The Executive Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA) says it comes as no surprise that some of the Ministerial nominees who recently appeared before Parliament's Appointee Committee have been rejected.

Dr Rashid Dramani who was speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show Tuesday said the ministerial vetting must be based on their substance.

He was, therefore, not surprised when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs on the Committee outrightly rejected some of the nominees.

“A few of them, I was not surprised. If you take the Communications Minister-designate [Ursula Ekuful], before the start of the process, there had been calls by CSOs on how she discharged her duties in the previous government and her conduct. So I wasn’t surprised; I knew that that nominee is going to have some challenges.

“If you take Fisheries Minister-designate [Hawa Koomson], I knew there was going to be a problem there as well, mainly because, of happenings that occurred at her constituencies and others things happened at her ministry,” he told Benjamin Akakpo.

On Monday, the Minority MPs on the Appointments Committee voted on the ministerial nominees vetted so far and unanimously rejected three of the President’s nominees.

Information Minister-designate Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Minister-designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mavis Hawa Koomson and Minister-designate for Food Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto were rejected for various reasons.

Whereas, Communication MInister nominee, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful; Railway Minister nominee, John Peter Amewu; Roads Minister nominee, Kwasi Amoako-Attah; Attorney General and Minister of Justice nominee, Godfred Dame and Health Minister nominee, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu are all to reappear before the committee.

Meanwhile, Dr Dramani commended the Appointements Committee for asking ‘sharp’ questions.

According to him, the 8th Parliament’s Appointments Committee has been the best yet in the Fourth Republic.

“We have seen some significant improvement in regards to the line of questioning and how the members probed the various Ministers-designate that came before them.

"Over the years we have had cause to say that perhaps the Appointments Committee should be decentralized in such a way that the various sector committees will be responsible for vetting the ministers that come before the committee so that we move away from this omnibus committee that we have, where in the past we have not seen very sharp questions or technical questions put before the nominee,” he said.

Continuing, he stated “But this time around, I think we have seen some significant improvement perhaps because of the times that we live in. And I still believe that we must be found to make sure that we have people who look after various sectors get involved one way or the other when appointees show up before the committee.”

The Appointments Committee is made up of a total of 26 members – 13 each from the NDC and the NPP – the Committee begun the constitutionally mandated vetting process on February 10 and are expected to finish on March 9.