Private legal practitioner, Richmond Rockson has stated that any contract requiring government financial commitment for more than a year must undergo parliamentary approval.

According to him, section 33 of the Public Financial Management Act stipulates that such contracts must come under parliamentary scrutiny where due diligence can be performed to assess whether or not they are beneficial to the state.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story on June 5, he said “Under section 33 of the Public Financial Management Act is clear that a covered entity shall not enter into any agreement with the financial commitment that bids the government for more than one year or that results in a contingent liability except where the financial commitment or contingent liability is wasted prior written approval of the minister and authorised by Parliament in accordance to Article 181.

“So the law does not give room for entities to maneuver this. Once you are committing government for more than one year, whether you are a local entity or a foreign entity, you need to go to Parliament,” he said.

• Read also: Minority scaring away investors with petty demands for approval of every contract – Majority

His comments follow the Majority's concern about what they described as the minority's unnecessary demand for Parliamentary approval of every government transaction.

According to the majority caucus, this development is petty and is driving away potential investors in the country’s economy.

The Minority has, in the last few weeks, criticised the government for unilaterally signing various contracts, including the recent 5G service deal with NextGen InfranCo.

The NDC MPs contend that some of these sole-sourced deals must be subjected to parliamentary approval.

But Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, disagreed.

“It is important to remind our colleagues that they ought not to make Parliament a busybody nosing for things that are not part of the mandate of Parliament. Our job as Parliament is provided for in the Constitution and I will urge our friends in the NDC that by that act.

"They are obstructing government business by the act they're scaring investors and that affects the economy. If businesses are hearing such news basically, they are not going to give up their best people keep their money and that will affect the good people of Ghana," he said.

Mr Afenyo-Markin claims that the nature of the deals does not breach any constitutional provision and does not require approval from Parliament.