Member of Parliament (MP) for Suame Constituency, Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, has justified the need for government to have a Minister for Parliamentary Affairs despite the existence of a Clerk of Parliament who heads the Parliamentary Service.
Explaining the roles of the Clerk and the caucus leaders in a bid clear misconceptions and to advance his argument, Mr. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, also Minister-designate for Parliamentary Affairs, said “a Parliament may have political divide comprising the caucuses; minority caucus, majority caucus and in some jurisdictions recognised oposition groups.”
“The minority is headed by the Minority Leader. The majority caucus which you now elect to be majority group is headed by the Majority Leader. The two together—minority and majority—to the extent that you may want one person to speak for the house, the Majority Leader would be the leader of the House, ” he explained to the Appointments Committee.
He added “the Clerk of Parliament heads the Parliamentary Service which is the administrative wing of Parliament as an insititution. If you have the two [Clerk and caucuses] coming together, the Speaker is the head. That is why the Speaker is the head of Parliament as an arm of government.”
Mr. Mensah-Bonsu argued that for government to achieve its goal in implementing policies, there is the need to have a government representative in the House who will communicate the plans to members in a bid to win their aproval.
“95% of Public businesses conducted in Parliament is government business. You require to have the leader of government business to have an understanding of government business in order to convince and persuade his colleagues that this is a good program or policy that must be supported by Parliament.
“It is the reason why there is a need for a Minister for Parlimentary Affairs to be in Cabinet where policy evolves to be able to understand himself and appreciate the underpinnings of any policy and programs so that when he comes to parliament where he would lead the business, he would be able to understand and have a buy-in of his colleagues or compatriots.”
Background
The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is one of the specialised Ministries, set-up under Section 11 of the Parliamentary Service Act (Act 460), with the main purpose of deepening good governance.
It is expected to be the main link between the Executive and the Legislature. The Ministry was proscribed in 2009 and recreated in January 2017 through Executive Instrument 28 (EI. 28) .
The Ministry is also supposed to initiate policies to coordinate, facilitate and evaluate the effective and efficient management of government business on the floor of Parliament, as well as report on it for good governance.
