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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Speaker To Speed Up MPs’ Code Of Conduct

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Parliament on Friday rose for the Easter break, with the Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Oquaye assuring that the new code of conduct will seriously engage the attention of Parliament when it resumes in May.

He said Parliament would focus on getting in place the new code of conduct, which is under consideration, to specify the conduct of MPs in Parliament and beyond.

He said the new code of conduct would bring sanity and respect to MPs and the House as a whole.

The new code of conduct was initiated during the tenure of the immediate past speaker, Edward Doe Adjaho, who said there was the need for such a code of conduct to guide MPs in their conduct on the floor of the House and beyond.

Delivering brief remark to end the first meeting of the first session of the 7th Parliament on Friday, the speaker said there was the urgent need to finalize the code of conduct to ensure that MPs do not go overboard in their public and private engagements and to earn inordinate respect for MPs and Parliament as a whole.

The speaker also spoke about the need for the next meeting which will begin in May to start looking at Private Members’ Bills, which are bills to be initiated by individual MPs on pertinent social issues and how these issues could be tackled through legislations.

He expressed his gratitude to the MPs for fully assisting him to steer the affairs of the House during the first meeting.

Prof Mike Oquaye, however, expressed his unhappiness with the way in which some MPs absented themselves from Parliament and also not reporting punctually to the House.

He expressed the hope that such attitudes would change when the next meeting begins in May.

The minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu said the minority will always work to ensure that parliament plays its oversight role well to ensure that there is always value for money.

He also condemned the recent attack on the courts by Delta Force, a vigilante group supposedly aligned to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and said the government must put its foot down to nib these serious attacks on the citizenry in the bud.

The majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, also condemned the attacks by the Delta Force and said the NPP as a government will not condone such attacks.

He admonished the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be moderate in criticising the NPP government over the attacks since they (NDC) superintended over atrocities by their supporters when they were in government.

Meanwhile, the House has approved the nomination of MP for Effutu, Alex Afenyo-Markin to replace the Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, O.B. Amoah in the ECOWAS Parliament.

Mr Amoah stepped down after he was appointed by the President.

In the same vein, the deputy majority leader and NPP MP for Dome/Kwabenya, Adwoa Safo, who was appointed a minister of state by the president, also resigned from the Pan African Parliament.

She has been replaced by the MP for Agona West, Cynthia Morrision, whose nomination was also approved on Friday.

The protocol of ECOWAS Parliament does not allow a minister or member of the Executive to be appointed to the Parliament.

By Thomas Fosu Jnr

 

 

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