'Parliamentary Committee Wants Regional Tribunals Scrapped'

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs has advocated the complete abolition of regional tribunals as part of the country’s judicial system, Justice Prof. A.K.P. Kludze, a former Supreme Court Judge has said.

The Chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs(IEA) Constitutional Review Coalition Justice Prof. A.K.P. Kludze said the parlimentarians expressed the sentiments at a workshop organised by the IEA as part of the constitutional review process.

Addressing a news conference in Accra, Justice Kludze said the committee had explained that the abolishment had become necessary because such tribunals handled cases that should not be under the jurisdiction of even circuit courts or magistrates’ courts.

The news conference organised by the IEA was to disseminate the IEA coalition's proposals and position on the 1992 Constitution.

It also disseminated the deliberations of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs which had earlier been submitted to the Constitutional Review Commission.

The coalition has membership from political parties with representation in Parliament, civil society organisations and the IEA.

“Even though community tribunals have been abolished; the regional tribunals continue to operate hence the leadership of Parliament want it scrapped with judges in that jurisdiction assigned to other courts,” the former Supreme Court judge stated.

Prof, Kludze, who is also a senior fellow of the IEA, said during its deliberations the coalition had decided that ministers should not be appointed from Parliament.

That, he stated, was to ensure that ministers concentrated on their ministerial work, adding that as part of the proposal, ministers who were later appointed should be made to resign from Parliament.

He said the suggestion had also been endorsed by the leadership of Parliament who believed that it would go a long way to strengthen the House.

On the omission of provisions of a defecting President or an in-operative Vice-President in the constitution, he said their position was that if the president left his party, his position should become vacant.

However, should the Vice-President defect from his party or become indisposed, the President could be mandated to appoint a new person in consultation with the Council of State and the prior approval of parliament.

The coalition recommended that a ceiling should not be placed on the number of ministers appointed by the president.

“This is because any attempt to limit the number of appointees will be difficult to enforce since there will always be a way that the president could make extra appointment without necessarily calling them ministers”, while they also enjoyed government largesse, he said.

This position, however, contradicts that of Parliament which wants a ceiling on the number of ministers and permission sought from the House if it was necessary to appoint extra ministers.

Prof. Kludze also said members of the coalition reached a consensus on the fact that no ceiling should be placed on the number of Supreme Court judges because the stringent procedure for their appointment made it difficult for anyone to manipulate the system.

That was, however, not the position of the parliamentarians who wanted the number of judges appointed to the Supreme Court pegged at 13.

The IEA, however, called for the random selection of judges for panelling at the Supreme Court, with the exception of constitutional matters, in order to make the process more credible.

On the local level decentralisation, Prof, Kludze said the coalition called for the overhauling of the local government system to devolve power to the local authorities.

“They must be given revenue-generating powers to enable the districts to grow faster as there is too much power centred at one place and this should be decentralised to encourage development. Local authorities should thus be given powers to generate revenue and should be subjected to approval from the minister or government,” he stated.

Furthermore, members of the coalition called for the establishment of an independent and permanent body that would be responsible for determining and reviewing the salaries, facilities, privileges and retiring awards of Article 71 office holders.

He added that members of the coalition also adopted the recommendation made by the IEA that provisions must be made for fair and adequate compensation for the occupiers of lands that had been obtained as concessions for either mining or other purposes and not just traditional leaders who receive the compensations as royalties.

The coalition recommended that queens should be considered for membership of traditional councils, national and regional houses of chiefs.