Press asked to partner Parliament to hold Executive in check

Accra, Feb 04, GNA-Mr. Edward Doe Adjaho, Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament at the weekend encouraged the Ghana Parliamentary Press Corps to partner the Legislature to effectively hold the Executive accountable on the national purse.

He stated at a get-together of the Corps to end the 2007 year, in Accra, that the Press Corps formed part of Parliament and the objective reporting of parliamentary activities was pivotal to deepening the oversight role of Parliament for better democratic governance. Mr Adjaho, who is also the MP for Avenor Ave in the Volta Region, reminded journalists to exhibit a high sense of professionalism and integrity as hallmark and testimonial for of their work.

He said the public appraised a journalist by his work and its effects on society as the world continued to become a global village. To the Deputy Minority Leader, there was rather very little coverage of the Report of Public Accounts Committee hearing on the Auditor General's Report on the Ministries, Departments and Agencies for the 2004 and 2005 moved and adopted in Parliament during the week. He described the reportage as disappointing and observed further that reporting on Parliament had rather been going downhill since 1993. The Deputy Minority Leader suggested that journalists gave more coverage to activities that took place on the floor of the House. "Let's give more coverage to the debates and activities on the floor of the House rather than what happens on the margins," Mr Adjaho said.

Deputy Majority Chief Whip Mr Stephen Kwaku Balado Manu said the Leadership of the House recognized the good works of the journalists that brought the work of Parliament to the doorsteps of Ghanaians. He however, suggested to the Corps to be objective and refrain from "screaming headlines," which sometimes turned to be deceptive. The Clerk of Parliament, Mr Emmanuel Anyimadu, expressed appreciation of the Parliamentary Service to the Corps, and assured them of its ready support.

The Dean of the Press Corps, Mr Andrew Edwin Arthur announced that the last week of February 2008 has been designated as the Parliamentary Press Corps Week, to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the establishment of the Corps.

He said a training workshop would soon be organized to sharpen the skills of the Corps and appealed to individuals, groups and organization to support the training programmes with sponsorship. The Corps treated themselves to goodies and jigged to popular Ghanaian music.