Four bills that will provide legal frame- work for electronic transactions, tackle computer misuse, cyber security, data protection and electronic funds transfer, were yesterday presented and read for the first time in parliament.

The four bills are: National Communication Bill; the Electronic Communication Bill; the Electronic Transaction Bill and the National Information Technology Bill.

Also read for the first time was the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act 1960 (Act 30) which will provide for plea-bargaining in respect of certain offences.

These offences relate to narcotics, corruption, bribery and other offences that may be specified by the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General.

According to the memorandum accompanying the bill, criminal courts continuously face the problem of backlog and poor docket management that leads to prolonged trials. Plea bargaining may take the form of explicit or implicit bargaining. Explicit bargaining is where a prosecutor makes a specific recommendation on sentence and the Judge indicates the sentence he or she is to impose.

Implicit bargaining on the other hand occurs where the accused pleads guilty taking into consideration the availability of a sentence discount.

Plea-bargaining according to the memorandum accompanying the bill may also take the form of negotiation where the judge warns or reprimands the accused in return for some restitution.

The memorandum accompanying the other four bills indicated that the Ministry of Communication in 2005 developed an e-legislation road map and that the bills were to provide legal backing for the prescription of the National Telecom Policy 2005.

The National Communication Bill seeks to re-establish the authority in view of the development of novel information communication, technology and the need to reflect government and communications technology policy for accelerated development and the new National Telecommunication policy.

The Authority will have responsibility to promote competitions, universal access and a more enabling environment and investments in the telecommunications industry.

The objective of the Electronic Transactions Bill is to facilitate the use of electronic media to speed up government and private business in recognition of the need to provide a framework for the preparation, processing, storage transmission and receipt of electronic data in secured efficient and trustworthy manner.

It will also promote the government's desire to prevent the use of electronic media for illegal or unlawful acts.

The Electronic Communication Bill on the other hand seeks to provide for the regulation of electronic communication and broadcasting service in accordance with national electronic communication and broadcasting policies.

The bill repeals the Telecommunications (Frequency Registration and Control) Decree 1977 (SMCD 71) and saves regulations made under the Telecommunications (Frequency Registration and Control) Decree 1977 (SMCD 71).

The purpose of the National Information Technology Agency Bill is to establish the National Information Technology Agency to regulate information technology under the Electronic Transaction Bill, 2008.

The agency will, among other functions, maintain a register of licenses and deal with the application for licenses and approvals given for equipment. The speaker of parliament, Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes, referred the bills to the appropriate committees for consideration and report back.

In another development, the anti-terrorism bill was taken through the consideration stage during which amendments were made.

The bill seeks among other things to combat terrorism, suppress and detect acts of terrorism, and financial services from being used to commit terrorists acts.

Dr Richard Anane, Minister of Transportation, was at the House to answer questions bordering on the construction of some road projects in the country.

Source: Salifu Abdul-Rahaman and Samuel Nuamah - The Ghanaian Times