Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament has called for Tollbooth to resume operation after the Transport Minister called for the suspension of tollbooth.
Right Hon. Alban Bagbin says the Transport Minister, Hon. Amoako Atta acted wrongly in the suspension of Tollbooth collection as he has no power to do that without Parliamentary approval.
“I think that it is proper for us to direct the minister, a member of this house, in fact a senior member of this house, I think that he might have acted wrongly and therefore I call on him to reverse this decision,” he stated.
Member of Parliament for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza had the following to say about the Minister’s action despite the fact that Parliament is yet to approve the budget presented to them yesterday by Finance Minister Ofori-Atta
“It is quite clear that the Minister sidestepped parliament by pretending that he as a minister, not even the finance minister, has the right to waive taxes in this country. My senior colleague the road minister is a lawyer and a very experienced one. I submit that this action is not a mere action.
“To make it quite serious, on Tuesday Mr Speaker, your committee on Roads and Transport met and invited the minister of roads and transport to work on a referral which is to build the road between Manfe and Koforidua. At that meeting I asked the Ministry representative where the minister was . The response they gave me was the Minister was on an official trip with the president
The Minister should have known that he has no such powers.
In any case he was not in the jurisdiction. So Mr Speaker, we want you to direct that the Minister has no such powers to waive the payment of charges in this country expect Parliament. Mr Speaker direct that the Minister rescind his decision, if he so wishes he should present that to parliament.”
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