The Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has revealed that Parliament will set up a petitions committee under the revised standing orders currently being drafted.
The Committee will deal specifically with issues that citizens petition the House about.
Speaking at a leadership meeting on strengthening parliamentary oversight of the executive, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu bemoaned the practice where Parliament received petitions but failed to address issues raised as unacceptable.
“When a petition is presented to the house, often times the Speaker will ask Majority Leader please can you go and meet the demonstrators or the petitioners, and that’s about the end of it. Nothing happens after that, and yet the people that we represent are the people who come to us that we are not happy with A, B or C, how do you resolve that for us but we take them, and we are not able to do anything about it. We must have a properly defined structure to deal with this,” he said.
The Programme, which brought together the Chairmen, Vice Chairmen and Ranking Members of the various parliamentary committees was also attended by the Chief of Staff, Frema Osei Opare as well as Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrissu.
Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu also explained that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs was to serve as the interface between the Executive and the legislature to enhance governance.
As part of the event, Political Scientist and Acting Chief Director of the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, Dr. Evans Aggrey Darkoh made a presentation on strengthening parliamentary oversight to the MPs.
Dr Evans Aggrey Darko, in his presentation, said legislative oversight must ensure that the executive remains highly responsive and accountable.
He said the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs had been strategically positioned to serve as an interface between the executive and the legislature was working diligently to enhance representative democracy processes to guarantee good governance through dialogue and consensus building for the development of the country.
