Accra, Mar. 5, GNA - An amount of 25.9 billion cedis was on Friday approved by Parliament for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to pursue its activities for the year 2004.
The House also gave the Electoral Commission (EC) the green light to use 206.8 billion cedis for its operations for this year. Presenting the reports of the Special Budget Committee on CHRAJ and the EC for the approval, Mr. Abraham Ossei-Aidooh, Deputy Majority Leader recommended that the salary structure and service conditions of CHRAJ should be reviewed to avert the situation of losing its staff to the Judicial Service.
He said last year CHRAJ lost ten Lawyers to the Judicial Service due to salary and service condition disparities.
Mr Ossei-Aidooh said CHRAJ intended using its investment budget for the construction and renovation of its offices as well as the purchase of computers, vehicles for four departments and motor bicycles for forty district offices, while taking steps to strengthen its anti-corruption unit.
On the EC Mr. Ossei-Aidooh said the Committee noted that the construction of 15 out of the 45 offices started in 1999 and supposed to have been completed within three years were still in various stages of completion and urged the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to make available funds to enable it to complete these office buildings.
He stated that in order to deepen public participation in governance, the Commission had provided the necessary facilities to improve assess to disabled person, especially the blind.
The Commission had also made adequate provision to improve the compilation of the voters' register by ensuring that every voter would be provided with a picture ID card in order to prevent impersonation. Later the House also approved a total sum of 135.4 billion cedis to the Ministry of Lands and Forestry for the 2004 fiscal year.
