Parliament goes on recess
Parliament is on recess. Last Friday, it ended the Second Meeting of the First Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic after sitting for nine weeks.
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The House is expected to reconvene on October 25, 2013.
During the meeting, the House approved several important bills, including the Communications Service Tax (Amendment) Bill, the National Fiscal Stabilisation Levy Bill, Special Import Levy Bill, Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, Customs and Excise (Duties and Other Taxes) Bill and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Bill.
Three adhoc committees were also constituted during the meeting, one of which was to develop a code of conduct to regulate the conduct of MPs or the activities of parliamentary committees.
Another was also set up to look at the necessary contraption of Article 181 of the constitution in respect of international business or economic transactions to which the government is a party and make recommendations for implementation by Parliament as and when necessary.
The third committee is to make recommendations to Parliament for the appointment of an auditor to audit the accounts of the Office of the Auditor General.
The House also approved the request by the government to access the international capital market to issue a second sovereign bond of up to one billion dollars.
In his closing remarks, the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, expressed his gratitude to God for the strength and good health accorded him, his two deputies and the entire members of the House to accomplish the mission of the House.
He thanked his two deputies, the leadership of the House, all the MPs, staff of the Parliamentary Service and members of the Parliamentary Press Corps for their various roles to ensure the successful completion of the meeting.
As he read his remarks, the members of the Minority side burst into shouts of “President Doe Adjaho, President Doe Adjaho, President Doe Adjaho.”
One of the Minority MPs explained later that in case the Supreme Court ruled that the 2012 Presidential election be re-run, the Speaker would act as the interim President.
As they continued their shouts, Mr Adjaho laughed and remarked that “I don’t want to refer anybody to the Privileges Committee.”
For his part, the Majority Leader, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, reminded the public that law making involved the trading of ideas and, therefore, superior arguments would always take precedence in the process.
“The public should, therefore, not be disenchanted that one’s views does not prevail in a given legislation”, he said, when he touched on the protracted and tedious process they had to go through during the stages of passage of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Bill, which was passed during the meeting.
He encouraged the public to continue to engage the House and individual MPs on matters that required the attention of the House.
The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, expressed the hope that the setting up of the three ad hoc committees would go a long way to strengthen Parliament.
He expressed the hope that the programme fashioned out for the review of the Standing Orders of the House during recess would be accomplished.
By Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah/Daily Graphic/Ghana