Speaker condemns lateness to Parliament

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Michael Aaron Oquaye, has condemned the lateness of Members of Parliament (MPs) to work.

He said the late attendance affected the smooth flow of business in the House.

Prof. Oquaye expressed the concern last Thursday, following the late start of proceedings.

The sitting was officially supposed to start at 10 a.m. but it started an hour later.

The Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, who was scheduled to respond to some questions on educational infrastructure in some constituencies, was in the House.

However, when the Speaker requested that the Minister of Education stepped forward to answer the questions, his Deputy, Dr Yaw Adu-Twum, rather stood up, but Prof. Oquaye said he (Dr Adu-Twum) was not the appropriate person to answer the questions.

The Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, indicated that Dr ­Prempeh had to leave for the Jubilee House to attend a Cabinet meeting, and that Dr Adu-Twum was standing in for him.

Before granting Dr Adu-Twum the opportunity to answer the questions, Prof. Oquaye said it was not in the interest of mother Ghana for a minister to wait for two hours to answer questions.

He, therefore, urged the MPs to abide by the official time of starting proceedings in the House.

"If you want us to start at 12 p.m., let's start at 12 . If you want us to start at 10 a.m., let us start at 10 a.m," he said.

Research assistants

On research assistants for MPs, Prof. Oquaye said Parliament would not compromise on the criteria for the selection of research assistants.

The research assistants must have a minimum of Bachelor’s Degree (First Class) from a recognised university.

He noted that the Parliamentary Service Board had decided that the research assistants should be selected by the MPs because the legislators must have confidence and trust in their research assistants.

"The person must be comparable with the overall interest of Parliament. Their work will impact on Parliament, which as an institution is not going to compromise this position no matter how close the person is to you," he stated.

Prof. Oquaye said the Clerk to Parliament would be issuing the letters to research assistants who had met the criteria on Monday, June 18, 2018.