Accra, June 6, GNA - Members of Parliament on Tuesday called for more support, the provision of facilities and better conditions of service to ensure that parliamentary democracy was sustained. According to them, parliament could only be effective when members were well resourced to carry out their constitutional mandate on the behalf of the people.
The members were contributing to a statement made by Mr Stephen Amoanor Kwao, NDC-Upper Manya Krobo, on the need to resource members to perform their duties in the constituencies.
Mr Mahama Ayariga, (NDC-Bawku Central) said it was the duty of the President to carry out the requirements of the constitutional provision in article 71, which enjoins the President to see to the welfare of members of the house.
He said much had not been done in this direction and currently salaries taken by members were not in accordance with the provisions of the constitution.
Mr Ayariga urged the leadership of the house, especially the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Mr Felix Owusu-Adjapong, to "be up and doing" to ensure that members were adequately resourced. Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, Deputy Minister of Finance, said it was the duty of the members to ensure that democracy was sustained and coups d'etats do not take place again since it was one reason for the current under resourcing of the house.
He said interruption in democratic governance had cost the growth of the legislature resulting in some challenges facing the house at the moment.
Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak, (NDC-Asawase) was concerned about security for members and said they were easy targets for criminals who could easily pick on them since most of them had no protection as they go about performing their duties.
He said the loss of one Member of Parliament through deaths could result in the state spending billions of cedis in a by-election whereas a replacement of a minister of state costs less.
He therefore called for more security for the MPs especially at their residences.
Earlier, Mr Amoanor Kwao in his statement, pleaded with the Speaker to use his offices to help in the setting up of constituency offices for members.
He said it was necessary to resource the National Commission for Civic Education so that it could embark on a serious educational drive to let the constituencies know about the actual roles and responsibilities of a Member of Parliament.
Members of the house had earlier touched on the need to keep the environment clean to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases. They said the littering of the environment and indiscriminate defecation around the communities was a source of worry that could undermine the development goals of the nation.
The members were contributing to a statement made by Mr Lee Ocran (NDC-Jomoro) on sanitation and public health.
Mr Ocran said environmental related diseases such as malaria accounted for about 44 per cent of outpatient cases and a huge burden on scarce resources.
"Mr Speaker, by this statement, I wish to call on all the assemblies to redouble their efforts in waste collection and prevent the outbreak of diseases, protect the lives of the people and the image of the country."
He said it was important to make environmental sanitation an integral part of the school curriculum to inculcate the practice of cleanliness in the society.
Mr John Ndebugre, (PNC-Zebilla), called on the Chemical Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to explore the possibility of making polythene bags biodegradable for recycling.
Mr Alfred Agbesi, (NDC-Ashaiman), said the authorities should consider erecting places of convenience along the highways instead of allowing some highway travellers to defecate anywhere.
