Reduce Size of Parliament

A group picture of some dignitaries and Faculty members INSET Mr. Kan Dapaah assisting to unveil the Faculty Logo

The former Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Albert Kan-Dapaah has called for a drastic reduction in the size of Members of Parliament from the present 275 to 75.

According to him the current 275 of Members of Parliament far exceeds what the country really needs.

Mr. Kan-Dapaah who is currently a Consultant for the Centre for Public Accountability said this in his closing remarks at the inauguration of the University of Professional Studies (UPSA) Faculty of Law on Wednesday.

He stressed that what the country needs today is a breed of Parliamentarians who will be content with serving the nation at that level instead of the current state where they look for additional ministerial appointments.

He reiterated that parliament has a sacrosanct responsibility to hold government accountable (checks and balances) to the people adding that the checks and balances must be respected by all players.

“We cannot say we are democratic when power rests only in the hands of one person; we need Members of Parliament (MP)who are bold enough to criticize government or public systems when they are not doing the right thing,” he stated.

The former member of Parliament who is also a product of UPSA lauded the Council of the university for the introduction of Faculty of Law to their programmes of study adding that Accountants and the  Lawyers are bed fellows.

The Vice Chancellor of UPSA, Prof. Joshua Alabi, described the inauguration as a historic event in the history of the university which was established in 1965 as a private institution by one Opoku Ampomah but was later absorbed into the public system growing steadily to become a university of robust professional education.

'What we are aiming at is to become nationally entrenched and globally recognized which explains the reasons why we gave ourselves up for periodic peer reviews by seasoned organizations,” he reiterated.

The Founding Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Kwame Frimpong explained that the faculty is admitting two groups of candidates who are, West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE) holders who will do the programme for four (4) years while degree holders will undergo three (3) years duration.

The Founding Dean was happy that one hundred and seventy-five students made up of seventy-five graduates and one hundred Senior High Secondary School students have been admitted to start the programme which opens in September this year.

By Solomon Ofori