Joe Ghartey calls for PRM bill to be sent to AG office

Accra, Jan. 19, GNA - Mr Joe Ghartey, New Patriotic Party (NPP) Memb= er of Parliament for Esikadu/Ketan on Wednesday called for the repeal of the Petroleum Revenue Management Bill because it is loaded with numerous amendments.

He explained that if a bill had one-third of it being amended then it had to be repealed, adding that members needed to take a look at how they were treating the legal framework with regards to petroleum.

Mr Ghartey who was a former Attorney General in the erstwhile NPP government, said the PRM bill should be referred to the Attorney General'= s office with a reason that though the bill was done and placed before Parliament more amendments have been found it in. According to him, subject to Article 269 (1) of the Constitution, Petroleum Commission bill should have been first followed by Petroleum Exploration bill and then Petroleum Revenue Management Bill in order of sequence.

He said if a bill was found in a situation of numerous amendments the right thing was to send it back to the AG for a re-look. Mr Ghartey appealed to the Majority leader to consider the various options and take decisions on it so that the PRM bill would be properly done.

Mr Cletus Apul Avoka, Majority Leader and NDC member of Parliament for Zebilla, said Parliament had done a lot of work on the PRM bill and that it was out of place to go by Mr Ghartey's request.

He said the issue was about managing revenue and not natural resource= s because the two were different and urged that the PRM bill which was currently at the consideration stage should be continued with by Parliament.

However, Mr Avoka told the house that the Chairmen of the Finance Committee and that of Energy were absent and so the house could not work on the bill today, Wednesday, and appealed to members to wait until the two members were in.