Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu in a news conference today June 13, 2019, apologized to Members of Parliament for not informing them earlier about the proposed 450-seater parliament chamber.
The Majority leader believes the leadership House should have briefed the MPs before the issues became public knowledge.
"Honestly I was not aware of certain arrangements and I thought that would be limited to the board members because we needed further briefing on where we were with the project. Unfortunately I think that process itself boomeranged because it is most inappropriate, the facility if we get to construct it is going to be for Members of Parliament, so they should get to know of the process that the board was engaging in rather than to learn of it from the press and that was not the best"
" I want to use this opportunity to apologise to the Members of Parliament" he added.
The Majority Speaker has on several occasions explained why it is necessary for Parliament to get a new chamber.
He also said people have to look at the issue at hand critically and get to understand the whole enterprise rather than personalizing the issue and attacking his personality.
Ever since the news surfaced that Parliament wanted to construct a new chamber, there has been a negative reaction from the general public.
A social media campaign against the project has begun on Twitter with the hashtag #DropThatChamber.
The new parliamentary chamber which will have a sitting capacity for about 450 Members of Parliament when completed will be constructed by the architectural firm – Adjaye & Associates.
It is expected to house facilities including diplomatic offices, a library, a museum, a church, a mosque, eateries, press conference rooms, galleries, a car park, an upper gallery garden, a post office and other facilities to complete the Parliamentary enclave.
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