News:
July 20, 2017
Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee and Member of Parliament(MP) for Bawku Central Mahama Ayariga has indicated that the Minority in Parliament is not against, the crusade to stem corruption.
“All we are asking for is due process should be followed in Presenting the Bill for the creation of the office of the special prosecutor”, he said.
A former Deputy Attorney General and MP for Bolga East, Dominic Ayini argued the bill was unfit to be laid because due process had not been followed.
According to him, the basic requirement for such a bill to be laid was for it to be gazetted in the Ghana Publishing Company, 14 days before it is brought to the floor of the house.
“As you can see we do not have a copy of the Bill for us to even know the content of the Bill as well-meaning Ghanaians have started raising constitutional issues. Until we see the Bill and its content, I do not want to say anything about its constitutionality”, he said.
Until the issue of the former Deputy Attorney General no one has indicated to us that this Bill has to go under a certificate of urgency, I think that there has been a breach of the Constitution we need the gazette notification, the Bawku Central MP demanded.
“I believe the two Bills that have been presented, Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill 2017 and Zongo Development Fund Bill 2017 laid simply because, President Nana Akufo-Addo at his first media encounter says he has brought the Bills to Parliament”.
And so the Bills must have been seen to be brought to Parliament, but the process was not respected, we all believe in establishing institutions that will help us fight corruption. Anything a President brings with the proper aim of fighting corruption we will support that initiative, he said.
He further added government had all the time to present the Bill on Office of the Special Prosecutor it was not done until when the President was about meeting the press why the rush in the process?
By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com