Member of Parliament for South Tongu, Wisdom Kobena Woyome
The Member of Parliament for South Tongu, Wisdom Kobena Woyome, has called on government to provide official vehicles for Members of Parliament in order to ensure effective discharge of their duties.
According to him, MPs have their work cut out with several demands on them.
“We are at a total disadvantage…most colleagues live on loans from banks just to sustain the activities because the demand on the MPs are enormous. If state does not provide or facilitate your movement how do you work…so if all the other office holders have official vehicles given to them by the state – why not MPs?” he asked.
Per the Constitution, Article 71 office holders include the President, the Vice-President, the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice and Justices of the Supreme Court. The rest are Members of Parliament (MPs), Ministers of State, political appointees and public servants with salaries charged to the Consolidated Fund but enjoying special constitutional privileges.
“A new vehicle given the wear and tear, and reliability on that vehicle to continue to render the services for the office holder and the state –you can only be sure that after four to five years you need to bring in a new vehicle because when you continue to service those vehicles, the cost of servicing those vehicles compared to acquiring a new one and reducing that same cost of servicing –if you do all those analysis, you will have no choice but to allow as it is to remain.”
“I will call that this whole loan thing to be scrapped, and I expect government to provide us with means of transport in order for us to do our official work so that we are all treated equally,” he told Business24 in an interview.
Already the Finance Committee of Parliament has recommended to the House to discontinue the practice where government facilitates loans for Members of Parliament and Council of state members to purchase cars for official duties.
Government usually pays 60 percent of the loan with the accrued interest, whiles the beneficiaries pay forty percent, although there have been instances where some MPs have defaulted in repayment.
The Finance Committee, nonetheless, wants the new arrangement to be implemented in the future, which means that MPs and Council of State members can still benefit from the current loan agreement of 28 million dollars and 3.5 million dollars respectively, tabled by the Finance Ministry.
This was captured in the report of the Finance Committee on the two loan agreements, sighted by Business24.
There has been a huge public backlash about the loans amidst the economic challenges in the country.
The Committee is thus urging Parliament and the Parliamentary Service to take the necessary steps to ensure the provision is discontinued.
“Accordingly, the Committee strongly recommends to Parliament the discontinuation of the current vehicle loan arrangement for MPs and Council of State Members. Members of Parliament and Members of the Council of State should have similar duty post vehicle arrangements as other Article 71 officeholders. And the Committee respectfully recommends that Parliament and the Parliamentary Service take the necessary steps to ensure that this happens.”
“The instant vehicle loan arrangement for MPs and Council of State Members before us today should therefore be the last one the state is sponsoring,” it said.