The First Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Member of Parliament (MP) for Bekwai, Joseph Osei-Owusu, has announced that he will completely leave public service after his tenure in the 8th Parliament of Ghana comes to an end.

According to Joseph Osei-Owusu (aka Joe Wise), he would no longer be in public service because his health condition has deteriorated due to the pressure of being a public servant and a politician, myjoyonline.com reports.

He indicated that one of the things that hurts him the most and has contributed to his health issues is hearing public commentary that he is a thief just because he is a politician and a public servant.

“It hurts to hear people call you a thief only because you opted to work for the public. Listen to all public discussions.

"Every politician, every elected official is called a thief. Nothing hurts me more than that; when I can say with pride that I have never asked for support from anybody,” he is quoted to have said.

He added, "I have never asked for anybody to give me anything before. I do my work so those are the things that I think have contributed to my health issues. Now I have health issues so I want to leave the field quietly and endure my pain”.

The deputy speaker also made the point that legislators cannot be described as thieves because they do not have access to public funds.

“We don’t spend public funds. We don’t even authorise expenditure. Practically nothing to do with money apart from approving the budget in Parliament.

"What we call the empty shell of the Common Fund goes to the District Assembly and you can only authorise the MCE or the coordinating director to spend that money in this way or that way. But every misconduct, they come back to the MP,” he said.

BAI/NOQ

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