The Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho, has threatened to invoke Order 148 of the Standing Orders of Parliament if parliamentary business is not exhausted by Monday (December 21, 2015).
Order 148 stipulates that any unfinished business of the House will be considered done, even if Members of Parliament have not scrutinised it.
Mr Adjaho informed the House on Friday December 18 that “if we are still going at this pace,” he will have no option than to resort to that Order.
If that is done, all unfinished business of the House will be considered finished.
The work of Parliament in recent times has been delayed for different reasons.
Among them are the Minority’s feet-dragging during the 2016 Budget debate, in protest against the president’s statement that they were sleeping on the job.
Deputy Minority Leader Dominic Nitiwul told Class News’ parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, November 25, 2015 that they had been hurt by the president’s comments.
“The Minority are very hurt. You can realise that the day after the president’s comments Parliament has not been the same. We have not been able to sit successfully for a whole day. All the three or four days we have sat, there is a problem with quorum and if it continues like this, then the Majority must have about 140 people every time present to take a decision because in Parliament, if you are not 139, you cannot take a decision,” he said.
The Member of Parliament for Ablekuma West constituency, Mrs. Ursula Owusu Ekuful, also said the NPP MPs would show President Mahama that “sleeping people cannot work,” a reprisal against the President’s comments.
These, among others, have led to the delay in completing parliamentary business before the Christmas break.
Parliament has repetitively been criticised for rushing some bills through. A case in point is the controversial power purchase deal between the Government of Ghana and Dubai-based AMERI Energy for the supply of 10 power turbines.
Source: GhanaWeb
