Parliament replaces Legislative Instruments on new districts

Accra, June 18, GNA - The Legislative Instruments, entitled Local Government (District Assembly) (Establishment) Instrument, L.I. 1738 - 1788 " laid before Parliament recently have been replaced. Mr Felix Owusu-Adjapong, the Majority Leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, announced this when he presented the Business Statement for the third week ending Friday, June 25, 2004. He said the passage of the Instruments by Parliament would help in the implementation and establishment of the newly created districts and 30 new constituencies.

The Majority Leader said: The Legislative Instruments (LIs) have been found to contain some typographical errors. For this reason, the affected Legislative Instruments have been replaced."

He informed Members that they would be supplied with the corrected versions of the Instruments.

The Majority Leader's explanations did not go down well with some members of the Minority, who said the LIs should not be replaced but withdrawn and re-laid as the proper procedure for the House to follow. They were of the view that the LIs did not contain typographical errors as stated by the Majority Leader but rather contained "serious mistakes".

Mr Kosi Kedem, NDC-Hohoe South, said portions of the LIs had placed a town in his constituency under a different district.

Mr Owusu-Agyepong, who tried to win support of his colleagues to accept a replacement instead of total withdrawal, said, "the House was a master of its own rules" and should discuss the matter in that light.

He said the House should wait for the Committee on Subsidiary Legislation's Report and when it was found unsatisfactory, then the issue of whether to replace or withdraw the LIs could be raised since "delay on matters based on technicalities could cost the nation." The Speaker, Mr Peter Ala Adjetey ruled that the House should wait for the Committee's Report.

Earlier, Mr Owusu-Adjapong said during the week the Minister of Roads and Transport; Minister of the Interior; Minister of Defence; Minister of Health; Minister of Education, Youth and Sports and the Minister of Women and Children's Affairs would answer 26 questions in the House.

The House would also adopt reports on two financial agreements. They are Development Financing Agreement between Ghana and the International Development Association (IDA) for SDR 86,200,000 (equivalent of 125 million dollars) for the Second Poverty Reduction Support Financing; and a loan agreement between Ghana and the OPEC Fund for International Development for an amount of five million dollars to finance the Accra - Tema Rail Rehabilitation Project.