Desist from showing placards in House — Speaker tells MPs
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has asked members of Parliament (MPs) to desist from showing placards in the House and calling out partisan accolades during the presentation of budgets and state of the nation addresses.
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"It is my view that it is un-parliamentary for members to display placards in the House, accusing each other of acts of alleged wrongdoings".
Mr Adjaho said this in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of a two-day post budget workshop for MPs in Parliament on Monday.
The workshop aims at improving the capacity of the MPs and deepening their understanding on issues contained in the 2014 budget.
It is also intended to prepare them for effective discussions and analysis of the budget as well as during debates on the floor of Parliament.
In the opening speech read by the First Deputy Speaker, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, Mr Adjaho explained that under parliamentary rules, a member's conduct could not be attacked except through a substantive motion.
"You are leaders and role models in the society and, therefore, your conduct in the House may send right or wrong signals to your followers", he stated.
Financial Oversight
Mr Adjaho said the participation of members of Parliament as representatives of the people in the budget process was crucial for the promotion of good and accountable governance, transparency and participation in governance by the citizenry.
He explained that the annual budget was one of the most important tools that Parliament had for the purpose of exercising its financial oversight functions to hold the executive accountable.
The Speaker was of the view that in order to utilise that opportunity effectively, the House required a number of institutional prerequisites such as the availability of specialised or expert support to committees and access to relevant and high quality information.
"Our Parliament is certainly not equipped adequately to independently assess budgetary data, and lacks the backup and support of professional economists and budget researchers which are readily available to the executive".
Office of Scrutiny
He disclosed that to address that institutional deficit, the office of the Speaker of Parliament was liaising with the UK House of Commons to establish an office of Scrutiny.
The new office would engage in providing services for the conduct of independent expert analysis of policy measures, including the scrutiny of international loan agreements introduced in the House
It will also work to assist committees of the House with expert opinions.