Prof. Mike Oquaye: We Are Failing to Effectively Utilize the Role of MPs

Former Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye has said Ghana is not properly applying the roles of Members of Parliament. He said the MPs' work is being done wrongly, and particularly during electioneering campaigns, MPs compete by promising infrastructural projects they will execute for the people, like putting up roads. However, such promises often fall outside the remit of MPs, hence frustration and unmet expectations among constituents.

According to Prof. Oquaye, members of parliament are primarily legislators and not executives. Nevertheless, the pressure from society has kept them promising what they cannot deliver; they have thus been carried away by other activities outside their core mandate in the legislature. "We are all guilty of it, and in fact, the society expects you to do that," he said, emphasizing that such a phenomenon distorts the real essence of parliamentary representation.

One major solution that Prof. Oquaye proposed was giving the District Assemblies full autonomy over the Common Fund. He said that MPs are supposed to have no direct control over such funds but shall serve on the supervisory aspect; this means inspecting the projects to ensure that payments for contractors are fairly treated and monitoring the quality of work in their constituencies. This would allow MPs while ensuring accountability at all levels in development projects, to concentrate on their pure legislative work vis-а-vis simply having financial control shifted to the local assemblies.

Prof. Oquaye noted that this change would align the functions of MPs with their direct responsibilities as legislators, reduce financial burdens on the populace, and promote good governance at the local level.