General News of Wednesday, 2 March 2005

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Vetting Of Ministerial Nominees Begins

The Parliamentary Appointments Committee will today start vetting the President?s ministerial and deputy ministerial nominees.

The venue for the vetting would be the Speaker?s Conference Room at Parliament House.The exercise would start at 10 a.m.

The Director of Public Affairs of Parliament,Mr Jones Kugblenu disclosed this during an interaction with the Parliamentary Press Corps in Parliament yesterday.

Mr Kugblenu stated that he could not declare the number of ministerial nominees to be vetted daily.He took the opportunity to debunk newspaper publications that the Speaker of Parliament,Mr Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi Hughes, had apologised to the Minority Leader,Mr A. S. K. Bagbin, following his alleged refusal to grant Mr Bagbin audience on the floor of the House after reading the budget statement.

According to Mr Kugblenu,the Speaker did not see the Minority Leader when he rose to give his comment after the budget had been presented last Thursday.

He said the Speaker was liberal with his time and had proven that he would give equal opportunities to MPs from both sides of the House to make contributions.

Mr Kugblenu explained that the Speaker rather referred the matter to the leadership of the House for consideration. He called on the media to enhance the fruitful relations existing between the Parliament and the press.

Mr Kugblenu stated that Parliament had made efforts to secure training opportunities for members of the Parliamentary press corps to enable them report effectively on Parliamentary proceedings