Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has advocated adoption of the Westminster system of governance for the country to help deal with corruption that may arise in an attempt by a president and political sponsors to recoup investments made after gaining power.
He explained that such a system where a prime minister leads the government’s business would curb corruption because the nation was getting to a slippery route in terms of monetising politics which was not sustainable.
“We are getting on a slippery route in both presidential and parliamentary elections, my personal preference is with the Westminster type where the prime ministers are more accessible to us, in terms of expenditures, they spend far less in getting themselves elected from the constituencies, obligation to satisfy sponsors is much less, and will be able to deal with corruption,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu cautioned.
Speaking at a public lecture at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi on the theme: ‘The Constitutional Review – The Perspective of a Legislator’ he revealed that at least $50 million dollars was spent on electioneering by a presidential candidate from the party level to the national election.
“Since the prime minister is a Member of Parliament, peer review should tell us you cannot be prime minister when we know before you became prime minister you have only one house and four years after you have 10 houses you will be questioned on how you acquired the 10 houses,” Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu pointed out.
He suggested that in checking investments made to win elections, the Westminster system of government would ensure the prime minister was accountable and transparent and likened the powers conferred on the president to a monarch, since he makes more than 5, 000 appointments to public offices.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame Constituency in the Ashanti Region, insisted on review of the constitutional provision because it was not good for the nation’s progress, growth and development of democracy when ministers who were not part of Cabinet should be cut off to save public purse.
“An introspection into the 1992 Constitution which has cumbersome amendment procedure is long overdue because some of our ministers do not add value to our governance since 1993, and it is time to seriously introspect into this so as to place in the constitution an upper ceiling on the number of ministers of state that we should have.
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