Ministers must be in Parliament to facilitate passage of bills

Accra, July 23, GNA- Mr Doe Edward Adjaho, First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, on Friday directed that all Ministers whose bills are awaiting passage should appear on Monday, 26 July, to help the House to work on them.
He said most often bills were deferred because the Ministers were not present to make their inputs to facilitate their passage.
Mr Adjaho was ruling on a matter raised by Papa Owusu-Ankoma, Member for Sekondi, said: "You (Ministers) must be present to make your contributions both at the winnowing and the consideration stages."
Mr Owusu-Ankomah, who made the intervention when seconding an adjournment motion moved by Mr Rashid Pelpuo, Deputy Majority Leader, observed that the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority Bill 2010 (SADA), which was the seventh item on the Order Paper, was not considered.

He expressed worry about the many amendments the bill had at the consideration stage and explained that after the consideration stage, interest of Members about bills normally waned.


He said currently, there were still some bills pending though the House would rise on August 3, 2010, and wondered if the House would be able to have them completed at the current slow pace of doing business in the Legislature.

The bills that are currently before the House include the University of Ghana Bill 2010; Economic and Organised Crime Bill 2009; Petroleum Revenue Management Bill and the Education Amendment Bill 2010.