Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Majority leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has lamented the high attrition rate in Parliament.
According to him, the high attrition of Members of Parliament is proving very detrimental to Parliamentary work.
He argued that the longer an MP stays in Parliament, the better legislator he becomes.
Speaking at a core leadership engagement involving his Ministry, the leadership of Parliament and some chairpersons of Committees of Parliament, the Minister argued that building the capacity of Parliamentarians is not a four-year enterprise.
He said, “It requires much longer time. As a general rule, the longer one stays in Parliament, the better Parliamentarian the one becomes.”
“The MP becomes very knowledgeable, experienced and a prolific debater and law-maker,” he added.
He lamented that constituents continue to erroneously associate MPs with development projects.
He stressed that this situation is increasingly worrying because very educated persons with knowledge of the works of Parliament continue to join the fray to criticize MPs for not providing development projects.
He averred that increased monitization in addition to other factors that contribute to the high attrition in Parliament, is weakening the foundation of the legislature and Ghana as a whole.
Political parties, he said, have to do serious introspection as the practice of opening the sluice gate at the end of every four years is not advancing Ghana’s democracy.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu disclosed that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs has started a dialogue session with political parties, the NCCE, academia, civil society organisations and the media.
“They all share in the principle that the high attrition rate in parliament is turning out to be a curse,” he said.
According to him, these are crucial issues that Ghanaians must support Parliament to attend to in order to reposition the legislature to grow and keep pace with the executive and maintain the delicate balance between parliament and the Executive.
