Current Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, in January 2018 made comments about the quadrennial topic of car loans advanced to Members of Parliament by the government.
The then Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who was also MP for Nadowli-Kaleo called for the state to scrap car loans for lawmakers.
“Without hesitation it should be scrapped completely. I’ll prefer that members of parliament will be supported by the state like Directors, Chief Directors, Deputy Ministers, DCE’s, Ministers and others are supported.
“That is how members of parliament should also be supported because they are not into private business but into public business, a business of serving the people,” he told Class FM in an interview.
Today, he is speaker of the house and the issue has come up again, whiles majority of MPs are justifying the loan which they stress will be repaid, public outrage is also out.
Full story of January 2018: Scrap car loans for MPs – Bagbin
The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has called on the state to scrap car loans for Members of Parliament.
For him, the state must bear the full cost of providing means of transport for legislators.
According Mr Bagbin, the loan to purchase vehicles places MPs at a disadvantage compared to those in the Executive arm of government.
Speaking exclusively to Class News’ parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, Mr Bagbin who is the Nadowli Kaleo lawmaker called on the state to begin providing MPs with decent means of transport just like is done for Ministers, MMDCE’s and other government appointees.
Asked if car loans for MP’s should be scrapped, he said: “Without hesitation it should be scrapped completely. I’ll prefer that members of parliament will be supported by the state like Directors, Chief Directors, Deputy Ministers, DCE’s, Ministers and others are supported. That is how members of parliament should also be supported because they are not into private business but into public business, a business of serving the people.
“Government should provide for those (MPs) without any means of transport… why should the MP take care of his own transportation,” he quizzed.
The call has been backed by former Member of Parliament for Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, P.C Appiah Ofori, who said giving car loans to MPs makes life unbearable for lawmakers, past and present, since their take home pay after the deductions is nothing to write home about.
