Speaker calls for modern and improved Parliament House

The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey on Tuesday said the Parliament House and its chamber was to small to allow for expansion should the number of members be increased as provided by the 1992 Constitution.

He said the building was also too small to provide for offices for all the Members of Parliament or even a substantial number of them while the ancillary building popularly referred to as "Job 600" had been under alterations and renovations for the past 10 years to provide office accommodation to the members to discharge their duties.

Mr Adjetey expressed this concern in an address he delivered on the occasion of the formal opening of the first sitting of the second session of the Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

He said, even though, the President made reference to the matter in his message on the state of the nation last year not much progress had been made since then.

"We all understand the difficulties that we have been going through as a nation but it is realised that the maintenance of democracy of this nation is a fundamental commitment."

Mr Adjetey said the country had never had a Parliament House conceived and constructed as such as was the case with many countries adding that the "Old Parliament House" was intended to be a town hall for the people of Accra.

Mr Adjetey said in the final analysis "we must take the decision now to provide for this nation, parliamentary buildings worthy of our name. We must be prepared to put our money where our mouth is and not boast about our commitment to democracy without being prepared to make the sacrifices necessary to sustain it".

The Speaker said efforts had been made through the years to strengthen the pillars that underpin Parliament. The Parliamentary Service Board had given approval for the establishment of a Legal Department.

The Legal Department would include an office of Parliamentary Counsel responsible for the drafting of legislation so that backbenchers could have the services of experts to assist them in drafting private members bills.

An Office of Policy Analysis was also being established to provide technical research support to members of Parliament while approval had also been given for the establishment of a Department of Public Affairs to deal with relations between Parliament and the public.

Mr Adjetey said the provision of Information Technology for the effective functioning of Parliament had received support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under an Internet connectivity project.

The UNDP was also sponsoring a local area network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) for the whole of Parliament that were all designed to improve the effectiveness and performance of Members and its committees.