Need to adopt transitional methods for continuity - Owusu-Ansah

Nana Rex Owusu Ansah, Former Clerk of Parliament, has called on government to adopt accessible transitional methods to ensure continuity of administrative processes.

Parliament this year passed the Presidential Transition Bill into law intended to smoothen the transfer of political power from one administration to the other.

Nana Owusu-Ansah made the call at a forum organised by Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) on the topic: “Parliament in Ghana’s Political and Administrative Transitions” in Accra on Wednesday.

The forum, which was the fourth in the series was to share experience of how Parliament has performed in previous political and administrative power transitions.

He said with the passage of the bill, there should be a reduction in the challenges associated with the transitional processes.

“When transitional periods are not managed well, it can create problems,” he added.

Nana Owusu-Ansah suggested that even though the bill had been passed, there was the need to reconsider some of the provisions enshrined in the law.

He commended government for the passage of the bill saying “this is the biggest achievement of the Fourth Parliament of Ghana”.

Nana Owusu-Ansah said Parliament needed to have its own transition law, since the Act was meant for the Executive and did not have any provision for Parliament.

He called on government to learn and adopt good practices of transitional processes from other countries.

Nana Owusu-Ansah welcomed the proposed establishment of a Presidential Estate Unit, which would serve as a check and supervise the transition process of government vehicles, bungalows and other government properties.**