CRIC ends mandate in December
The Constitution Review Implementation Committee (CRIC) is to end its mandate in December, this year.
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The CRIC was inaugurated in December 2012 to implement recommendations in the report of the Constitution Review Commission (CRC).
Its mandate was to end in December 2014. However, a suit by the United States-based Ghanaian lawyer, Prof. Stephen Kweku Asare, which challenged the constitutionality of the President’s power to set up the CRC and the CRIC, put the work of CRIC on hold.
Renewal
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Prof. E.V.O Dankwa, the chairman of CRIC, explained that the legal challenge was targeted at the very existence of the CRIC and its work, as well as the power of the President to initiate the process.
However, after the decision of the Supreme Court on October 2015, which dismissed the case by Prof. Asare, the CRIC applied for an extension of its mandate and it was granted to enable it to conclude its work.
On-going work
Prof. Dankwa said legal proposals and administrative actions in the recommendations were ongoing.
He gave the example of the Public Services Commission Active Party Politics Regulations (2016), which had been worked on, forwarded to the Attorney General and the PSC, with the considerations and the regulations improved upon.
Prof. Dankwa said the regulations sought to deal with two issues.
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He said the first was in relation to public servants excluded from active party politics by the nature of the sensitivity of the positions they held as outlined in Article 94 (3) of the Constitution.
The second issue related to how public servants who resigned to take part in politics and sought to be engaged again in the public service were to be dealt with as their political affiliation might be evident.
Prof. Dankwa also mentioned that a Head of Family Accountability Bill had been drafted to clarify the trust positions of heads of families, disposal of family property and accountability, among other issues.
Entrenched provisions
Meanwhile, a statement by the CRIC signed by Prof. Dankwa says it has completed work on the Constitution Amendment Bills.
It says the Council of State’s Advice on the Entrenched Bills have been incorporated in the bill.
“It would appear that there are difficulties with the timing of the referendum and constraints on the time of the Legislature with respect to the Non-Entrenched Bill,” the statement said.
Context
The CRC was commissioned on January 11, 2011 under the chairmanship of Prof. Albert Fiadjoe to, among other things, find out the views of Ghanaians on the 1992 Constitution and how it had served them.
Their work was completed in December 2011 with a report titled “From a political to a developmental constitution”, which was presented to President, John Evans Atta Mills on December 20, 2011.
The government, thereafter, issued a White Paper on the report in June 2012.
The CRIC was inaugurated to complete the process of constitutional reforms by proposing bills for amendment and preparing Ghanaians for a referendum on changes to some entrenched provisions of the Constitution.
Writer's email: caroline.boateng@graphic.com.gh