Parliament Thursday approved the nomination of five ministerial and four deputy ministerial nominations by the President. They are Mr Lee Ocran, Minister designate for Education; Mr William Kwasi Aboah, Minister designate for the Interior; Mr Moses Asaga, Minister designate for Employment and Social Welfare; Mr Fritz Baffour, Minister designate for Information, and Mr Dominic Azimbe Azumah, Minister of State designate for the Presidency. The rest are: Mr Amin Amidu Sulemana, Upper West Regional Minister designate; Mr Henry Kwadwo Ametefee, Deputy Volta Regional Minister designate; Mr Stephen Ackah, Deputy Minister designate for Local Government and Rural Development, and Mr Isaac Vanderpuye, Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister designate. The Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Justice Joyce Bamford, in accordance with Order I72 (2) of the Standing Orders of the House referred the nominations to the Appointments Committee on January 26, 2012 for consideration and report. The names of the nominees were subsequently published in the media to invite memoranda on the nominees from the public. The Chairman of the Appointments Committee, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, moved the motion for the adoption of the report of the committee for the approval of the nominations. The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who seconded the motion, said it was heart-warming that Mr Ocran admitted his mistake during the vetting for describing the newly discovered oil as “dirty oil from Suame” when a sample was shown to the House. He said members of the House ought to take a cue from this and remember to be candid and truthful when making statements on the floor, since posterity would judge them for what they say on the floor. On the Information Ministry, he said the general perception was that the ministry was not in the best of shape and called for efforts to ensure accurate gathering and dissemination of information, which was the key to sound democratic practice in the country. Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said it was unfortunate that what normally came out from the ministry was inaccurate information and pure propaganda that could not help nurture the country’s democracy. He expressed the hope that the incoming sector minister, Mr Fritz Baffour, who had been a media executive before, was capable of straightening affairs in the ministry so that the deliberate twisting of information would be a thing of the past. For his part, the MP for Wa West, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, urged the House to support the motion, since all the nominees were selected after a critical analysis of their skills and capabilities. Contributing to the debate, the MP for Tain, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, urged Mr Baffour to make it his priority to resource the Information Service Department to enable it to play its critical role of informing Ghanaians of government policies and programmes.