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Ossei Aidooh
suggests aeroplane for Parliament
Accra, Jan 06, Ghanadot/GNA- Mr Abraham Ossei
Aidooh, outgoing Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, on
Tuesday suggested that Members of the incoming Parliament
acquired funds for Parliament to purchase its own aeroplane
to facilitate the travels of the Speaker, Members and staff.
He said the acquisition of the aeroplane was important
because a lot of money was spent on travels.
In a closing remark before the dissolution of the Fourth
Parliament of the Fourth Republic, Mr Aidooh, who is also
the Leader of the House, said Ghana as nation had proved
that it was serious about what it did, and proposed a number
of reforms to improve the performance of parliamentary work,
and governance.
Some challenging situations which the outgoing Parliament
faced were the inadequate office space for Members, the
general security of Members, especially in their homes;
occasional poor attendance of Members, conditions of
service, the lack of appropriate logistics for Committee
activities and the relationship between the Executive and
the Legislature.
Improvements are however being to address office
accommodation for members through a commissioning of the
first phase of Parliamentary Room at Ridge and plans to
refurbishing the “Job 600” building.
Furthermore, Government has agreed to request of the Speaker
of Parliament that the Tower Block, which was the premise
that Parliament occupied, and all lands attached to the
Tower Block and inherited with it had to be legally
transferred to Parliament.
According Mr Aidooh, the House Committee had also made
recommendations on how to improve upon the security of
Members, and expressed the hope that the recommendation
would be taken on board by the new Parliament.
He urged the incoming Parliament to begin to generate a
vigorous debate on constitutional reforms, beginning with an
attack on the limitation placed on Parliament by Article 108
of the currently 1992 Constitution.
Other reform should be on the number of Ministers the
President could appoint, a ceiling on the number of Supreme
Court Judges, the desirability of the fusion of the powers
between the Executive and the Legislature, and whether or
not the Attorney General must combine with the Minister of
Justice, and unclear position of the Constitution on whether
the Chief Justice could act as President in the absence of
the three topmost political position holders in the land:
the President, the Vice President and the Speaker; and
election by adult suffrage of District Chief Executives.
GNA
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