The announcement by the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Ocquaye, that a new 450-seater chamber block of Parliament would be constructed for Members of Parliament (MPs) has sparked heated debate on the floor of the House, as well as membe"},"modified":"2019-07-04T11:37:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T11:37:32","slug":"mps-new-building-sparks-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/07\/04\/mps-new-building-sparks-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"MPs New Building Sparks Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The announcement by the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Ocquaye, that a new 450-seater chamber block of Parliament would be constructed for Members of Parliament (MPs) has sparked heated debate on the floor of the House, as well as members of the public.<\/p>\n
The Speaker, Prof. Mike Oquaye, last Friday made
\nthe announcement about the government\u2019s intention to build the new chamber
\nblock when the main architects of the project, Adjaye Associates, visited the Speaker
\nto present a prototype of the new chamber block to him.<\/p>\n
The Speaker said the new chamber block when
\nconstructed would provide more space for members and assistants from the
\nMarshall Department to freely conduct business on the floor of the House during
\nspecial occasions like budget presentation and state of the nation address.
\nBesides, ministers who are not MPs could have places to sit.<\/p>\n
According to the Speaker, the new chamber would
\nalso consist of restaurants, IT centre, spacious press centre, spacious car
\npark, church and mosque, adding that the new chamber block would enhance
\nGhana\u2019s modern legislative practice.<\/p>\n
Parliament currently does not have a canteen or
\nrestaurant for MPs, no press centre for parliamentary correspondents, while the
\npublic gallery looks too small to accommodate the influx of visitors who want
\nto observe proceedings of Parliament.<\/p>\n
Even though the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, who
\nis a member of Parliamentary Service Board, has endorsed the project and even urged
\nthe architects to factor fibre as part of the project to enhance technology and
\nIT compliance of the entire project, some members of the Minority have kicked
\nagainst the construction of a new chamber block.<\/p>\n
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for
\nKumbungu, Ras Mubarak, who is leading the crusade against the project, said the
\nconstruction of a new chamber is a misplaced priority and a waste of public
\nmoney.<\/p>\n
The NDC MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa,
\nfor his part, said, \u201cI do not think Parliament needs a new chamber block.\u201d He
\nsuggested that money should rather be used to improve the salaries of MPs
\nresearch assistants and also for the construction of offices for the MPs in the
\nvarious constituencies to help improve MPs\u2019 interactions with their constituents
\nat the constituency level.<\/p>\n
However, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said Ghanaians must not misconstrue the intention behind the construction of the new block because it is in the right direction for the nation to help consolidate parliamentary democracy in the country.<\/p>\n
By Thomas Fosu Jnr<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The announcement by the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Ocquaye, that a new 450-seater chamber block of Parliament would be constructed for Members of Parliament (MPs) has sparked heated debate on the floor of the House, as well as members of the public. The Speaker, Prof. Mike Oquaye, last Friday made the announcement about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":650003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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