Bagbin proposes 'locking chamber' at 10 am to cure lateness to sittings

Speaker of Parliament Alban Sumana Bagbin has proposed measures to address issues of lateness among Members of Parliament (MPs).

The proposed measures involve locking the entry points to the chamber of Parliament at 10:00 AM on each sitting day.

According to him, MPs arriving after this time will find themselves locked out until an appropriate time before the door will be reopened.

He also suggested an alternative solution to the problem of changing the current 10:00 AM schedule to 2:00 PM.

He explained that this adjustment would allow parliamentary committees to convene in the morning, ensuring that reports are ready for consideration in the afternoon sessions.

He urged the two caucuses to engage in discussions and put forth alternative proposals to find a consensus.

He maintained that if an agreement is not reached, the proposed measures would be enforced starting the next parliamentary session.

During his announcement to MPs on Friday, December 8, 2023, Bagbin explained “At 10 am, the doors will be locked. The Speaker will be in and it will take some time before the doors will be opened. Not that they won’t be opened but it will take some time.

“And so if you are not able to comply with it, let us all agree that we will start sitting in the afternoon, from 2 p.m. or 4 p.m.; the Committees will have their meetings in the morning; reports will be ready for us to consider in the afternoon; and then by the time we adjourn around 8 p.m., the traffic situation will have improved.

“Your coming to Parliament too will not be that early, so you can decide to leave at noon and by that time, there would have been less traffic and you won’t consume more fuel.

“I can see that it is not easy for members to report that early for sitting so the two Caucuses either have joint Caucus meetings or, at your level, discuss these things and come back with proposals. If not, these are the measures that I want to put in place which will take effect from our next meeting,” citinewsroom.com quoted him to have said.

AM/SARA

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