Parliament has approved the appointments of three ministerial nominees who were rejected by the NDC’s MPs on the Appointments Committee.
The three nominees, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah; Minister Designate for Information, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto; Minister Designate for Food and Agriculture and, Mavis Hawa Koomson; Minister Designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture were rejected by the Minority on the committee for varied reasons.
The NDC’s MPs accused the Information Minister Designate of not being truthful when appeared before the committee and thus, rejected him. For the Food and Agriculture Minister Designate, he was rejected on the basis of his involvement in the abrogation of a contract. The Fisheries and Aquaculture Minister Designate was rejected for publicly firing gunshots during the voter registration exercise in her Constituency.
The committee subsequently submitted its report to the House indicating that the trio were recommended for approval by a majority decision.
But the house, after hours of heated debate which spanned from the night of Wednesday, March 3 to the wee hours of Thursday, March 4, over what was meant by a majority decision, voted to decide the fate of the three nominees.
At the end of the voting process, Minister Designate for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mavis Hawa Koomson obtained the most votes out of the 265 ballots cast. She received 161 votes in favor of her approval representing 60.75 percent and 104 votes against her approval.
Information Minister Designate, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah secured 155 votes in favor of his approval which represents 58.65 percent and 110 votes against his approval.
Food and Agriculture Minister Designate received the least votes after securing 143 votes in favor of his approval representing 53.96 percent with one spoilt ballot and 121 votes against his approval.
All of them were, however, approved by the House since the votes cast in favor of the approval of each of them exceeded 50 percent.
The house, in addition, approved the appointments of 10 other nominees whose recommendations for approval were by consensus.
