Art 104(1) of the 1992 Constitution. The purported decision of the house was a nullity and I rightly so declared it,” Osei-Owusu ruled.
Meanwhile, the NDC Minority in Parliament has hinted t it will refile the same motion to ensure that the government accounts to the people of Ghana how it expended all Covid-19 funds.
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