Parliamentary service Board of 8th Parliament inaugurated

An Inauguration and swearing-in of members of the Parliamentary Service Board have been conducted on the 27th of April 2021.

Speaking during the event, the speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin in his opening remarks emphasized that, the Board should have been constituted and inaugurated earlier but due to the exigence of time, the inauguration has to take place after the end of the first meeting of the 8th parliament.

Mr Speaker Alban Bagbin pleaded with members of the Board to avail themselves for a meeting whenever one is convened upon their business schedule.

Section three of the parliamentary service Act (Act 460) established the Board to provide support service to parliament and its Committees or agencies of the house for the purposes of ensuring the full and effective exercise of powers of parliament.

Members of the Board are Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as Chairman, clerk to parliament, Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah, Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu, Johnson Aseidu Nketia, Honourable  Abraham Aidoo (former MP) Mr Cyril Kwabena Oteng, 1st and second deputy speakers. 

Meanwhile, the Minority leader Haruna Iddrisu and the Majority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu have pledged their support to the board.

According to the Speaker, the frequent disruptions in the constitutional order since independence has negatively affected the capacity of the Parliamentary bureaucracy to deliver the needed services to enable Parliament to effectively meet the needs and aspirations of the people. 

 Honourable Alban Bagbin, at the commencement of the 1st Parliament of the 4th Republic, we had only four (4) Parliamentary Clerks who had some experience with at least one of the previous Parliaments and a few Parliamentary Reporters.

The Right Honourable Speaker revealed that Parliament had also lost a lot of records and materials to guide Members and the Service: archival materials could not be traced.

It meant that the Parliamentary Service had to start from scratch in 1993 with few Parliamentary staff to support the 1st Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

 The challenge at the time was not only the absence of staff and parliamentary literature but also physical space for parliamentary plenary, committees, members, staff and other critical departments of the Service. In short, there was no infrastructure to house Parliament. 

"I am a living witness of that Parliament. We had to use the Accra International Conference Centre for plenary sessions, committee rooms and offices.

Clearly, the absence of space-constrained the Parliament and the previous Boards from recruiting the full complement of staff for the Service to function efficiently and effectively" he stressed

 Rebuilding the Parliamentary Service Efforts were therefore made by the previous Boards, many on which I served as a member, to augment the staff strength and add to the physical infrastructure in order to accommodate the ever-increasing membership of the House and for the staff of the Service.

The longest-serving member of parliament implied that the array of services available to Parliament and MPs have also improved tremendously over time.

Through the instrumentality of the previous Boards, all Members of the current Parliament have office accommodation and there are also adequate meeting rooms for Parliamentary Committees and other parliamentary engagements.

 Members have also been assigned Research Assistants to provide them with their research and other administrative support needs to enable them to perform their functions with much ease and convenience. 

This present Board, therefore, has a responsibility to add to the achievements of the predecessor Boards.

Parliamentary enclave Apropos to the above is imperative to secure a Parliamentary Enclave.

Parliament has been in operation since 1993 and we are yet to determine what constitutes the precincts of Parliament as provided for in the Standing Orders. 

Mr Bagbin indicated that they have no control over the use of the grounds within the parliamentary enclave; it is controlled and managed by the Controller of Household under the Office of the Chief of Staff.

As a House, we have no control over the “coming in and going out” of the premises by strangers and this compromises the security of Parliament and its Members. 

My predecessors have had discussions with the respective Governments over ceding the entire enclave to Parliament. 

The current President, High Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, like his predecessors, has demonstrated his firm commitment to seeing the entire enclave ceded to Parliament.

In pursuit of that, a committee was constituted comprising Members and Officials from Parliament and the Lands Commission and Chaired by the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Honourable Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, to work expeditiously to ensure that this project is realised.

We commend High Excellency the President for his commitment and we as a Board will collaborate with him to fulfil the objective of having a determinable precinct of Parliament as envisaged in our Standing Orders Efficiency and effectiveness of ParliamentOne of the areas that our Parliament has not fared well is oversight and private Member’s legislation. 

Even though the performance and effectiveness of Ghana’s Parliament continue to be rated high internationally, it's rating in the area of oversight is unsurprisingly low. 

I say it is unsurprising because Parliament and its Committees lack the needed support and assistance to perform their oversight functions.

 I had caused in March this year to call out the Ministry of Finance and the Secretary to the President for attempting to unilaterally place a sealing on the budget appropriation for Parliament and the Judiciary. 

I must admit this unfortunate development has been the practice of almost all the Governments since the beginning of the 4th Republic. 

This development has undoubtedly affected the capacity of Parliament to effectively and efficiently perform its oversight duties. I admit that there has been some modest improvement in the appropriation for Parliament by successive governments but it is still far inadequate to meet the optimal requirements of the House.

