MPs Should Do More Thinking Before They Act � Batidam Suggests

Executive Director of the African Parliamentary Network Against Corruption, Daniel Batidam is alarmed by the level of recklessness among persons in positions of trust, and charged those in leadership positions to be more reasonable. Not only do their short-sighted actions come at a great cost to the nation, it is also time wasting and time is money � Mr Batidam intimated. The anti-graft crusader was reacting to calls for Members of Parliament whose motion for a Parliamentary inquiry into the sale of Merchant Bank necessitated an emergency sitting on Monday. The Speaker dismissed the motion filed by deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul and 79 other minority MPs. An amount of GHc130, 000 was said to have been expended on the day's sitting: an imprest to cover the transportation cost of the MPs. Depending on the distance of one�s constituency to Parliament, each lawmaker was said to have received an amount ranging from 80 to 1,000 Ghana cedis. But the Executive Director for the African Parliamentarian Network Against Corruption wants parliament to justify the money spent as allowances for MPs. Mr Daniel Batidam is also raising moral questions about MPs who accepted the allowances. He believed due diligence on the motion would have saved the nation the expenditure. He explained that on such controversially partisan issues, the minority would always have their say, but the majority would have their way. The MPs should have known the outcome beforehand that �they would be shot down�, he emphasised. Disagreeing with the emergency aspect of the motion that recalled the legislators from their New Year break, Mr Batidam advised politicians to ask themselves �serious questions� with respect to what their goals and other fundamental roles are in decisions they take as peoples� representatives. �I am not sure we got any value for money� as far as Monday�s emergency sitting in Parliament is concerned, he stated. �We ought to be seen as a more thinking society, a more thinking people...when you are dealing with a controversial issue which makes MPs take extreme partisan stance... this was brought by a group from the Minority, the reaction of the Majority side was to be anticipated,� Mr Batidam stressed. Meanwhile, the NPP Member of Parliament for Suhum Fredrick Opare Ansah has denied receiving any money for his participation in the emergency sitting. He told Joy News� Dzifa Bampoh that neither was he aware of any of his colleague receiving the allowance. He rather accused the Majority of playing out the issue of money to run away from an important issue which affects the constituents they represent. He also described the call for those who filed the motion to be surcharged as funny. �I don�t think the MPs have any intention to bring members to Accra with no business to do,� he explained. The MP also parried claims that they should have known ahead that the Majority would oppose their motion, and backed his stance with a case where similar motion was filed which got the support of the majority.