[ 2017-10-03 ]

NDC Protests Parliament’s Re-opening
The minority National Democratic Congress (NDC)
has protested the reconvening today of the Seventh
Parliament of the Fourth Republic for its third
meeting of the first session claiming that it
(NDC) was not given enough notice for the
re-opening.

Minority first deputy chief whip, Ahmed Ibrahim,
said yesterday on Okay FM’s ‘morning show’
programme that members of the minority only got to
know about today’s re-opening on social media
and on some radio stations on Friday, September
29, instead of the normal procedure of placing
notification in the mainstream media two weeks
before the actual re-opening date.

According to Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, it is also in the
Standing Orders of the house that letters are sent
to Members of Parliament (MPs) through their mail
boxes (in parliament) at least a week before the
reconvening of business to enable them have ample
time to prepare.

Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, who is the NDC MP for Banda,
said that MPs are being taken for granted by the
current leadership of parliament and that it
(leadership) ought to know that parliament is not
an extension of the executive but rather a
different arm of government with its own set of
rules and regulations.

The majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu,
reacting to the minority’s claims, said it
(minority) always does politics with everything.

He pointed out that on the day parliament rose for
the long recess, he made it clear on the floor
that under normal circumstances, the third meeting
of any session begins in the third week of
October, but looking at the backlog of business
and other important bills to be considered,
parliament would reconvene on October 3.

Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu explained that the
current parliament should have worked on five
important bills during the last meeting but those
bills were deferred to be considered during this
meeting.

He said the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the
Northern Development Authority, the Middle Belt
Development Authority, the Coastal Development
Authority and the Zongo Fund Development Bills are
so important that they need to be considered
before funds are appropriated for their
implementations, which would be provided for in
the next budget to be read in November.

According to him, the government intends to bring
the 2017/2018 budget statement and financial
policy to parliament on November 8, this year and
so these bills need to be considered early for
them to be factored into the.

He said it baffled him when the minority members
denied any knowledge of today’s re-opening after
he had made the announcement on the floor at the
last sitting before the house went on recess.

Meanwhile, the minority MPs have indicated that
they have a lot of pertinent issues to raise on
the floor when parliament reconvenes today.

Source - Daily Guide

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