Parliament needs law monitoring mechanism
Accra (Greater Accra)
29 March 2003- President John Agyekum Kufour on Friday presented a list of
nominees to the Speaker of Parliament for appointment as Ministers and Deputy
Ministers.
They include Alan
Kyeremanteng, Minister of Trade, Industry and Special Presidential Initiatives,
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Minister of Works and Housing, Nana Akomea, Minister
of Information, Dr. Nii Ashong, Minister of State - Finance and Economic
Planning.
The Deputy Ministers
included, Stephen Asamoah Boateng Information, David Gyewu, Communication, Joe
Akudibilla, Food and Agriculture. The other deputies were, Kofi Adusei, Women
and Children's Affairs, Dr. A.A Osei, Finance and Economic Planning, Ambrose
Dery, Justice and Attorney General, and Mr Charles Bimpong Bintin, Northern
Region.
The First Deputy
Speaker, Freddie Blay referred the nominations to the Appointments Committee of
Parliament. Earlier, Joseph Kofi Adda newly elected Member of Parliament for
Navrongo Central swore the oath of office and took his position in the house.
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Accra (Greater Accra)
29 March 2003- The Appointment Committee of Parliament has by a majority
decision approved the nomination of Professor A. Kodzo Paaku Kludze for
appointment as justice of the Supreme Court.
The Committee said it
had carefully examined the eligibility of the Professor for the appointment and
found that he was truly an accomplished legal luminary and academician who
exhibited deep knowledge of law and the 1992 constitution.
Freddie Blay,
Chairman of the Committee, observed that the candidate was a distinguished
Professor of Law at the Rutgers University School of Law in the USA with a Ph.D
from University of London.
He said the nominee
demonstrated a high sense of patriotism and selflessness towards the promotion
of education in his hometown - Gbi-Kpeme in the Hohoe District. Blay said Prof.
Kludze firmly believed in equal access to the Supreme Court irrespective of
one's financial standing and that he did not agree with the perception of
"packing the Supreme Court".
Captain Nkrabeah
Effah-Dartey (Rtd), NPP-Berekum said the nominee should be accepted and
confirmed because a sub-committee set up to investigate allegations against him
found that there were unmeritorious.
Alban Bagbin, the
Minority leader opposed the appointment of the Professor not because of the
competence but because of his age, which he said, would be a drain on
government resources.
He said he was
disappointed with the report of the sub-committee since it failed to make any
findings and only interviewed four out of the 24 witnesses. Bagbin said he was
of the view that the learned Professor would not make any impact on the Supreme
Court and would only be a "bed of passage" since he would have less
than a year to go on retirement and asked the members to vote against him on
principle.
Later the House
through secret voting nominated Professor Kludze by 88 votes for and 52 against
to be duly passed by the House by a majority decision. The First Deputy
Speaker, Freddie Blay said in accordance with Standing Order number 18, the
seat of Abraham Kofi Asante, NDC- member for Amenfi West who tended in his
resignation has been declared vacant pursuant to Clause 1 (f) of Article 97 of
the Constitution.
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Akosombo (Eastern
Region) 29 March 2003- Legal experts brainstorming on subsidiary legislation at
a workshop on Saturday urged Parliament to establish a mechanism to monitor
effects of laws it made so that it could periodically review them to deepen
democratic practices.
They experts said it
was not enough for Parliament to delegate its powers to bodies in passing
legislative, executive and constitutional instruments and relax in its
legislative duties without knowing how those rules were affecting governance of
the citizens.
The Ghana Centre for
Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) with the collaboration of the Parliamentary
Committee on Subsidiary Legislation organised the workshop under the theme:
"Democratising the making of subsidiary Legislation in Ghana" at
Akosombo.
The workshop was
being sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development and
drew participants from the Supreme Court, Parliament and legal research outfit
of the CDD.
It was aimed at
thoroughly reviewing subsidiary legislation process to make it consistent with
the 1992 Constitution and the importance attached to delegated legislation,
administrative law-making and administrative justice, so that Parliament in
delegating its powers would be careful not to have the judiciary nor the
executive to surreptitiously usurp its legislative powers.
In a general
discussion after the presentation of papers, Professor Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi,
Executive Director of CDD, said the law making body should not be lazy in
scrupulously examining the merits and the demerits of legislative instruments.
The participants
agreed that sufficient consultations should be held with stakeholders and the
public before a subsidiary legislation should be passed to enable
cross-fertilization of views and suggestions to enrich it so that it could
avoid all partisan considerations for it to stand the test of time.
Justice V.C. R. A. C.
Crabbe, Statute Law Revision Commissioner, said there many existing laws
especially legislative and executive instruments needed thorough examination
and that Parliament as the law making body should know the constitutional
provisions that gave it the absolute power to pass its laws.
He said for
Parliament to be bogged down by Article 11 (7C), which gave 21 sitting days of
the legislature after which a subsidiary legislation laid before it could
become law if it was not annulled within the 21 days.
The participants were
of the view that Parliament should not only pass subsidiary regulations as
presented to it in its original form or just to annul it but it ought to
examine critically and might alter, enrich or add to it since it was the only
law making body under the constitution.
Ms Kim Stanton,
Research Associate, CDD presenting a paper on Subsidiary Legislation Procedure
in Ghana: Review and Recommendation for Reform called for the drafting of a law
to govern subsidiary legislation process and to substantially amend the
Statutory Instruments Act of 1959.
She said it should
have the agency proposing the instrument to prepare a Regulatory Impact
Analysis Statement (RIAS) to explain the regulation its purpose, the rationale
for its creation, and its anticipated costs benefits and impacts.
The RIAS should be
available to ministers and the public to solicit input and contribute to
transparency in the regulatory process and the agency promulgating the
instrument should conduct consultation with relevant stakeholders and to review
input from the public, if any.
Ms Stanton said,
"Parliament, particularly through the Attorney General's office and the
Committee should ensure that the proposed subordinate legislation is
constitutional, conforms to the rule of law, does not infringe on rights
unnecessarily, and is the minimum legislative intervention necessary to achieve
the desired goal."
Amos Buertey,
Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation said sometimes
some regulations would have to be withdrawn because they contained legal and
constitutional issues.
She said if such laws
like the one in respect with Ghana National Fire Service, a provision in it
would not allow workers of the Service even to belong to a trade union or even
to belong to Old Students Associations of their schools.
Mrs Buertey said such
a regulation would not be in consistent with Article 21 of the Constitution,
which allowed for freedom of association. He called on participants to come out
with processes that could enhance subsidiary legislation.
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