GRi in Parliament 24 – 01 - 2003

Parliament adjourns sitting

Accra (Greater Accra) 24 January 2003- The Speaker of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey on Thursday again bemoaned the poor attendance of members to the sittings of the House and urged them to turn a new leaf, set good example and raise the image of the House.

He said the talk of discipline should permeate the whole spectrum of the society and particularly members of parliament who as representatives of the people must be seen to do be doing the right thing and to serve as role models.

Ala Adjetey said this in response to concerns expressed at the resumed sitting of the House when only a few members were present in the chamber to conduct public business of the Third Session of the Third Parliament.

The House sat for about 20 minutes with 42 members present and had to adjourn for the next day's sittings. He appealed to all members to endeavour to be punctual and give some time to the sittings of the House adding that it was untenable for members who have been on a long break for the Christmas and New Year holidays to be absent at the House sittings to contribute to deliberations.

The Speaker said “it was disheartening and discouraging that members cannot set good example and create a good image of the house”, adding that “I do not see why members cannot wake up around 4.30 am to be punctual and on time to attend the day's sittings as other workers do”.

Ala Adjetey drew members’ attention to his calls on members on several occasions to be punctual and to attend to the sittings of the House but which seems to be taken lightly by some members.

Papa Owusu- Ankomah, Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs also stressed the need for members to attend to the sittings of the House. He gave the assurance that the leadership of the House would ensure that members dutifully and punctually attend sittings of the House and contribute to deliberations.

The majority leader however said the absence of some of the members in the chamber of the house was because some members of committees (15 – 50 members each) were attending a number of workshops and conferences.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah advised Chairmen of Committees to endeavour to obtain permission of the Speaker through the leadership of the House before attending workshops and conferences so that the duties of the house were not unduly delayed.

John K. Ackah, NDC- Aowin Suaman drew the attention of the Speaker and leadership of the House of the attitude of the back-benchers who he said were always present in their numbers but were never recognised and asked they should be recommended for always been regular and punctual.

Earlier, Kosi Kedem, NDC- Hohoe South had complained about the tendency of always loading the last days of each session whereas a programme of activities was normally lined-up for public business of each sitting.

Kedem said this time round members were not going to countenance a situation where they are over-loaded with too much at the end of the session and appealed to the leadership of the house to ensure that they spread the business to cover each sitting day and not come to rush over certain businesses of the House.

GRi…/

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