MP wants ample prior notice for Parliament resumption

The Member of Parliament for Yilo Krobo, Magnus Kofi Amoatey, has bemoaned the inadequate notice given to parliamentarians to resume from recess.

The lawmakers were last week invited by the Speaker of the House, Prof Aaron Mike Oquaye, to report for the third meeting to consider some crucial bills, including the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill and the Development Authority Bill.

But Mr Amoatey, speaking to Class News’ Parliamentary Correspondent, Ekow Annan, said the time given to legislators to resume from recess fell short of the stipulated 14 day notice in the standing orders.

“Sincerely, I heard the notice from friends. Ordinarily, per our rules, we are supposed to be given 14 days’ notice for the resumption of Parliament. I got to know last week while at a workshop at Koforidua that we are resuming today. It certainly falls short of the two week notice. But maybe they left [notices] in our pigeon holes but even when you leave notices in our pigeon holes, you are supposed to publicise the notice because MPs are scattered all over Ghana. We are all not in Accra, we operate mainly from outside Accra so if I didn’t have the opportunity to visit my pigeon hole to see that note, I was expecting it either on the TV or in the media so to speak, but I didn’t see anything like that,” he stated.

“For instance, even though we are on break when committees want us to meet, we have our platforms and when they post messages there, immediately we get them. Why can’t Parliament put up such notices through our caucus that is Majority caucus platform and Minority caucus platform?” he quizzed.