Parliament resumes sitting today

Members of Parliament will later today, Tuesday October 11, 2016 resume sitting after two months of recess.

This will begin the third meeting of the fourth session of the House.

Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho has ordered the resumption in pursuant of standing order 37 of Parliament.

Citi News understands the sitting will be for a relatively short period within which critical government business will be considered.

A statement signed by Kate Addo, Deputy Director, Public Affairs of Parliament said “there are Nine (9) instruments to be presented at this meeting, three (3) instruments at the Committee Level and thirty two (32) Papers to be presented.”

“Ten (10) Motions have been tabled for Debate and one hundred (100) other referrals of Bills at the Committee. There will be notice of questions to be answered by various sector ministers,” the statement added.

The Majority Chief Whip Muntaka Mubarak Mohammed had earlier told Citi News that priority will only be given to government programmes that need urgent attention.

“The main issues are to try to finish very critical government business as much as possible, those that are very critical. We don't intend to stay for long because as you may know campaigns are picking up and it's a shooting point.”

The statement from Parliament also listed 23 bills which will be at table for presentation;

• Head of Family Accountability Bill, 2016
• Legal Service Bill, 2016
• Road safety Bill, 2016
• Tax Administration Bill,
• Corporate Insolvency Bill
• Affirmative Action(Gender Equality)Bill, 2016
• Prison Service Bill, 2016
• Advertising Bill, 2016
• Statistics Bill, 2016 among others.

There are ten (10) Bills at Committee which are still being worked on. They include;

• Companies Bill,2013
• Property Rights of Spouses,2013
• Whistleblower (Amendment) Bill, 2015
• Narcotics Control Commission Bill,2015
• Registration of Births and Deaths Bill, 2015
• Witness Protection Bill, 2015
• The Co-operative Bill, 2015
• National Youth Scheme Bill,2016
• Tertiary Education Research Fund Bill,2016
• Lotto and Lotteries Authority Bill, 2016

Eleven (11) Bills are at the Consideration stage. They are;

• Conduct of Public Officers Bill, 2013
• Intestate Succession Bill, 2013
• Right to information Bill, 2013
• Real Estate Authority Bill, 2015
• Chieftaincy (Amendment) Bill, 2013
• Plant Breeders Bill, 2013
• Ghana Aids Commission Bill, 2015
• Public Private Partnership Bill, 2016
• Local Governance Bill, 2016
• Presidential(Transition)(Amendment) Bill,2015
• Sports Bill, 2016.

There are five (5) Bills for Second Reading. They include:

• Wildlife Resources Management Bill,2015
• Interception of Postal Packets and Telecommunication Messages Bill,2015
• Public Holidays(Amendment) Bill,2016
• Children's(Amendment) Bill, 2016
• Development and Classification of Film Bill,2016

–
By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin