Parliament to lock out late-comer MPs from January

 The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has given the indication that the Chamber of House will be locked at 10 a.m. each sitting day effective the next meeting of the fourth session of the eighth parliament in January.

This, the Speaker explained, would be one of the measures his outfit would be putting in place to check lateness to the House.

“Honourable Members, those who arrive late will be locked out until the Speaker decides to open the doors again. At 10:00 hours, the doors will be locked. The Speaker will be in, and it will take some time before the doors will be opened. Not that they will not be opened but it will take some time.

“And so if you will not be able to comply with it, let us all agree that we will start sitting in the afternoon, from 14:00 hours or 16:00 hours. The Committees will have their meetings in the morning; reports will be ready for us to consider in the afternoon; and then by the time we adjourn around 2000 hours the traffic situ­ation will have improved,” he said.

The Speaker made this known on Friday when commenting on the Business Statement for the seventh week ending December 16, 2023.

Per the Business Committee report presented by the Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bon­su, which has been adopted, the House is programmed, pursu­ant to the Standing Orders, to commence sitting at 10 a.m. and extend sitting after 2 p.m. when necessary.

In furtherance of his indica­tion, the Speaker urged the Major­ity and Minority Caucuses to meet and consider his proposal.

He said if his suggestion was adopted, it would give the MPs more time and save them from the traffic situation in the city.

“I can see that it is not easy for members to report that early for sitting so the two Caucuses either have joint Caucus meetings or at your level discuss these things and come back with proposals.

“If not, these are the measures that I want to put in place which will take effect from our next meeting,” he said.

Alternatively, Mr Bagbin recommended to the MPs to con­sider sittings at 2 p.m. instead of the current 10 a.m. because “this will allow committees to hold meetings in the morning and have reports ready for consideration in the afternoon.”

Failure for the caucuses to come to a consensus altering the time to their conveniences, the Speaker said he would proceed with his decision to lock the doors to the chamber effective next meeting in January.

 BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI

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