The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Joseph Osei-Owusu is the latest legislator to support the decision to hold the annual post-budget workshop outside Accra despite calls for it to be held in Parliament to minimise cost.
According to the Bekwai lawmaker, the House doesn’t have the logistics to host the workshop.
“We’ve tried it [post-budget workshop] once here [Parliament], it wasn’t effective. We have only one hall but during the workshop, there will be multiple presenters doing different things, so the practicality will not be effective,” he said this an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express.
This was after the host, Evans Mensah said Parliament is reluctant to hold the event at the House because they prefer the “comfort of hotels”.
In response, the First Deputy Speaker vehemently denied the notion, emphasising that the choice of venue is driven by duty rather than a pursuit of comfort.
He said,“No hotel is as comfortable as my home. I’ve traveled around the world and no hotel I have stayed in is as comfortable as my home.”
The First Deputy Speaker, who became an MP in 2009 and has extensive local and international experience, expressed his aversion to travel, even for business or conferences, asserting that it is not a matter of personal preference but a responsibility that comes with the role.
“We don’t do it because of comfort, we don’t do it because we want to, we do it because it is a responsibility.”
His position on the venue of the annual workshop comes after the Buem MP, Kofi Adams asked for this year’s post-budget workshop to be held in Parliament House in Accra.
The NDC MP cited the recent economic hardship and called on the leadership of the House to reconsider and hold the workshop in Parliament to save money.
But the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo Markin, turned down his request.
He believes the request is opportunistic and seeks to put Parliament in a bad light adding that “This is a decision of the committee, it is not about leaders being insensitive.”
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