The minority in Parliament is accusing the Sports Ministry and government of treating the house with contempt. This follows the failure by the minister, Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak to appear before the House to answer questions pertaining to the ministry. The minister has been asked to proceed on leave following accusations of abuse of office, corruption and misappropriation of funds made against him by the Principal Accountant at the Ministry. His deputy, Mr. Nii Nortey Dua, is the care-taker minister of the ministry. But by Parliament’s Standing Orders explicitly quoted by Joy FM correspondent, Araba Coomson, only a substantive minister and not his deputy can appear before the house. The minority however is not the least impressed with the ‘no show’ by the sports ministry. They argue the executive could have facilitated another substantive minister to appear before the House to answer the questions which Isaac Asiamah, MP for Atwima Mponua and a Ranking Member for the Select Committee on Youth and Sports says is crucial for the development of the ministry. He had wanted to find out the state of Ghana’s preparedness to host the Hockey Cup of Nations which is to kick off next month. In a separate interview with Citi News, the disappointed MP said the “Sports Ministry is dead.” He could not understand why the minister or his deputy did not show up to answer his question. According to him, the deputy under certain circumstances is allowed to appear before the house, and wondered why Nii Nortey Dua was not present. The Chief Director and the Principal Accountant at the Ministry, he noted have all abandoned their job in respect of this same accusation, a situation he said does not augur well for the ministry. He called for urgent action to be taken to bring the situation back to normal. Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Joyce Banford Addo has asked the leadership of Parliament to quickly resolve the matter by asking a substantive minister to appear before the house. Story by Nathan Gadugah/Myjoyonline.com