Parliament adjourns sine die
Parliament adjourned sine die last Thursday night, with a call on members to conduct their campaigns devoid of violence to guarantee peace in the country before, during and after the December 7 election.
The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, who made the call in his closing remarks for the sine die adjournment of the Third Meeting of the Fourth Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana, urged MPs to exhibit leadership and peaceful conduct to uphold the dignity of Parliament.
"I urge all of you, Honourable Members, to uphold the dignity of this House by conducting yourselves in a manner that demonstrates leadership and peace, before, during and after the elections," he said.
Mr Adjaho prayed to God to grant the country peaceful and successful 2016 election.
The adjournment of the House was to allow MPs to proceed on recess in preparation towards the general election. The MPs are expected to resume sittings for the remainder of the third meeting before the dissolution of the House on the midnight of January 6, 2017.
During the four-week meeting, the House approved a number of loans and credit agreements.
The House passed seven bills - the Ghana AIDS Commission Bill; the Development and Classification of Films Bill; the Presidential (Amendment) Transition Bill; the Local Governance Bill; the Sports Bill; the Children's Amendment Bill, and the National Youth Scheme Bill.
The high point was the approval GH¢10,999,108,191 to finance critical government expenditure in the first quarter of 2017.
Speaker's duties
Mr Adjaho said in the discharge of his duties as the Speaker of the House, he did not expect every MP to agree with him when he made rulings or took a decision in that capacity.
However, he said, "I want to assure you that in all the decisions that I have taken in my capacity as Speaker of this House, I am at peace with my God and my conscience".
Mr Adjaho said he had left all that he had done in the House as a Speaker to posterity to judge him.
Majority Leader
The Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, noted that due to the urgent need to complete some urgent business for the House, the three-week period had to be extended by one more week.
He commended the Speaker, Deputy Speakers, the leadership and members for their cooperation for the hard work and diligence shown during the course of the meeting.
He expressed the hope that Ghanaians would see that as evidence of hard work to return those who had won their primaries to Parliament.
Mr Bagbin said Ghana was the toast of the world and leading country in Africa so far as democracy was concerned.
He expressed the hope that MPs "will not deviate from the quality we have been endowed with".
Minority Leader
The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, expressed worry that many of the agreements that came before the House during the meeting were through executive approval but not cabinet approval.
He said not much scrutiny could be done at the level of the executive, while even Parliament did not have the opportunity "to subject the items to intense scrutiny that we would normally be required to apply".
"If Parliament should not be deemed as a rubber stamp, then Parliament should be seen to apply total diligence in its legislation and oversight to prevent the situation where the executive would take Parliament for granted,” he added.