The Majority Chief Whip, Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, has blamed Committee Chairpersons for the persistent low attendance of Members of Parliament during plenary sessions.
According to him, some Committee Chairpersons deliberately schedule meetings at the same time the House is in session, making it difficult to achieve the required quorum for business to proceed.
This comes after a parliamentary attendance report revealed that a significant number of Members of Parliament (MPs) missed sittings without official permission.
The report, which covers 43 sittings held between January and March 2025, showed that a number of MPs absented themselves, some for more than 20 days without official permission.
Addressing the issue on the floor of Parliament, Mr. Dafeamekpor said despite repeated calls for a review of committee meeting times, some Chairpersons have remained uncooperative.
“The records will bear me out that I drew the attention of the leadership of the committees to this matter. Mr. Speaker, we have discovered that some leaders of committees are arranging committee business in the afternoon when we have all agreed that committee business should be arranged in the morning, so that at 2 p.m. we will be ready to conduct business in the House,” he said.
He pointed out that the day’s Order Paper contained several advertised committee meetings scheduled for the afternoon, in clear disregard of prior agreements.
“Today’s Order Paper shows that there are advertised meetings of committees for the afternoon when we had encouraged them to shift those sittings to the morning so that we have adequate numbers in the afternoon to conduct business,” he added.
The Chief Whip urged committee leaders to adhere to the agreed schedule to ensure effective participation of Members and the smooth running of parliamentary proceedings.
