The Parliamentary Training Institute (PTI) has hosted a day’s forum that observed the 2019 Open Governance week with the aim of bringing parliament closer to the people.
The 2019 week celebration was on the theme, ‘Promoting Open Governance through deepening parliamentary accountability, partnerships and Inclusiveness’.
Co-chair of the Open Governance Program, Dr Steve Manteaw has urged the need for the legislative arm of government to up its game by opening up to the citizenry in the law making process to ensure collective ownership.
According to him, Parliament has a major role to play in achieving the objectives of the Open Government initiatives by passing laws that promote transparency and ensuring citizens take part in decision-making processes.
“Parliament is one of the three arms of government and, therefore, has a key role to play in OGP. The substantial part of Ghana’s OGP commitment hinges on Parliament and if parliament fails to do what we’re committed to do, that fails in its commitment of OGP,” he stressed.
“The agreement under the OGP is to improve inclusiveness and allow citizens know exactly what is happening in all aspects of governance including which contracts have been awarded and to who so that they can also have a say. The RTI is a law that will enable people easily get information from government and in turn help us fulfill our OGP commitment but its taking Parliament too long to pass it. This is a dent on Ghana’s commitment to the OGP.”
Dr Steve Manteaw who is the Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) urged Parliament to open up to citizenry to ensure inclusiveness in the lawmaking processes which engenders compliance.
“Openness is a mechanism for achieving participation and participation leads to ownership and ownership engenders compliance. If you’re part of the lawmaking process, chances are that you’ll comply with the provisions of the law. More importantly, ownership builds public support of initiatives of government,” Dr Manteaw stated.
Ghana membership and commitment to the OGP he said will enhance the country’s democratic credentials as a beacon of democratic governance in the African sub-region thereby boosting investor confidence to increase foreign-direct investment in the country.
The Acting Director of the Parliamentary Training Institute Mrs Gloria Sarku Kumawu described the Open Governance Initiative as a very important concept that must be supported by all stakeholders to succeed.
She assured of the Parliament of Ghana’s commitment to help promote the concept of Open Government in the parliamentary service and the country at large.
The immediate past Chairman of the Government Assurance Committee and current Chairman of the Committee on Environment , Science and Technology, Yaw Frimpong Addo who chaired the function emphasised the need for the three arms of government and Civil Society Organisations to intensify their collaboration in order to deepen openness in the governance process of the country.
This Manso Adubea Member of Parliament noted will promote peace and accelerated the economic growth of the country.
Acting Director, Public Affairs, Parliament of Ghana, Kate Addo enumerated the various platforms and social media tools being employed in order to ensure openness and bring Parliament closer to Ghanaians.
Ghana in September 2011voluntarilly signed unto the Open Government Partnership with a commitment to improve the lives of citizens through open, transparent and accountable governance.
The OGP week event was attended by staff and Members of Parliament and Civil Society Organisations.
The Open Governance Program is a global call to action and call on government to promote collaboration between citizens and itself. For one week in March, all who believe that citizens should play a role in how government makes decisions and subscribe to making government open and accountable come together to observe the Open Governance Week.
Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com
