The Minority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has faulted the Chairman of the Appointments Committee of Parliament for withholding vital information during the vetting of ministerial appointees. He said vital information about some of the nominees was not disclosed to all the members of the committee by Mr. Doe Adjaho. The situation, he said disabled members and restricted them in their questioning since the information they had was tepid. Speaking to Joy FM’s Current Affairs Programme, Newsfile, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said “when we conducted security checks on individuals, he would not even show you the report and that I though was bad.” To buttress his point, he cited the case where he wrote to the University of Ghana for a report on the Deputy Information Minister designate, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa. “The report came, it went to the Speaker (of Parliament), they would not even want to give it to me and I thought these things do not help us to build mutual trust,” he regretted. He emphasised the conduct of the Chairman was regrettable because “nobody sets out to obstruct anybody, we just want to get to the bottom of matters.” The Minority Leader was not also happy that people who levelled allegations against nominees were unwilling to substantiate those allegations. Addressing concerns the vetting process was a joke, Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the Constitution which guide members is vague in terms of qualification as a minister. “It just says that you should otherwise be eligible to be a Member of Parliament and if the person a Member of Parliament already, what do you do?” He suggests there might have to be a constitutional amendment to make the qualification to become a minister more elaborate. Generally, the vetting process he said was good. It provided the impetus for people to exercise circumspection when talking “knowing that we may be held accountable one day.” Story by Malik Abass Daabu