Appointments Committee of Parliament to be chaired by the party not in government

From the next meeting of Parliament, the Appointments Committee of Parliament will be chaired by the party not in government.

This is according to the new standing orders currently adopted by the House.

Before the adoption, the committee which vets appointments from the President is chaired by the 1st Deputy Speaker, who since the inception of the 4th Republic has always belonged to the party in government.

Parliament has thus made a raft of changes to its existing standing orders to fit modern trends.

The Deputy Majority Chief, Habib Iddrisu in contributing to the discussion lauded the idea.

However, he asked the house to find ways of revetting ministers who have already been vetted when reshuffled.

“Mr speaker for instance the Appointments Committee it is a beautiful idea that it will now be chaired by a member of the party that is not forming in government as captured but I was also of the view that ministers who have been vetted, if they are reshuffled, we do refer them back to the Committee one way or the other for further questioning.”

Meanwhile, all these changes have all now been adopted. The committee's report has been approved.

Parliament will thus pass a resolution on it on Friday, July 14, and be approved later to give it effect.