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PARLIAMENT HAS issued a stern warning to absentee ministers, informing them that they would be cited for contempt if they continuously failed to appear before the House to perform their statutory functions. The House gave the warning after a number of ministers consistently failed to turn up to answer parliamentary questions or assist in passing crucial bills, thereby stalling the business of the legislature. Consequently, Speaker of Parliament, Justice Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo has directed the Majority Leader, Cletus Avoka, to inform the ministers of state to take the House seriously or face the consequences as �Parliament is an august body� that must be respected. The ministers, she cautioned, could be charged for contempt of Parliament under Article 122 of the 1992 Constitution because their action amounted to impeding the work of the House. Article 122 states that �an act or omission which obstructs or impedes Parliament in the performance of its function, or which obstructs or impedes a member or office of Parliament in the discharge of his duties, or affronts the dignity of Parliament or which tends either directly or indirectly to produce that result, is contempt of Parliament�. Members of Parliament (MPs), particularly those from the minority side, have persistently taken on the executive for undermining the legislature because of what they describe as lackadaisical attitude of ministers towards the work of the House. On many occasions, deputy ministers had to stand in for their absentee bosses, preventing the House from diligently scrutinizing them since they were not directly in charge of the various ministries. Prof. Mike Oquaye, Second Deputy Speaker, said it was about time ministers respected the legislature by attending to the business of the House. According to him, no minister in the United Kingdom (UK) or a secretary in the United States (US) could afford to undermine the Parliament of UK or Congress of US, as Ghanaian ministers did. Prof. Oquaye, who is also the MP for Dome/Kwabenya, entreated the House to establish clear rules that required ministers to give tangible written reasons why they absented themselves from Parliament when they were required to assist in the business of the House. Papa Owusu-Ankomah, MP for Sekondi, registered his displeasure about Cletus Avoka�s constant defence of the ministers. Mr. Owusu-Ankomah, who is a former Majority Leader in Parliament, said as leader of Government business, Cletus Avoka should not always make excuses for the ministers, stressing that he was doing a great disservice to Parliament and the country. The apparent failure of Parliament to take action against the ministers, the former minister of state lamented, made the House useless as if it did its business at the whims and caprices of the executive. MP for Nabdam, Moses Asaga, urged the majority leader to send a strong signal to the executive that they must avail themselves at all times to the work of Parliament.