 In the area of Private Member’s Bills, I must admit that as a House we have not helped ourselves because of the inadequate interpretation given to Article 108 of the Constitution by previous Speakers.

 The interpretation of what constitutes an “imposition of a charge on the Consolidated Fund or other public funds” or “the payment, issue or withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund or other public funds” sought to place a fetter on the capacity of Members to initiate and/or present Private Members’ Bills for the consideration of the House.  

Even if the Speakers at the time were to give Article 108 of the Constitution a more liberal and purposive interpretation, we did not have the technical personnel, the Legislative Draft persons within the Service to assist Members to convert their thoughts into a legislative framework in the form of a Bill. I recall that as a Majority Leader, I had to seek the expertise and services of Mrs Ofori-Boateng, a retired Director of Legislative drafting at the Office of the Attorney-General, when I tried, supported by the Parliamentary Centre, to introduce a private Member’s Bill, the Budget Act for the consideration of Parliament. 

It is in this respect that I commend my predecessor, Rt. Hon. Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, for breaking the jinx and pushing for the introduction and passage into law of the first Private Member’s Bill, sponsored by Members from both sides of the political divide in the House.

I must commend Hon Ras Mubarak, former Member of Parliament for Kumbumgu for the initiative to introduce the private member's Bill to amend the Road Traffic Act.

 The Majority and Minority Leaders at the time, Hon. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, who were the joint sponsors, in addition to some other Members, should also be commended for their leadership, which led to the passage of the landmark Bill. 

It clearly shows that with cooperation from the two sides of the House, a lot can be achieved for the betterment of our country. I have no doubt that the introduction and passage into law of the first private Member’s Bill have cleared the path for more of such Bills to be introduced in the 8th Parliament.

 This Board must therefore work to enhance the capacity of the Drafting Unit of the Parliamentary Service to be able to support Members in this endeavour. I am aware the previous Board, and the Boards before that, have taken some initiatives to recruit and train a corps of Legislative Drafters for the Service but they are still rare species. 

The previous Board requested the 1st Deputy Speaker, Hon. Joseph Osei Owusu, and I to headhunt a qualified Legislative Draft person to head the Drafting Department. Unfortunately, none could be found. 

This Board must vigorously pursue this endeavour and ensure that we do not only have a Director to head the Department but that there are equally qualified and dedicated staff to man the Department. Meanwhile, the Board will have to rely on the wealth of knowledge and expertise of Ms Estelle Appiah for that purpose.

Looking ahead this Board must also work collectively and collaboratively to improve upon the work ethic of staff of the Service. It is a fact that there are some hardworking employees of the Service who are giving of their best for the Service and Parliament.

 But it is equally true that there is a significant number whose contribution is nothing to write home about. There are some staff who basically have no schedules, and so virtually do nothing, yet are paid by the State at the end of each month.

 Monitoring and supervision by superiors are poor and must be improved if we are determined to attain the vision of being a model Parliament in Africa. These are matters which I hope to lead this Board on; to instil discipline and good work ethics among the staff of the Parliamentary Service. 

I am not oblivious to the concerns of the staff pertaining to delays in promotions and career progression. We shall work assiduously to resolve these matters. 

There are undoubtedly some vacancies within the Service arising from retirements, deaths, etc and we must work with dispatch to have those vacancies filled as soon as possible.  

As we inaugurate this Board today, it is pleasing to know that all the Members of this Board have had a stint with Parliament and therefore have an in-depth appreciation of the task ahead of them – the Majority and Minority Leaders were part of the previous Board, which included Honourable Hackman Owusu Agyeman, Former MP and former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of Cocobod and the Council of Elders of the NPP and Honourable  Abena Osei-Asare, MP and the immediate past Deputy Minister of Finance, and now the nominee to the same position. 

To replace Hon Hackman Owusu Agyeman and Hon Abena Osei-Asare, we now have Mr Abraham Ossei Aidooh, a former Majority Leader and Leader of the House and Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, also a former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and former Senior Member of this House.

In attendance to support the Board are Ms Estelle Appiah, former Director of Drafting at the Attorney General Department and the Ministry of Justice, now a consultant of international repute, and our own, the two Deputy Speakers of Parliament.

These are men and woman of varied and extensive experience in their respective fields of endeavour and I have no doubt that they will place their experiences at the service of this Board to enrich policies and decisions of the Board and to enable us to push through the implementation of the strategic objectives of Parliament and the Parliamentary Service. 

Let’s all be spurred on by what Goethe said, “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Wishing is not enough; we must do.” This Board will have no excuse but to deliver.

What we need is focus, congeniality, cooperation and compromise and we will achieve a lot by the time the tenure of this Board lapses on 6th January 2025.

Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen, I now have the pleasure to officially declare the Board of the Parliamentary Service of the 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana, duly inaugurated.

E K Ansah Parliament