Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, has stated that he never had the full details of how the Ghanaian Parliament is weak until he assumed office as Speaker of the eighth Parliament of Ghana.
He said that for the past 28 years, the focus of Parliament was to only strengthen the executive arm of government but not the legislative arm.
“And we passed so many laws that we even forgot to include Parliament peoples laws which includes the Public Procurement Act . Go and look at the terms and the offices that are used in that act whether Parliament is factored inside,” he said.
He stated that because Parliament didn’t pass a Parliamentary transitioning act, when you are elected as a speaker, you will inherit an empty office without handing over notes and staff.
According to the Speaker of Parliament, the technical components of an institution are completely absent in the Parliament of Ghana.
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Alban Bagbin also indicated that there are plans to legislate the nature and sanctions of the subject of contempt of Parliament.
“You are all aware of the number of MP’s that are before courts and are being prosecuted. And so there is no one saying that the Member of Parliament is above the law but in this particular instance of the Member of Parliament for Madina, I can put my neck for it that you have no such power that after he has gone through all the processes with you [policeand you gave the date and you sent your men to go around with them in the procession and then he is addressing them at the end of the day and you send a different contingent to go and arrest him,” he said.
He also stated that the action of the police constitutes an act of contempt of Parliament.